The Ilyushin Il-18D is a four-engine medium-range transport aircraft for up to 5 crew and 110 passengers.
Flown for the first time on July 4th 1957 the Il-18 Moskva (Moscow) was originally powered by Kuznetsov NK-4
turboprops, but the Ivchenko AI-20 was adopted as standard at an early production stage. Deliveries of the
Il-18 (NATO reporting name 'Coot') started in 1959 and the 75-seat Il-18 entered service on April 20th 1959
on a domestic Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Adler. Further developments of the model resulted in a number
of improvements and growing capacity. The last civil production version, the Il-18D built from 1965-69, was
utilised with the 4250 hp AE-20K engine could carry 110 or max 122 passengers. When production ended in
1969, over 600 Il-18 airliners of all versions were built in the GAZ-30 Znamya Truda (Banner of Labour)
plant at Khodinka in Moscow in the former USSR. The ICAO Aircraft Type Designator with Wake Category used to classify
aircraft types for the Ilyushin IL-18D is IL18.
On 5 July 2001, the Ilyushin IL-18D-40 YL-LAO came in at Groningen Airport Eelde in the Netherlands under
flight number COS1815. It operated a passenger charter from and to Latvia. On July 8, the Concors IL-18D
returned to Liepaja. The YL-LAO was original built as an IL-18 but the airframe was modified into an IL-22M
on 27 September 1983. The Soviet A/F operated the Ilyushin IL-22M as CCCP-75916.
After the Soviet Union split up it served with the Belarus A/F. In June 1998, it was flown to Bykovo for
re-conversion to IL18D. At this time the aircraft had 1,329 flying hours. It received a conversion/construction
number upon modification from Il-18 to Il-22M (2964017102) and retained this number when being de-converted to
Il-18D. The aircraft still divers from the normal IL-18D by an antenna fairing on the fin top. After being
withdrawn from use with Concors, the Il-18D was transferred to Aerocaribbean and registered CU-T1539.
On 28 March 2005, the Ilyushin was serious damaged in an accident at the Caracas/Maiquetia
"Simon Bolivar" Airport in Venezuela. With 87 pax and 10 crew onboard the aircraft failed to take off
due to engine trouble. After the take off was aborted the airliner ran of the runway and came to rest on a slope.
An engine and the landing gear were teared off and the right outer wing was fractured. The 97 occupants of the
damaged airliner came out safe with just 16 with slight injuries and one with a fracture.
