The tragedy in the sky over the Black Sea coast occurred against the backdrop of victorious messages from Aleppo, the surrender of Palmyra, advances and bloody retreats. The beautiful idea of “cleansing with music” the space infected with evil was literally shattered. Terrible and sad.
This Black Sunday, December 25, 2016, was the test of final dehumanization – or human survival. An adviser to the Ukrainian president proposes to bring bottles of hawthorn to the gates of the Russian embassy. Belarus declares mourning. Domestic (!) Journalists lament that few media representatives died and declare that there is nothing to grieve about. In Donetsk, they offer to name Elizabeth Glinka street, in Belgrade - a square, in Grozny - a children's clinical hospital.
A plane with a truly precious cargo was flying to Syria. With talented, unique, inimitable people. “Condolences to everyone. Irreplaceable loss, because they were irreplaceable", - with these words of the official speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova hard to disagree. But maybe these irreplaceable ones should be especially preserved? Although - you can say: who knew ...
Equipment failure or human factor?
Could bad weather be the cause? Unlikely. The plane, on the contrary, changed direction - instead of the military airfield in Mozdok, where there was heavy fog, heading to Adler, where the sky was clear. Weather report at the time of departure - wind 4 m / s, visibility without restrictions, cloud base 1000 meters. Human factor? Pilot error? But the plane was piloted by a double crew of experienced pilots, with hundreds of hours of flight time under different weather conditions, who were trained to work in emergency situations - the leadership of the Ministry of Defense often flies from Chkalovsky. The aircraft was flown by a first class pilot. Roman Volkov- a high-class aviator who has flown 3,000 hours. In conversations with controllers, the pilots, according to all reports, did not show any concern. We did not have time to react to an emergency situation (make an emergency landing or at least give a signal to the ground), it's true. Experts suggest that a tragic chain of accidents could have taken place: for example, equipment failure on takeoff.
There are also assumptions about the overload of fuel (they took it with a margin “to Syria”), about getting into the engine of a bird - there is an ornithological park not far from the airport. But it is unlikely that the birds managed to disable all three engines. Tu is a reliable machine, and there are cases when such aircraft landed even with the failure of all three engines. And even getting into a flock of birds does not explain the instantaneous disconnection and departure from the radar. And the Tu-154 control system has a quadruple redundancy.
Wherever you throw, everywhere is a wedge
If we assume that the death of the Tu-154 was the result of a terrorist act (a week after the assassination of the ambassador to Turkey, against the backdrop of the final "speeches" of the administration Barack Obama and rumors about the allegedly announced George Soros“Day H” - December 25th, when “everything starts”), then the very idea of \u200b\u200bsending a Russian military contingent to Syria becomes meaningless. After all, they planned to block the "bearded" oxygen there, in the east - so that they would not be here.
A video of unclear origin is already circulating on the Internet: a surveillance camera allegedly installed on one of the Sochi beaches recorded a bright flash of light in the night sky. Presumably, it happened precisely in those moments when the RA-85572 board lost contact with the ground.
Representatives of the emergency response headquarters say that about half an hour passed between the time the plane disappeared from the radar screens and the moment of recording. This video “has nothing to do with the Tu-154”, and it’s premature to talk about an emergency situation on board ...
Too much like Egypt
No one could have known that the Tu-154 would head towards Sochi instead of Mozdok, which means that they could not get settled in a secluded place with MANPADS in time, some commentators convince. The most convenient disposition: to shoot from a motor boat "after", others say. This unscheduled landing in Adler is also significant in another respect: if there was indeed an explosive device on board the Tu-154, and a timer was actually set to activate it, you can calculate where the plane was supposed to explode “according to plan”. . And who would benefit from it? Flights to Syria are carried out over the Caspian Sea, with a flight over Turkey - through the airspace of Iran and Iraq.
The sudden termination of communication with the ground (before that, the pilots were completely calm and did not mention any flight difficulties), as well as the spread of debris within a radius of 15 kilometers, are the main arguments in favor of the version of the terrorist attack. And yet - a disturbing resemblance to the plane crash that occurred in the fall of 2015 over Sinai. Then, as the investigation found out, the explosive device was planted in the luggage compartment in advance. After the Egyptian catastrophe, the version of the terrorist act was not voiced for a very long time. Is it the same now?
An unnamed officer who serves on the Chkalovsky shared with the media: in fact, the cargo of military aircraft is selectively checked by flight engineers, there is no thorough inspection. Special mail is not inspected at all. In addition, the serviceman does not exclude that something could have been put into the medicines that Dr. Lisa was carrying: “It is not known who and how collected this cargo, the Ministry of Defense had nothing to do with it”.
Officially in power circles at the moment the version of the attack is denied. And this is understandable. If, nevertheless, the version of the terrorist attack is confirmed, it will literally blow up the reputation of the Ministry of Defense. It was impossible to carry anything to Chkalovsky, a guarded military facility, according to the security forces. All passengers and their luggage were carefully checked. Refueling is unscheduled, no one could intentionally “meet” the plane there. No food was served on board. Outsiders were not allowed in - in general, only people with the appropriate form of access had the right to approach a military aircraft. In Adler, the plane was under guard, two border guards and a customs officer got on board, only the navigator went out; outsiders were not involved in refueling - only regular personnel.
There are suggestions on the network that, despite all the counterarguments, the option of a terrorist attack is likely to become the most popular in the near future. And the real state of affairs here will not matter - this will be the only version that will allow at least a little to remove responsibility. How can you prevent a MANPADS from being fired from an inflatable boat?
Regarding the radius of fragmentation of the debris from the head of the Ministry of Transport Maxim Sokolov simple answer: "Great Current". Water hammer on impact with the water surface, other commentators add. Such force that the bodies of the dead were torn apart ...
Or maybe Tu is outdated?
The Tu-154B-2 aircraft that crashed into the Black Sea was released 33 years ago. Experts say that with proper handling for an aircraft of this class, this is not a deadline. In December 2014, the liner underwent a major overhaul at its native plant in Samara, in September of this year - scheduled maintenance. The stock of flight and calendar resources was sufficient. Similar machines in civil aviation are indeed already being decommissioned, but military aircraft are operated much less often - and therefore they last longer.
It is obvious that now it is pointless to talk about the causes of the disaster: it is necessary to wait for the inspection of the wreckage of the aircraft, fragments of damaging elements (if they are found), the results of a forensic medical examination, and the decoding of data from the “black boxes” (which also still need to be found). There is a serious problem with the latter: as it turned out, the recorders were not equipped with acoustic beacons. To detect them, you will need an “areal survey of the bottom topography using side-scan sonar high definition"and months of work ..." with an implicit result.
So far, in parallel with the search work, a group of investigators is working at the Chkalovsky military airfield. There is a seizure of technical documentation, fuel samples, an interview of witnesses - everyone who was involved in the preparation of the Tu-154 departure, a check of military units from which cargo was previously sent by this side. It is known that in addition to the personal belongings of 84 passengers, there were military equipment and special mail on board.
According to Interfax, Iosif Kobzon and human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova were supposed to fly to Syria on the same plane. The singer was forced to refuse to perform in front of the military, because. goes for treatment, the Ombudsman had to go on a business trip to the Crimea.
Not interrupted for an hour
The search operation is ongoing around the clock. Rescuers and divers of the State Central Airmobile Detachment "Centrospas" and the Center for Rescue Operations of Special Risk "Leader", who were sent to the Krasnodar Territory by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, do not stop working for the second day. The IL-76 delivered to the area of the search operation specialists with experience in working at great depths - with specialized diving equipment, equipment for deep-sea work, mobile pressure chambers and Falcon underwater guided vehicles. In addition, the task force of the Central Asian Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and the forces of Tsentrospas arrived in Adler: 45 people and 3 pieces of equipment. A grouping with a total number of personnel of more than 3 thousand people, 200 pieces of equipment, 30 ships, 7 aircraft, 12 helicopters and 20 unmanned aerial vehicles was involved in the elimination of the emergency.
7 aviation helicopters of the SRC of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia are in readiness. After the large structures of the liner, which are believed to be at depth, are found, they are examined by 48 divers.
During the day, the search engines managed to examine more than 10 kilometers of the coastal zone; search sectors of 240 square meters were checked from the air. km; boats URPSO and GIMS surveyed 100 square meters. km. 5 portholes, a fragment of the skin, oxygen cylinders, seat parts, a landing gear wheel and a spare ladder have already been raised to the surface. Found bodies and body fragments are delivered to the shore and handed over to representatives of the Ministry of Defense. Alas, there are no survivors.
Video EMERCOM of Russia
With full understanding of the great mission that the musicians of the Alexandrov choir, and Doctor Liza, and everyone who was on board the Tu-154 flying to Latakia, took on, it may be worth asking the question of the need to mix PR and war. If you don’t stick with bright events, let’s remember the recent surrender of Palmyra, which was especially painful after the festive concert of Valery Gergiev, and the campaign of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which surprised everyone not so much with black smoke, but with how many valuable aircraft it dropped into the Mediterranean Sea. It can hardly be denied that the orchestra flew not only to raise the spirits of our military, but also in order to glorify the victories of our army at home under the cameras flying on the same plane.
Is it possible to avoid the deaths of civilian and military Russians, whose number has already exceeded a dozen, without ending our participation in Syria? War always entails the death of civilians and military personnel, even outside the front line. For the death of military personnel, there is even such a terrible concept as non-combat losses. In the best armies in the world, employees blow themselves up in military camps and die of disease during the period of redeployment. So in this case - regardless of the reasons for the crash of the plane, the death of prominent passengers occurred due to our participation in the war. And if we saved Syria from collapse and the emergence of a new hotbed of chaos in the Middle East, then now is the time to get out of there or freeze our participation and not get into a second Afagan.
December 26 has been declared a day of national mourning in Russia. The editors of Our Version express their condolences to the families and friends of all those who died in the Tu-154 plane crash. Bright memory.
On December 25, at 5.20 am, a Tu-154B-2 of the 223rd flight detachment of the Ministry of Defense, after refueling in Sochi, flew to Latakia and disappeared from radar in a few minutes. There were 92 people on board the aircraft: 8 crew members, artists and employees of the Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Ensemble, including the artistic director of the group Valery Khalilov, 9 Russian journalists - film crews of the First Channel, NTV and Zvezda, as well as accompanying persons, in including a well-known philanthropist, chairman of the Fair Aid Foundation, Dr. Elizaveta Glinka, director of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense Anton Gubankov and other employees of the ministry. The artists were supposed to give a New Year's Eve concert for the military from the Khmeimim air base, Dr. Lisa accompanied a batch of medicines and humanitarian aid for a hospital in Latakia.
As of the morning of December 26, 12 bodies of the dead were raised from the water. The search operation in the area of the crash continues.
Investigation, versions
"Flaps!" And then: "Commander, we are falling!" These were the last words of one of the Tu-154 crew members, recorded by the aircraft's flight recorder.
As Kommersant writes on Wednesday, citing the opinion of experts interviewed by the newspaper, flaps not retracted at the start is an unpleasant, but not fatal event. The way out of this situation is described in detail in the Tu-154 flight manual, these actions are constantly practiced by the crews on simulators. Pilots compensate for the diving moment that occurs during such an incident with the steering wheel and with the help of the aircraft stabilizer (horizontal tail located in the tail section). This allows you to level the car and return to the departure airfield. But the crew of the Tu-154 of the Ministry of Defense, the newspaper writes, for some reason could not solve the problem of failed flaps, but on the contrary, “by their actions they could only aggravate the emergency, but not yet critical situation that arose on board” - apparently starting too actively to pull the steering wheels towards yourself and at the same time increasing the operating mode of the engines. As a result, the aircraft could reach supercritical angles of attack, lose speed and fall into the sea.
Earlier, TASS reported, citing a source in law enforcement agencies, that The crash of the Tu-154 over the sea occurred when the pilots, as expected, removed the mechanization, which increased the lift of the wing during takeoff. “At the same time, for unknown reasons, the plane was flying with a large pitch angle,” said the source of the agency. “Apparently, it stalled from the echelon during the maneuver to the right. 510 km/h". The plane, in addition, chatted from side to side. "When In a large positive pitch angle, the aircraft is nosed up too much and loses lift. Agency sources do not rule out a combination of several causes of the disaster at the same time, including both technical and human factors.
The recorders were found on Tuesday early in the morning. "At 05:42 Moscow time, at a distance of 1600 meters from the coast at a depth of 17 meters, the Falcon remote-controlled apparatus detected the main flight recorder. In the next few hours, it will be delivered by a military transport aircraft to the Central Research Institute of the Air Force to Lyubertsy near Moscow, whose specialists will decipher it," the Defense Ministry said in a statement quoted by TASS.
The divers of the ship "Epron", which is searching for the dead, raised, according to data at 9.00 Wednesday, 15 bodies.
RIA Novosti quoted a source who told the agency about the timing of the interpretation of flight data recorded by flight recorders: “From experience I can say that it takes from one day to several years. It all depends on the degree of damage to the film. In the conditions of the Tu-154 crash, there is reason to believe that everything has been preserved.
There was also evidence that at night, at a distance of 1,700 meters from the coast, at a depth of about 30 meters, five fragments of the aircraft were found in addition to those raised earlier. "These are several parts of the fuselage, fragments of engines, various mechanisms and units," TASS reports.
As Interfax reported with reference to the FSB, the main working versions of the Tu-154 crash in the Black Sea, which occurred on December 25, are "foreign objects entering the engine, low-quality fuel, which caused power loss and engine failure, piloting error, technical malfunction airplane."
On Tuesday morning, the version of foreign objects getting into the engine came to the fore. According to Kommersant, an officer of the coast guard of the FSB border troops, who was on a boat in the waters of Sochi at the time of the crash, said that instead of climbing, the plane quickly descended to the sea surface with an unnaturally raised nose, after which it touched the water with its tail.
At the same time, the NSN agency cites the words of the former Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation of the USSR, Honored Pilot Oleg Smirnov, who expressed his doubts: “The information of the witness can hardly be trusted one hundred percent, because all this happened at night. Imagine, at night, nothing is visible, and you suddenly see that the plane is flying with its nose up. How is this possible? Yes, his headlights were on, their light was visible. Where was the witness? If at sea, then something could be seen, if from the shore, then he saw only the receding plane. It is impossible to see the configuration of the receding aircraft at night, ”said NSN Smirnov.
"Signs and facts pointing to the possibility of committing a terrorist act or sabotage on board an aircraft have not been received at the present time," the Interfax agency was told on Monday at the CSO of the FSB of Russia. They also noted that there is a video recorder, with which the members of the investigation team are working. In addition, eyewitnesses of the crash of the airliner have been identified.
Important evidence is the fragments of the aircraft and the bodies of those killed in the crash that have already been lifted from the water. No traces of explosives were found on them. Also, no damage is characteristic of an explosion or a missile hit. Based on this, an Interfax agency source familiar with the situation concludes that "the version of the terrorist attack is not confirmed at the moment."
As an argument in favor of this version, observers cite the fact that no alarm signal was received about the pilots. In the event of a terrorist attack, they really could not have had time to file it. But the source of the agency explains this circumstance differently: “The fact that the pilot did not give an SOS signal is explained by the fact that the pilots were in a stressful state: in a critical state they tried to escape, it was about seconds. And it is clear that they were not up to it, to signal."
Earlier, also citing a source familiar with the situation, Interfax reported that according to witness testimony and other objective data obtained during the investigation, "the aircraft could not climb and for some reason - possibly overload and technical malfunction - crashed into the sea. The plane flew low, without gaining altitude, for an unusually long time, - the source emphasized from the words of witnesses of the incident. "We are talking, most likely, about a possible breakdown of the units responsible for climbing, or insufficient engine thrust. At the same time, a human factor that could contribute to a critical situation is not ruled out," he told the agency.
Poor quality fuel is unlikely to be the cause of the plane crash. According to an Interfax source, other aircraft refueled at the Sochi airport at the same time as the crashed plane made their flights without accident.
He also noted: "At this stage, the version of a terrorist attack is practically ruled out," which is refuted by the available materials of an objective nature, including eyewitness accounts.
Earlier, Russian news agencies, citing a source in the special services, reported: "The Tu-154 took off from the Chkalovsky airfield, where passengers and luggage were carefully examined and checked." “It was planned to refuel in Mozdok, but due to weather conditions it was moved to Adler, and thus, there was no information in advance that the aircraft would be refueled at Sochi airport.” It was also reported that the plane was taken under guard at the Adler airport, only two border guards and a customs officer boarded, no food was supplied on board. Only the navigator left the plane to control refueling, while the refueling itself was carried out by regular personnel. These circumstances on Monday gave reason to say that "at the moment there is no evidence in favor of a terrorist attack, and the security authorities and the investigation do not consider this version as the main one."
The crash occurred in almost ideal weather for flying. The board was piloted by an experienced first-class pilot Roman Volkov. Released in 1983, the Tu-154 was overhauled 2 years ago and underwent scheduled maintenance this autumn.
Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov, who headed the government commission, attributed the large spread of debris from a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft (which some observers point to as a sign of a terrorist attack) to a large current in the area. President Vladimir Putin instructed to form a government commission to determine the causes of the disaster. The President also instructed to provide all necessary assistance to the relatives of the victims.
According to the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, Viktor Ozerov, the version of the attack is “completely ruled out”: “The plane of the Ministry of Defense, Russian airspace, there cannot be such a version here,” he told RIA Novosti. Ozerov suggested that the Tu-154 failed to reach the desired turn trajectory over the sea after takeoff.
At the same time, sources from the St. Petersburg edition of Fontanka reported that the FSB is working out a version of the terrorist attack and checking everyone who had access to the Tu-154 liner.
The investigation of the criminal case on the crash of the Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense over the Black Sea, on behalf of the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin, was transferred to the Central Office of the Investigative Committee. She announced this on Sunday. about. Svetlana Petrenko, head of the department for interaction with the media of the RF IC, Svetlana Petrenko. "On the instructions of the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin, a criminal case initiated on the grounds of a crime under Article 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of flight rules that entailed grave consequences"), on the fact of the crash of the Tu aircraft -154 in the Krasnodar Territory was transferred to the Central Office of the Russian Investigative Committee for the most complete and objective investigation."
On Monday, Interfax reported that the military investigation department of the Russian Investigative Committee for the Sochi garrison opened a criminal case on the fact of the crash of the aircraft on the grounds of a crime under Art. 351 (violation of flight rules or preparation for them).
Tragedy
On Sunday morning, a Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Defense Ministry flying to Syria from the Sochi airport fell into the water about 2 minutes after takeoff. There were 92 people on the plane, including eight crew members, two civil servants, eight military personnel, almost the entire choir of the Alexandrov Ensemble, ballerinas, nine TV journalists, and Elizaveta Glika, known as Dr. Lisa.
Part of the composition of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army. A.V. Aleksandrova flew to Syria to the Khmeimim base to congratulate Russian military personnel on the New Year. His boss and artistic director, General Valery Khalilov, flew with him.
The executive director of the International Public Organization "Fair Aid" Elizaveta Glinka accompanied the humanitarian cargo for the Tishrin University Hospital in Latakia.
People carry flowers to the building in Moscow, where the Song and Dance Ensemble named after. Alexandrova, this Zemledelchesky per., 20, building 1, to the building on st. Pyatnitskaya, 17/4 building 1, where the Fair Aid Foundation of Elizabeth Glinka is located, as well as to the Ostankino television center.
On the day of the crash, active search and rescue operations began, on which all the forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the South of Russia and reinforcements from Moscow were thrown. Vessels, helicopters and unmanned vehicles of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are involved in the rescue operation. Fragments of the Tu-154 hull were found 1.5 kilometers from the coast at a depth of 50-70 meters. There is also a discovery of the bodies of the dead. According to the Ministry of Defense, as of the middle of the day on December 26, 45 ships and vessels are conducting searches at the crash site of the Tu-154 (one and a half times more than the day before), 12 aircraft, 10 helicopters. In the evening it was possible to raise a large fragment of the fuselage.
In connection with the crash of the aircraft of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, a hotline has been organized, telephone: 8-800-100-1886. More than 3 thousand people take part in the search and rescue operation in the Black Sea.
The President declared Monday a day of mourning for those killed in the Tu-154 crash.
dead
The composition of the crew of the Tu-154 85572:
1. Mr. Volkov R.V.
2. Dr. Rovensky A.S.
3. p/p-to Petukhov A.N.
4. Dr. Mamonov A.V.
5. Art. l-t Hairdressers V.N.
6. Mr. Tregubov V.A.
7. Art. Dr. Sushkov B.C.
8. Art. l-t Sukhanov A.O.
List of persons carried on the aircraft:
Military personnel:
1. g/l-t Khalilov V.M.
2. kennel Khasanov A.B.
3. colonel Vaganov A.I.
4. kennel Ivanov A.Yu.
5. p/p-k Kolosovsky A.V.
6. Mr. Dolinsky A.I.
7. Col. Negrub A.N.
8. Dr. Abrosimov S.S.
Federal government civil servants:
1. Gubankov A.N.
2. Badrutdinova O.T.
International public organization "Fair Aid":
1. Glinka E.P.
Mass media:
1. Runkov D.A.
2.Denisov V.V.
3. Soydov A.A.
4. Luzhetsky M.V.
5. Obukhov P.K.
6. Pestov O.M.
7. Rzhevsky V.V.
8. Suranov A.A.
9. Tolstov E.V.
FBGU "Ensemble named after. Alexandrova":
1. Sonnikov A.V.
2. Guzhova L.A.
3. Ivashko A.N.
4. Brodsky V.A.
5. Bulochnikov E.V.
6. Golikov V.V.
7. Osipov G.L.
8. Sanin V.V.
10. Buryachenko B.B.
11. Bobovnikov D.V.
12. Bazdyrev A.K.
13. Belonozhko D.M.
14. Beschasinov D.A.
15. Vasin M.A.
16. Georgiyan A.T.
17. Davidenko K.A.
18.Deniskin S.I.
19. Zhuravlev P.V.
20. Zakirov P.P.
21. Ivanov M.A.
22. Ivanov A.V.
23. Kotlyar S.A.
24. Kochemasov A.S.
25. Krivtsov A.A.
26. Litvyakov D.N.
27. Mokrikov A.O.
28. Morgunov A.A.
29. Nasibulin Zh.A.
30.Novokshanov Yu.M.
31. Polyakov V.V.
32. Saveliev A.V.
33. Sokolovsky A.V.
34. Tarasenko A.N.
35. Trofimov A.S.
36. Uzlovsky A.A.
37.Halimon B.JI.
38. Shtuko A.A.
39. Kryuchkov I.A.
40. Ermolin V.I.
41. Bykov C.JI.
42.Kolobrodov K.A.
43. Korzanov O.V.
44. Larionov I.F.
45. Lyashenko K.I.
46. Mikhalin V.K.
47. senior s-t Popov V.A.
48. Razumov A.A.
49.Serov A.S.
50.Shakhov I.V.
51. Archukova A.A.
52. Gilmanova P.P.
53. Ignatieva N.V.
54. Klokotova M.A.
55. Korzanova E.I.
56. Pyreva L.A.
57. Satarova V.I.
58. Trofimova D.S.
59. Khoroshova L.N.
60. Tsvirinko A.I.
61.Shagun O.Yu.
62. Gurar L.I.
63. Suleimanov B.R.
64. Stolyar I.V.
At the same time, the version about a technical malfunction of the board that crashed over the Black Sea remains a priority.
Version of external or internal influence on wrecked aircraft of the Ministry of Defense Tu-154 put forward aviation experts- although the version about a technical malfunction of the board remains a priority now. Nevertheless, this tragedy reminded some experts of the disaster with the Boeing A321 over the Sinai Peninsula.
The pilot, ex-commander of the Il-96, Sergei Knyshov, presented his view on the possible cause of the crash of the Tu-154, which fell into the Black Sea.
You see, planes don't just crash... Firstly, both the equipment and the pilots of the military department are among the best. Secondly, the weather conditions, as far as I know, were also good. Moreover, even if an abnormal situation arose on board, the PIC had to report it to the ground. -But it wasn't done. So, I just didn’t have time ... It’s very likely that something happened on board, because of which the pilots could not do what they were obliged to do, - the pilot told MK.
According to Sergey Knyshov, the features of an airport surrounded by the sea are also unlikely to be the cause of pilot error:
Despite the fact that the takeoff is at sea, this does not affect the accident rate in any way - it’s not the children who are sitting at the helm. Moreover, as far as I understand, the pilots flew this route not for the first time.
According to the expert, it is possible that there was an external impact or an explosion inside the cabin. The aircraft could be attacked from the shore from the same MANPADS (portable anti-aircraft missile system):
The plane was no more than five kilometers from the coast - the distance for MANPADS is sufficient. But there had to be a flash and witnesses who saw it, the pilot suggested.
As for the version about an explosive device on board the aircraft, it is necessary to find out which flights the aircraft made earlier, whether there was a possibility of such a “bookmark”.
In general, the whole situation with the Tu-154 strongly resembles the situation with the plane that crashed over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, the MK expert added. - Then, if you remember, they also started talking about the highway much later.
It must be emphasized once again that this is the private opinion of an expert - official sources now call the priority version of a technical malfunction of the board. There was information that before the crash, the Tu-154 allegedly turned 180 degrees. If these data are correct, then the plane was trying to return to Adler airport.
A special state commission should finally establish the causes of the tragedy. The search operation continues at the crash site.
FROM THE DOSIER "MK"
There were two major disasters at the Adler airport.
One of them happened in 1972. Aeroflot Il-18 flew to Moscow. At 19.22 the crew reported on the takeoff. The dispatcher transmitted the exit conditions - a right turn with a climb of up to 3000 m to Lazarevskoye. The crew confirmed receipt of instructions, after which communication with them ceased - the plane crashed into the sea about 10 km from the coast. 109 people died. The investigation put forward a number of versions of the disaster, including the failure of equipment, instruments and an attack on the crew. And as a priority, a collision of an aircraft with a flock of migratory birds was considered, since this was the period of their migration. However, the exact cause has not been established.
The second occurred on the night of May 2-3, 2006. The Airbus A320-211 airliner of Armavia operated flight RNV967 on the Yerevan-Sochi route, but when landing at the airport, the plane crashed into the Black Sea and was completely destroyed. All 105 passengers and 8 crew members on board were killed. The cause of the accident was recognized as uncoordinated actions of the crew when trying to climb after receiving the dispatcher's command to go around.
"Crew's erroneous actions" are called the cause of the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea, which occurred on December 25, 2016. RIA Novosti, citing the Ministry of Defense, reported: "According to the results of the investigation, it was established that the cause of the accident could be a violation of the spatial orientation (situational awareness) of the aircraft commander, which led to his erroneous actions with the aircraft controls."
Almost simultaneously with the RIA Novosti report, four pages of a report by Lieutenant-General Sergei Baynetov, head of the Aviation Safety Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, on the results of the work of the “accident investigation commission” were leaked to the Internet. The document is very similar to the real one. It is dated May 4, 2017 and has an outgoing number 137/2/883 DSP (the abbreviation DSP means - for official use).
The report of Lieutenant General Baynetov describes in great detail the last flight of the crashed Tu-154, which was part of the 800th air base for special purposes of the aerospace forces (VKS) of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the last minutes are by the second. The key takeaway from the paper is: “The cause of the crash of the Tu-154 B-2 aircraft was a violation of the spatial orientation (situational awareness) of the aircraft commander, which led to his erroneous actions with the aircraft controls, as a result of which the aircraft switched to a descent at the climb stage and collided with the water surface” .
The document emphasizes that the commander of the aircraft, Major Roman Volkov "began to experience difficulties in determining his location on the territory of the airfield, associated with his idea of the upcoming take-off course", not understanding which of the two runways of the Sochi airport will take off.
At 5 hours 24 minutes 36 seconds the crew began to take off with a heading of 238°. But already at the seventh second of the takeoff run, the aircraft commander (PIC) "emotionally began to ask the crew about the take-off course." At the same time, using "profanity", which led "to the PIC's omission to control the ground take-off parameters, distraction of the crew members from their functional duties".
Having barely lifted off the ground, having given the aircraft a pitch of 15 °, Major Volkov deflected the helm away from himself, slowing down the climb. And already at the 53rd second of the flight, when the aircraft gained only 157 meters of altitude, the PIC ordered to remove the flaps, although according to all regulations, this operation is carried out at an altitude of at least 500 meters. At the same time, Volkov continued to deflect the steering wheel away from himself. This led to the fact that at an altitude of 231 meters the aircraft switched to the descent mode, losing altitude at a speed of 6-8 m/s. A siren went off, a red display flashed in the cockpit. But none of the crew paid any attention to it.
At the 70th second of the flight, when the Tu-154 was only 90 meters from the water surface, the PIC abruptly turned the aircraft, which was going into a turn with a slight right bank of about 10°, into a steep left bank of 53°. The plane rushed to the surface of the water three times faster, at a speed of 20 m / s, and was already doomed.
At the 73rd second of the flight, the Tu-154 at a speed of 540 km / h and a left bank of about 50, touching the surface of the sea with its left wing, fell apart and sank.
The report of Lieutenant General Baynetov indicated that the emergence of a critical situation on board the Tu-154 was facilitated by the "emotional and physiological fatigue" of commander Volkov, as well as his lack of "steady skills" of piloting in difficult situations.
Experienced military pilots, whom we asked to comment on the conclusions of the commission on the causes of the Sochi disaster and a document circulated on the Internet, similar to the report of the head of the Aviation Safety Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, agreed that there are many inconsistencies in both the official report and the “document”.
Our experts noticed that at the Sochi airport, planes are taxiing to the start behind the escort car. In addition, the airport is equipped with illuminated signs for taxiway numbers and runways. It is almost impossible to get lost at the Sochi airport. If Major Volkov is “lost” already on the ground, a take-off ban should immediately follow.
What happened after takeoff cannot be explained:
“Unless there was a collective insanity,” said one of our experts. - The actions of both the captain and the crew are absolutely inadequate. The actions of the rudders (especially the rudder - from the pedals) after takeoff do not lend themselves to a normal explanation. The flight speed indicated in the document allows the aircraft to stay in the air, but a normal, trained, tested and approved pilot for this type of flight could not allow such actions with rudders.
The actual self-withdrawal of the co-pilot and navigator also defies explanation:
- The crew sees that the PIC makes one fatal mistake after another, and does nothing. This is impossible in military transport aviation.
“It can be assumed that the checkpoint-1 (commander and flight instrument is the main instrument of any aircraft) failed,” suggested another of our interlocutors. - The "document" says about its direct indication, they say, it's complicated. Yes, it's difficult. During retraining, on the simulator. And Volkov was an experienced pilot. In addition, checkpoint-1 has a duplicate artificial horizon AGR-72.
Our experts noticed that the "document" says that the landing gear was removed, but in all the photographs of the collected wreckage of the crashed Tu-154, the landing gear is in the extended position.
One of our experts, a veteran of military transport aviation with more than 10,000 flight hours, of which about 4,000 is a Tu-154 crew commander, continues to adhere to the version that Novaya published back in March. Our interlocutor assumes that the regular crew commander of the Tu-154, Major Roman Volkov, during takeoff served as the co-pilot, however, being in his place, and the pilot took off, not only not trained and not allowed to fly on this type of aircraft, but also not included in the flight assignment, senior in rank and position. Yes, he had extensive flying experience, but on other types of aircraft, for example, on the An-72. On board the crashed aircraft was indeed a senior instructor-pilot of military unit 42829, lieutenant colonel. And he flew precisely on the An-72.
The “document”, positioned as a report by Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, is very similar to the real one, but our experts do not rule out that this is a fake made “on the basis” of this document.
According to the official version of the Tu-154 crash in Sochi on December 25, 2016, an orangutan turned out to be at the controls of the plane instead of a person, who began to pull the control sticks ridiculously, which led to the tragedy. If we draw a parallel with driving a car, it would look like this: the driver got behind the wheel, started off - and drove into a snowdrift. Passed back - and crushed three cars nearby. Then he drove forward - and crashed with all his dope into a dumpster, on which the trip ended.
Conclusion: either the driver was dead drunk - or something happened to the car.
But the Tu-154 recorders showed that the plane was in perfect working order. And to assume that the pilot began to take off in a dead form in front of other crew members, not suicides, does not work either. And his voice on the recorder is absolutely sober.
However, the plane crashed - allegedly as a result of inexplicable actions of the crew. Or is there an explanation - but the military leadership is desperately hiding it?
Cunning journalists unearthed that the plane may have been heavily overloaded - hence all the consequences. Moreover, it was not overloaded at the Adler airport in Sochi, where it made an intermediate landing, but at the Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow, from where it started.
The weight of the excess cargo is more than 10 tons. However, at Chkalovsky, according to documents, this Tu-1542B-2 was filled with kerosene 10 tons less than a full bowl - 24 tons, as a result, the total weight of the aircraft was 99.6 tons. This exceeded the norm by only 1.6 tons - and therefore was not critical. The pilot probably noted that the takeoff there occurred with an effort - but there could be many reasons for this: wind, atmospheric pressure, air temperature.
But in Adler, where the plane landed for refueling, this refueling played a fatal role. The tanks of the aircraft were filled with fuel already under the cork - up to 35.6 tons, which is why its take-off weight became more than 10 tons more than the permissible one.
And if we accept this version with overload, everything that follows gets the most logical explanation.
The plane took off from the Adler runway at a speed of 320 km/h instead of the nominal 270 km/h. Further, the rise occurred at a speed of 10 meters per second - instead of the usual 12-15 m / s.
And 2 seconds after taking off from the ground, the commander of the ship, Roman Volkov, pulled the steering wheel towards himself in order to increase the take-off angle. The fact is that the take-off and landing trajectories are strictly defined at each airfield: landing takes place on a more gentle, take-off - on a steeper one. This is necessary in order to separate the planes taking off and going to land in height - without which they would constantly be threatened with a collision in the air.
But the increase in the angle of climb led to a drop in speed - too heavy an aircraft refused to perform this maneuver. Then the pilot, probably already realizing that some kind of pig was put on him in the form of excess cargo, gave the helm away from himself in order to stop climbing and thereby gain speed.
This happened at an altitude of 200 meters - and if the plane had remained in this echelon, even in violation of all the rules, the tragedy might not have happened. But Volkov piloted the car outside its permissible modes - which no one had done before him, since overloaded flights are strictly prohibited. And how the plane behaved in these conditions is hard to imagine. In addition, it is possible that that extra load, being poorly secured, also violated the alignment of the aircraft during takeoff.
As a result, a slight panic arose in the cockpit. The pilots began to retract the flaps ahead of schedule - in order to reduce air resistance and thereby gain speed faster.
Here began a dangerous rapprochement with the water, over which there was a take-off line. The speed was already decent - 500 km / h, Volkov abruptly took the helm to lift the plane, at the same time starting a turn - apparently, he decided to return to the airfield. Then the irreparable happened: the plane, in response to the actions of the pilot, did not go up, but crashed into the water, scattering into fragments from a collision with it ...
Such a scenario, based on data from recorders, is absolutely consistent - and looks much more plausible than Shoigu's delusional explanation that the pilot lost his spatial orientation and began to descend instead of climbing.
During takeoff, no spatial orientation is required from the pilot at all. In front of him are two main instruments: an altimeter and a speed indicator, he monitors their readings without being distracted by the views outside the window ...
You can also ask: how did an overloaded plane manage to break away from the runway? The answer is simple: there is a so-called screen effect, which significantly increases the lift of the wings at a height of up to 15 meters from the ground. By the way, the concept of ekranoplans is based on it - semi-aircraft-semi-ships flying within these 15 meters in height with much more cargo on board than aircraft of equal power ...
Well, now the most important questions.
First: what kind of cargo was placed in the belly of this Tu - and by whom?
It is clear that these were not the lightweight medicines of Dr. Lisa, who was on this flight, and not an armored personnel carrier: in a passenger plane there is no wide port for the entry of any equipment. This cargo was apparently heavy and compact enough to enter through the cargo hatch.
And what exactly - you can guess anything here: boxes of vodka, shells, gold bars, Sobyanin's tiles ... And why they decided to send it not by cargo, but by passenger flight - there could also be any reasons. From sloppiness on the failure to send a combat cargo, which they decided to cover up gradually - to the very criminal schemes for the export of precious metals or other contraband.
Another question: did the pilots know about this left cargo? For sure! This is not a needle in a haystack - but a whole stack that cannot be hidden from the eyes. But what exactly was there and what the true weight of it is - the pilots might not have known. After all, this is an army, where the order of the highest rank is above all instructions; and most likely that order was also provided with some kind of generous promise - with a hint of all sorts of intrigues in case of refusal. Under the influence of such an explosive mixture, a lot of malfeasance is committed today - when a forced person faces a choice: either to make decent money - or to be left without a job and without pants.
And the famous Russian maybe at the same time, as they say, no one canceled!
Who ordered? Here, too, there can be a large scatter: from someone lieutenant colonel, deputy for armament - to Colonel General. Depending on what kind of cargo was driven onto the plane.
In short, in Chkalovsky the plane is overloaded, but this overload is compensated by incomplete refueling - and in Adler the tanks are already filled to capacity. Obviously, the calculation was to fly to the Syrian Khmeimim (destination) and back on their own fuel. And the fact that the commander of the ship agreed to these 35.6 tons of fuel in Adler speaks in favor of the fact that he still did not know the real magnitude of the overload. Fly it alone - you can still allow dashing daring, which Chkalov himself initiated in our aviation. But behind Volkov's back were his own crew of 7 people, and 84 more passengers, including the artists of the Alexandrov ensemble!
The fact that the Ministry of Defense in this case is not just obscure, but with might and main hides the truth - such facts speak.
1. Shoigu's version of "violation of spatial orientation (situational awareness) of the commander, which led to erroneous actions with the aircraft's controls" does not hold water. For any pilot, not only with 4000 flight hours, like Volkov, but also with ten times less, takeoff is the simplest action that does not require any special skills. Here, for example, landing in difficult weather conditions is a completely different matter. The accident during the landing of the same Tu-154 from the Polish delegation near Smolensk is a typical example of the lack of skill and experience of the pilot. But when taking off on a serviceable plane, no one has ever crashed.
2. The decoding of the recorders, probably already in the first days after the tragedy, gave the whole alignment of what happened. An analogy with the same Polish case in 2010 is appropriate here: then, on the 5th day, the IAC (Interstate Aviation Committee) issued an exhaustive version of the incident, which was fully confirmed later.
The IAC has been stubbornly silent about the Adler disaster for 6 months. On his website, where detailed analyzes of all flight accidents are published, there are only two brief messages on the subject of Adler that the investigation is ongoing. And another significant passage:
“Resources of research and expert institutions have been attracted to investigate this catastrophe. Among them is the Interstate Aviation Committee, which has extensive experience in investigating accidents with Tu-154 aircraft and the necessary resources to assist in expediting the investigation. At the same time, the IAC informs that the official comments on this investigation are provided exclusively by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
That is, read, "we were shut up, sorry."
3. Naturally, the Minister of Defense in the very first hours, if not minutes after the disaster, found out what kind of cargo was on board the crashed Tu. And the incredibly long search for the wreckage of the aircraft, which added absolutely nothing to the information of the recorders, suggests that they were looking for that very secret cargo. And not at all the truth, which was clear to the military immediately.
Well, and another question: why do the military, led by their minister, hide this truth like that? And from whom - from Putin himself or from the people?
Well, to hide it from Putin, I very much doubt it: he does not look like a person who can be circled around the finger like that. So they are hiding from the people. This means that this truth is such that it somehow terribly undermines the prestige of our military.
That is, either some lieutenant colonel, a complete idiot, loaded into a passenger plane something that should not have been close to it. And then a shadow on our entire army, in which such idiots are on horseback that they can ruin even the backbone of the Alexandrov ensemble with their idiocy.
Or the colonel-general, who enters the very head, is involved - and then also shame and disgrace: it turns out that through the change of Serdyukov to Shoigu, our army has not been cleansed of general outrage?
And the last thing. Remember, when we watched the film "Chapaev" as children, many of us shouted in the hall: "Chapaj, run!" Just as spontaneously, today, when everything has practically become clear with the Adler tragedy, I want to shout to the pilot Volkov: “Don't take this load! And he took it - do not take off above 200 meters above the sea!
After all, if you sort it out by a calm mind, which was not praised by a pilot who fell into a storm of circumstances, he had a chance of salvation. Namely: when reloading the aircraft, do not even try to follow the instructions that oblige you to rise to such and such a height at such and such a distance from the airfield. Break it to hell, get a reprimand for it, even if it's dismissal - but save your own life and the lives of others. That is, fly at a minimum altitude, producing fuel - and when the weight of the aircraft decreases in an hour and a half, start lifting.
Another thing that again comes to mind is that if you decide to return to Adler, do a U-turn not by a standard turn with a side roll, which dumped the plane into the sea, but by the so-called "pancake". That is, with one rudder - when the plane remains in horizontal plane, and the turning radius at the same time greatly increases: a maneuver that is practically not used in modern aviation.
Yes, only this chance, which could save this plane, in the future would still be ghostly and deadly. Suppose Volkov could have managed to get out of the disastrous situation set by the organizers of his flight. Then the next time he or his colleague would be hung not 10, but 15 extra tons of some “unspecified” cargo: after all, appetites grow as their satisfaction. And the tragedy would have happened anyway - if not in this case, then in the next one, if its causes were preserved.
God forbid that as a result of this catastrophe, someone in our armed forces gave someone a proper blow to the brain, putting an end to the outrages that led to the inevitable outcome.
Alexander Roslyakov
