On December 25, a Russian Tu-154 crashed off the coast of Sochi in the Black Sea, a Russian Ministry of Defense aircraft flying to Syria with 92 people on board. The passengers were military personnel, artists of the Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Ensemble, who were supposed to give a concert to the Russian military in Aleppo. Also on board the crashed Tu-154 were journalists from the Russian channels Channel One, NTV, Zvezda and activist Elizaveta Glinka (“Doctor Lisa”). Everyone died.
The main thing about the disaster
- The Tu-154 plane took off for Latakia from Sochi (where it was refueled) on December 25 at 4:20 (Kyiv time). Disappeared from radar two minutes after takeoff.
- On board were 8 crew members, 8 Russian military personnel, 64 artists, 9 media representatives (film crews from Channel One, Zvezda and NTV), two civil servants and a famous activist, doctor Elizaveta Glinka, widely known as Doctor Lisa.
- Fragments of the plane were found 1.5 km from the coast in Sochi at a depth of 50–70 m. Personal belongings of passengers were found in the sea at a distance of 12–14 km from the coast.
- The first body of the deceased was found 6 km from the coast.
- December 26 has been declared a day of national mourning in Russia.
- All three black boxes have been raised - the main version is a pilot error. Also among the versions are a technical malfunction and a flock of birds hitting the plane; the version of a terrorist attack is rejected by the authorities.
- One and a half thousand fragments of the airliner and 15 bodies of the dead, as well as more than a hundred fragments of bodies, were raised to the surface.
Tu-154 crash: chronicle of events
The transcript of the first recorder has appeared! Conversation in the cockpit:
Speed 300... (Unintelligible.)
- (Unintelligible.)
I took the racks, commander.
- (Unintelligible.)
Wow, oh my!
(A sharp signal sounds.)
Flaps, bitch, what the fuck!
Altimeter!
Us... (Unintelligible.)
(A signal sounds about a dangerous approach to the ground.)
- (Unintelligible.)
Commander, we are falling!
A diagram of the plane's crash appeared:
How the Tu-154 wreckage is lifted: underwater video
Russian security forces will not fly the Tu-154 for now - flights have been suspended until the causes of the crash over Sochi are clarified.
Decoding the Tu-154 black box showed that an emergency situation on board could have occurred due to the flaps not being retracted. The box recorded a failure of the flap system. The pilots tried to correct the resulting diving moment by raising the nose of the plane very much, but only aggravated the situation to a critical one.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denied the information that the Tu-154 passengers were wearing life jackets.
Scandalous photos are being discussed online, which show that fragments of the bodies of those killed in the disaster in Sochi are piled directly on the ground. The footage was distributed by Life.Ru.
WARNING! The photos contain scenes of death and are not recommended for viewing by persons under 16 years of age, pregnant women and people with weak mental health
19:00 The large spread of debris from the crashed Tu-154 is explained by water hammer, a source in the emergency services told Interfax.
In turn, a source in the security forces told the agency that a terrorist attack is not considered among the main versions of the disaster and such a version is practically excluded.
18:00 According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, none of those on board the Tu-154 aircraft survived.
16:40 A little about the history of the ensemble.
In March, Estonian Defense Minister Hannes Hanso refused to grant permission for the Russian Army Song and Dance Ensemble named after Alexandrov to enter the country because military cooperation between Russia and Estonia was suspended.
In 2014, the ensemble performed the song “Polite People,” dedicated to the occupation of Crimea.
16:10 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with the crash of the Tu-154 plane.
“It is with great regret that we received the news of the crash of the Russian Tu-154 aircraft, on board of which were our dear friends who wanted to share the joy of victory and holidays with us and the people of Aleppo,” Assad said.
15:58 According to an Interfax source in the emergency services, the bodies of 12 people who died in the crash of the Tu-154 plane in the Black Sea have been found.
“This is our usual practice, which allows us to protect user profiles from abnormal activity in comments and on the wall,” said site representative Evgeny Krasnikov, RBC reported.
15:30 The publication Meduza reports that Channel One employees say that their colleagues who died in the plane crash “did not want to go on an urgent business trip.” “Why so fast? Did no one know before that the ensemble would fly? - said one of the employees of Channel One. “In general, they said: *****, Syria again, and they will drop it there by some kind of helicopter.”
15:15 Singer Joseph Kobzon said that he was invited to fly to Latakia along with other artists in a Tu-154 that crashed today off the coast of Sochi. To sing for the Russian military for the New Year. According to him, he refused because he had a medical visa and needed to go for treatment.
14:40 More than 3 thousand people are participating in the search operation, including 37 divers, as well as 27 ships, four helicopters, UAVs and remote-controlled deep-sea vehicles.
14:20 The families of the victims will receive compensation. The amount of payments in the event of a plane crash will be up to 7.8 million rubles for military personnel and 3 million rubles for civilians.
13:50 Iran, Kazakhstan, Türkiye and the US Ambassador expressed condolences to Russia. There is no reaction from Ukraine yet. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs only congratulated Pavel Klimkin on his birthday.
13:35 Rescuers found the bodies of 10 people killed in the plane crash.
12:50 Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Monday, December 26, a national day of mourning for those killed in the Tu-154 plane crash.
12:30 This is Elizaveta Glinka, who was on board the plane and, as is already obvious, died along with all the passengers. On December 8, Putin presented Glinka with an award “for charity in Donbass and Syria.”
Putin recently presented Glinka with a prize for Syria and Donbass (photo: EPA)
12:25 A video has appeared showing how, off the coast of Sochi, people found the body of one of those killed in the Tu-154 crash in the water and are trying to inform rescuers about it:
12:04 The Russian FSB is working on a version of the terrorist attack.
12:00 NTV sound engineer Evgeny Tolstov posted the last photo of the Tu-154 aircraft on his Facebook page before flying to Syria:
11:46 Full list . The Russian Ministry of Defense stated: the area of the disaster has been determined, there are no survivors.
11:42 The data on the number of passengers on board the Tu-154 is changing again - there were 92 of them.
11:40 According to media reports, activist “Doctor Lisa” was carrying medicines for a university hospital in Syrian Latakia. Vladimir Putin and government officials express condolences to the families of the victims.
It is known that not the entire Alexandrov orchestra was taken to Latakia, but only the best.
11:36 The body of the deceased was found 6 km from the coast of Sochi; it was lifted aboard the rescue vessel. 50 divers were sent to search. The sea depth is up to 100 m. The weather conditions are normal. There are more than 300 rescuers in total.
11:32 The NTV channel published a photo of one film crew that was on board the Tu-154 at the time of the crash near Sochi: NTV correspondent Mikhail Luzhetsky, cameraman Oleg Pestov and sound engineer Evgeny Tolstov:
11:11 The Russian Ministry of Defense has clarified the lists of those on board the Tu-154 - only 93 people.
Residents of Sochi also publish videos from the crash site - search boats are on the horizon:
11:08 New versions of the crash - according to the Ministry of Defense, a critical technical malfunction occurred on board the Tu-154 while climbing, which could not be quickly corrected.
Other versions of the disaster are also being considered - in particular, pilot error. However, this is unlikely; the pilots were very experienced.
10:16 6 kilometers from Sochi in the Black Sea, fragments of the chassis of a Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense were found, flying after refueling from Sochi to Latakia.
Rescuers also began to discover the bodies of those killed in the area of the Tu-154 crash, their personal belongings, and documents.
10:11 A possible cause of the Tu-154 crash could have been a bird getting into the engine. There is a migratory bird station and an ornithopark near Sochi airport, Interfax reports.
10:00 Boats are searching:
9:50 The Russian Ministry of Defense published a list of people who were in the Tu-154. There are 84 names on the list, including 8 crew members, 9 media representatives, 64 artists from the Alexandrov Ensemble, two civil servants and the famous public activist Elizaveta Glinka (“Doctor Lisa”).
The first photo from the alleged Tu-154 crash site (RBC)
9:45 The Tu-154 aircraft was produced in 1983, the last repair took place in December 2014, the aircraft underwent scheduled maintenance in September 2016. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the plane was flown by an experienced pilot, first class pilot Roman Volkov.
8:02 Clarification - the airliner initially took off from the Moscow region, flew to Sochi to refuel and from there headed to Syria.
8:00 The Tu-154 plane crashed in the Black Sea a few kilometers from the shores of Sochi.
7:00 On the morning of December 25, at about 04:40 Kiev time, a few minutes after takeoff, a Tu-154 military transport aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, flying from Sochi to Syria (Latakia), disappeared from radar. There were more than 90 people on board - Russian military, artists of the ensemble named after. Alexandrova, 9 Russian journalists and eight crew members.
A genetic examination of the bodies of those killed in the Tu-154 plane crash near Sochi will be carried out by forensic experts from the Russian Ministry of Defense. This was announced by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov.
“A decision was made to deliver all those killed in the Tu-154 plane crash of the Russian Ministry of Defense to Moscow for identification and genetic examination by specialists of the 111th Main State Center for Forensic and Criminalistic Expertise of the Russian Ministry of Defense,” Konashenkov said at a briefing.
On the morning of December 25, information appeared that a Tu-154 Russian Ministry of Defense aircraft flying from Sochi to the Khmeimim airbase disappeared from radar.
Something extreme happened in Tu-154 before the crash, expert
The fall of the Tu-154 into the Black Sea immediately after takeoff from Adler airport could have been preceded by an extreme situation on board, which did not allow the crew to transmit a distress signal to the ground, says former shift manager of the main center of the unified air traffic management system of Russia Vitaly Andreev.
“After take-off and a short flight - two minutes - the plane lost contact and did not transmit a signal to the ground about any problems, this may indicate that there was an emergency situation on board - either an external influence on the aircraft, or an encounter with an obstacle, which was unlikely to be there,” says Andreev, who worked in aviation for 47 years.
He adds that “The Tu-154 is a very reliable car, and miracles don’t happen, they don’t just fall.”
“In my practice, there have been cases when Tu-154s landed when all three engines failed, or, for example, the famous landing in the taiga on an abandoned runway,” the expert adds.
“Those versions of problems on board that are now being voiced - unbalance of the rudders, deviation from the established flight path - absolutely could not prevent the crew from transmitting a signal about this to the ground,” added Andreev.
“This means that something extreme happened, from practice - such situations are possible when a ship is hijacked,” he added.
The expert clarified that the data from the self-written intercom (SPU) “will be able to explain with an accuracy of 99.99% what was happening in the cockpit at the time of the disaster.”
A Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which was heading to Syria, crashed in the Black Sea on Sunday morning.
According to the military department, there were 92 people on board - eight crew members and 84 passengers, including eight military personnel, 64 artists from the Alexandrov ensemble, nine representatives of Russian television channels, the head of the Fair Aid charity foundation Elizaveta Glinka, known as Doctor Lisa, two federal government employees.
The possibility of a terrorist attack on the Tu-154 plane has been practically ruled out - source
The large spread of debris from the Tu-154 that crashed near Sochi is explained by water hammer, a source in the emergency services told Interfax.
“Apparently, when the aircraft collided with the water surface, a water hammer occurred, which resulted in a large scattering of debris,” the source said.
In turn, a source in the security forces told Interfax that a terrorist attack is not considered among the main versions of the disaster and such a version is practically excluded.
“The plane took off from the Chkalovsky airfield, which is a well-guarded military facility. It is not possible to penetrate there in order to plant an explosive device on board. In turn, the airport in Sochi is a dual-use airport and is heavily guarded. The entry of unauthorized persons or the carrying of unauthorized items by any employee is excluded,” the source said.
Konashenkov: 27 ships and vessels, 37 divers, 4 helicopters, UAVs and remote-controlled deep-sea vehicles are involved in the search for the plane
Briefing by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense Igor Konashenkov on the situation with the crash of the TU-154 plane in the Sochi area as of 15:00:
“According to updated data, 10 bodies of the dead have now been lifted aboard the rescue vessel.
The search and rescue force continues to build up in the area where the Ministry of Defense Tu-154 plane crashed.
A search area with an area of 10.5 km2 has been formed.
The area is divided into sectors and distributed among the forces involved. The search is organized around the clock. Floodlights and special equipment were sent to illuminate the coastline in the dark.
The search involves 27 ships and vessels, 37 divers, 4 helicopters, UAVs and remote-controlled deep-sea vehicles.
In the near future, more than 100 deep-sea divers with special equipment will be delivered to the area of the plane crash from other fleets.
In total, more than 3 thousand people take part in search and rescue activities.
At the Adler airfield, teams providing medical and psychological assistance are on duty, and vehicles have been allocated to transport relatives to places of temporary accommodation at the city’s sanatorium and resort institutions.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Tu-154 crash would be thoroughly investigated.
“A thorough investigation into the causes of the disaster will be carried out and everything will be done to provide support to the families of the victims,” he said during an emergency press conference.
About the likelihood of a terrorist attack
On the topic of the likelihood of a terrorist attack.
Air Force Major, pilot instructor Sergei Krasnoperov:
— What could have caused the disaster of this liner, in your opinion?
- Only the “black box” that will be lifted from this liner will tell about this. But, as you say, the versions - pilot error and equipment failure - are the real reasons, as always happens in such cases. But it is too suspicious that the plane, after taking off while climbing, literally a few tens of minutes, disappears from the radar screens.
- Now they have clarified that this happened in the seventh minute, while gaining altitude or during a turn, apparently over the Black Sea.
“This means that the engines were working properly, the fuel was normal. If this happened on takeoff, fuel could be the cause. The situation may be similar to the tragedy in Sharm el-Sheikh; there, too, very little time passed after takeoff.
— Do you mean the version of the terrorist attack?
- Certainly. What is very strange is that a plane crashes on takeoff very rarely, especially of this class. The Tu-154 has three engines and is very reliable. I myself flew on them as a passenger very often.
— Why don’t you look into the plane’s malfunction? After all, the Tu-154 is far from a new aircraft.
- Yes, but they are very reliable. I can look at the design of the aircraft from the point of view of the pilot, and believe me, what is connected with the control of the aircraft, there is such a reliable control system, not like electronics now, but there are cable backup systems, including aircraft control systems, that is, if one system fails , another one enters. Considering the experience of the pilots who now fly these planes, this situation is still very strange to me, that it was only the seventh minute after takeoff. I understand that the plane took off from our airfield, and it was monitored by an electronic surveillance system, so it could not have been that someone was flying up to it, it could have crashed into something.
“Initially it was reported that the signal from the radar screens simply disappeared, but the plane did not send any distress signals.
“This suggests that the plane, as in Sharm el-Sheikh, instantly lost speed and simply fell into a spin position, that is, uncontrollable. In this case, the pilot simply, with such an overload, which happens in this case, not only could not report to the dispatcher, but was also unable to turn on the distress signal. Just imagine, the liner just begins to rotate violently. Therefore, I think the plane was destroyed, as it happened in Sharm el-Sheikh, where its speed was first 780 km/h and then suddenly became 170 km/h, and a loss of altitude of 1000 m. Now we need to look at the radars, exactly how the speed dropped. That is, the plane could glide and land on the water. Recently there was an incident with a Tu-154, when 37 people were saved. The pilots were then able to land the plane on an unfamiliar field in a strong wind, in a heavy snowstorm, and they saved almost all the people.
In this situation, there were simple weather conditions; if something had happened to the plane, to the engine, it would have simply turned around and started gliding towards the airfield and landed in the coastal zone. Even if the plane would have collapsed, the pilots, the crew, and the passengers would have been alive, you know? And then there is a sharp drop, this happens when something abnormal happens, something explodes, something falls off. As a rule, the tail of these planes can only fall off. And in all other cases, the pilot could easily transmit information and turn on the distress signal, but this did not happen. This means that something was abnormal and abrupt in the seventh minute of the flight. So, I can’t blame the crew, and the equipment doesn’t break down so suddenly.
— The scattering of fragments at such a speed, and its speed in the build-up is about 600-700 km/h, already there it goes over, at such a distance it may well be. But if the plane had fallen intact, then there would not have been such scattering of fragments, believe me. The plane fell apart, simply fell apart, which means it exploded, which means that somewhere someone was given a suitcase, considering that it was a flight to Syria, and musicians from the ensemble were flying, they could have brought something with these musical instruments, someone... I could have planted it. Believe me, such scattering of fragments only happens when an airplane is destroyed in the air. It just explodes, that's all. And when the liner just falls, it creates an oil stain, and then parts float up. A plane, if it falls, dives into the water, simply disappears, and is found after some time. And then they even found a person who was already in the coastal zone, damaged by debris. This suggests that the debris fell to the ground in a disorderly manner, which means it exploded in the air.
President of the Alpha Veterans Association Sergei Goncharov.
“With a high degree of probability, I can say that this is not a terrorist attack, for several reasons,” says Sergei Goncharov, president of the association of veterans of the Alpha anti-terror unit. - First. This is an aircraft that is serviced by the Ministry of Defense, and, believe me, the discipline in the Ministry of Defense is still quite serious, and the people who service these flights, they are proven people, naturally have all forms of clearance in order to do this work.
Second. There were people flying on this plane, our comrades, who practically all knew each other, and, as I understand it, no one put strangers on this plane. And the luggage that was there, naturally, was checked by precisely those people who were flying on this plane.
Third. The plane, as I understand it, was not in the air for so long, the sea waters provide opportunities, if it had been an explosion or some kind of flash, then, probably, there would have been eyewitnesses who could have seen it or, at least, could have recorded it . And one last thing. The wreckage of the plane has already been discovered, which means that they did not fly as far apart from each other as happens in some...
- One and a half kilometers for the sea, this distance, as you understand, is absolutely small. All this gives me reason to say that we must lean, as I understand it, towards the versions of either a pilot error, or the refueling that took place that did not meet some criteria. In any case, we must express our condolences to all those who died. Unfortunately, this tragedy has darkened our pre-holiday days. But in any case, I believe that now the Ministry of Defense will carefully look into it and dot the i’s. The only thing that confuses me is why the crew could not give any information to the dispatchers. This is a fact that I cannot answer yet, I think the investigation will answer.
Sergei Alekseevich, there were probably similar events in tragic world practice. And why did the crew, if we try to understand now using parallel analogies, couldn’t do the very first thing that every pilot probably does if he understands that the situation is beyond the normal standard - send a distress signal? Using examples of other situations, can you explain how events could have developed, why this could have happened?
- If we are talking about a terrorist act, then when there is an explosion on board the plane or in the luggage compartment, the communication system immediately disappears, and purely technically, the ship’s commander cannot give the dispatcher any information. Apparently, if some kind of technical short circuit occurred here, some technical problem that did not allow the crew to contact the dispatchers (I repeat once again, this is a problem that will be dealt with after the debris is raised)... If only this there was a terrorist attack, at the moment, in any case, there would be indirect evidence of what happened on the plane, in particular, a flash, an explosion, or at least we would have some new, albeit subjective or indirect, hints about that that the plane was blown up or crashed in the air due to an explosion.
From official sources:
“Preliminarily, during the climb, the crew encountered a critical technical malfunction, which led to a disaster,” said an Interfax source in the emergency services.
As a Pravda.ru source at the operational headquarters stated, “so far, according to preliminary data, the situation is as follows. The pilot and crew, and in the case of the Tu-154 it is larger, were professional, they had no flight accidents - everyone is almost sure that this was not a human factor. A professional captain and navigator participated in the landing of the tumbling Tu-154.
This is also not a terrorist attack, with a probability close to one - the plane is maintained and controlled in a special zone, control at Sochi airport has been tight since the time of the Olympics. The weather conditions, let's say, are not the best, yesterday Simferopol was closed due to weather and Sochi was a backup, but they were still flightable. Unless, of course, the liner got caught in a sudden tornado that formed by chance. Or into a flock of birds that “shut up” all the engines simultaneously on takeoff, at the moment of full thrust - there is an ornithopark nearby. Most likely a technical malfunction, and so instantaneous and critical, such as switching the stabilizer to a dive in Rostov, that the crew did not have time to fix it work out, nor report. Because even the failure of two engines on the Tu-154 does not kill; the crew would have landed the plane on the water one way or another.
And it’s stupid when they talk about an old plane, about “it’s already banned.” It was not banned, but withdrawn from use by commercial airlines, because it consumes a lot of fuel, exceeds noise standards, and indeed its interior environment cannot be compared with a Boeing or Airbus. An airplane does not have "old age", it has airworthiness - it is either fit to fly or not. In the USA there are "Douglas" aircraft from the 1950s and 1960s. I will say more, “black boxes” - parametric recorders have already been located, they will be lifted by specialists with bathyscaphes. All debris and bodies, naturally, will also be raised - 70 meters is now an accessible depth.” What happened is undoubtedly a tragedy. The reasons will be sorted out, since the investigation has been taken under the tightest control at the highest level. Decryption of the black boxes will also provide additional information. Now they have already begun to raise the bodies of the dead. According to TASS, by midday, four bodies had been discovered and recovered.
An operational headquarters has been created and is operating in Sochi to receive relatives of the deceased passengers on the plane. Psychological and psychiatric care teams are on duty at Sochi airport. The city mayor held an emergency meeting of the emergency situations commission. “A Kommersant correspondent in the Krasnodar region reports that local residents at the time of the disaster did not see the flash or hear the explosion,” the press notes.
Politonline.ru’s sources in the Russian FSB also explained why everyone who approached the liner, serviced it and was involved in technical training was being checked. “The version of the terrorist attack is not a priority, but it must also be worked out. Yes, the FSB checks everyone who was in contact with the deceased aircraft, records are reviewed, interviews are conducted - to exclude the version, and not because it is being “secretly investigated.”
Test pilot, Hero of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Knyshov:
- The Tu-154 is a completely reliable aircraft, which is used not only by the Ministry of Defense, but also in civil aviation. It has proven itself to be reliable and comfortable. The fact that there were military specialists on board suggests that the plane was in full readiness. Because before each flight there is a check - this type of aircraft has a certain approval, airworthiness certification.
What happened... Anything can happen in aviation, but after takeoff, when the engines are operating at takeoff mode and the crew does not have any information about any malfunctions of individual systems or engines, otherwise, if such information were available, the pilot would follow instructions would turn around and land at the departure airfield. In this situation, we can say that, apparently, there was something on board. Because planes don’t just crash or land in an emergency. But why the crew did not provide information about what happened to them is also a question.
- What are the options for complete failure of the systems on board?
- One of the options is the failure of three engines. But in any case, the crew informs the dispatch service, informs the Ministry of Defense about one reason or another. In this situation, in my opinion, a sudden loss of communication, a sudden depressurization of the aircraft led to the fact that the crew was unable and did not have time to report the reason that happened on board.
Anatoly Nikolaevich, now that they are saying that the plane was refueling in Sochi, could poor quality fuel have caused the emergency? Or is this now more of an exception to the rule?
- When refueling occurs at any airport, both in the Russian Federation and abroad, the crew and crew that services (and I think there is a technical team on board that services this type of aircraft), they always check the fuel type according to the passport , its characteristics and so-called fuel samples are taken even before refueling. Therefore, I cannot yet say that this is the cause of low-quality fuel, only a commission can determine it; they will definitely take samples at the site of the plane crash (residues of fuel will be found somewhere in any case). They will be able to find out the quality of the fuel, the condition of the systems, and the readiness of the crew. Because in any case, if there was low-quality fuel, it would have been impossible for three engines to fail at the same time, which could have led to such a catastrophe. The cause is explosive. There is a sound alarm and light alarm that warns the crew about a particular malfunction. This warning didn't work. Because the warning works for the crew, it provides information so that the crew competently and correctly implements the recommendations that they have already worked on on the ground. It’s sad that this is happening to our colleagues, namely from the Ministry of Defense, precisely to those who were heading there, to a hot spot, where they could support our military personnel before the New Year. This is a tragedy that we will all experience.
The search is now underway. In particular, there was information that 7 sea vessels were searching for the plane in the Black Sea, and a Mi-8 helicopter from Sochi airport joined the search. But there was information that the possible point where the plane crashed was in the mountains. Can you explain why there is such contradictory information coming out now?
- Any aircraft that takes off is monitored by dispatch services, locators and helps the crew correctly build the trajectory to enter the route. If they evade somewhere, the dispatcher says: you are evading. Because on this air route there are possibly several types of aircraft - in the opposite direction, in the same direction. And the dispatch service controls and is responsible, to some extent, for the safety of being on this route. But even if the dispatch service, the locators could not notice where the mark from this type of aircraft was located... Because each dispatcher has the type of aircraft and its call sign displayed on the screen. And when this tag disappears, a command is immediately given to the search service (in this case, these are helicopters that are now searching in the area where the tag may have disappeared). And the situation in the mountains may be such that they have dropped below the detection zone.
- What could be the reason for this behavior of the crew?
- It could have been the explosive nature of the plane itself, that is, an explosion could have occurred, and no one could report it - neither the correspondents who were there, nor the crew themselves. I can't imagine anything else here.
PS. Almost the entire choir of the Alexandrov ensemble died
The deceased director of the Department of Culture of the RF Ministry of Defense.
Elizaveta Glinka. She was also on board the crashed plane.
Dead journalists.
PS2. Regarding the rejoicing freaks from Ukraine and Russia, it can be noted in this regard that at such moments the difference between people and moral monsters is clearly demonstrated.
Alexey Pushkov: Those killed in the disaster are heroes of the war on terror
Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Commission on Information Policy Alexey Pushkov commented on the plane crash in Sochi.
“Those who died in the disaster flew to Syria to support our military. All of them are heroes of the war on terror. Their flight, their impulse was interrupted. Their spirit lives on,” he wrote.
Those killed in the disaster flew to Syria to support our military. All of them are heroes of the war on terror. Their flight, their impulse was interrupted. Their spirit lives on.
Let us remind you that while performing a scheduled flight from Sochi airfield after takeoff, the Tu-154 aircraft disappeared from radar radars. Later, the military department reported that fragments of the Tu-154 hull were discovered 1.5 kilometers from the Black Sea coast of Sochi at a depth of 50-70 meters. Among the passengers were journalists from Channel One, NTV, the Zvezda TV channel, musicians from the Alexandrov Ensemble, as well as Doctor Lisa.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared nationwide mourning in the country in connection with the crash of a Russian plane in the Black Sea.
He stated this during an emergency press conference.
“Tomorrow, nationwide mourning will be declared in Russia,” Putin said.
Let us remind you that during a scheduled flight from Sochi airfield after the Tu-154 took off, it disappeared from the radar. Later, the military department reported that fragments of the Tu-154 hull were discovered 1.5 kilometers from the Black Sea coast of Sochi at a depth of 50-70 meters. Among the passengers were journalists from Channel One, NTV, the Zvezda TV channel, musicians from the Alexandrov Ensemble, as well as Doctor Lisa.
Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, singer, Iosif Kobzon was supposed to fly on the Tu-154 plane of the Russian Ministry of Defense that crashed over the Black Sea to Syria. TASS reported this on December 25 with reference to the People's Artist.
“On the 14th we had a concert with them in the Hall of Columns, and Valery Khalilov (director of the Alexandrov Ensemble - approx.) asked me to fly with them, but I said that I have a medical visa and I have to fly for treatment, especially since that I visited Syria with them and Khalilov once. So I said, next time sometime. But see how it turned out next time"
Kobzon said.
He assured that if he was offered, he would be ready to perform again for Russian military personnel in Syria.
“I am sincerely sorry, this is just shocking news for me. This is a great tragedy for culture, for the army audience. They were flying on a combat mission."
Russian TV channel published the first video of the wreckage of a crashed Tu-154
The Russian TV channel Life showed the first footage from the crash site of a Russian Ministry of Defense plane, which fell into the Black Sea. The sent footage shows the wreckage of the Tu-154 military aircraft in the water.
The media published a video of the rescue operation in the area where the Tu-154 crashed
The first video of the rescue operation in the area of the crash of the Ministry of Defense Tu-154 plane has appeared.
Let us remind you that during a scheduled flight from Adler airfield after the Tu-154 took off, it disappeared from the radar. Later, the military department reported that fragments of the Tu-154 hull were discovered 1.5 kilometers from the Black Sea coast of Sochi at a depth of 50-70 meters. Among the passengers were journalists from Channel One, NTV, the Zvezda TV channel and 68 musicians from the Alexandrov Ensemble, as well as Doctor Lisa.
Doctor Lisa
The list of passengers published by the Ministry of Defense includes the director of the international organization “Fair Aid” Elizaveta Glinka (also known as Doctor Lisa). According to an Interfax source, Glinka flew on board this plane from Moscow to Sochi, but was not heading to Syria.
The foundation's statement notes that Glinka actually took off on this flight: she accompanied a humanitarian cargo for the Tishrin hospital in Latakia. “The IGO “Fair Help” does not have any information in connection with the disaster,” it says.
Doctor Lisa's husband, lawyer Gleb Glinka, told Snob that his wife was on board at the time of the crash. There is no other confirmation of this information.
The website of the Human Rights Council under the President, of which Glinka was a member, published a statement by its head, Mikhail Fedotov, in which he confirmed that Doctor Lisa was supposed to take medications to a hospital in Latakia.
“Dr. Lisa was everyone's favorite. And there was a reason: for many years, she provided palliative medical care almost every day, fed the homeless, clothed them, and gave them shelter. It was she who took sick and wounded children from Donbass under bullets so that they could get help in the best hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was she who organized a shelter for children with amputated limbs, where they undergo rehabilitation after hospital,” the statement said.
What did Doctor Lisa do?
Elizaveta Glinka gained all-Russian fame after she organized a collection of aid for the victims during major forest fires in the European part of Russia. The foundation provided humanitarian aid and equipment to fire victims and volunteer firefighters. In 2012, the Doctor Lisa Foundation organized a collection of humanitarian aid for flood victims in Krymsk (Krasnodar Territory). Together with TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak, Elizaveta Glinka organized a charity auction, which raised more than 16 million rubles for flood victims.
Humanitarian assistance during military conflicts
After the outbreak of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, Glinka took part in providing assistance to people living in eastern Ukraine. She repeatedly traveled to Donbass during hostilities and brought from there to Moscow children in need of treatment, and also donated medicine and humanitarian aid. In total, since March 2014, Doctor Lisa has visited Donbass almost 20 times.
During the war in Syria, Glinka traveled to the country on humanitarian missions - she was involved in the delivery and distribution of medicines, and organizing medical care for the civilian population.
Disaster investigation
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Vladimir Putin was promptly informed about the incident. The President, according to Peskov, is in constant contact with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who held a video conference with the leadership of the Armed Forces to organize search and rescue operations. The Ministry of Defense commission to investigate the plane crash flew to Adler early in the morning.
The President instructed Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to form a state commission to investigate the Tu-154 crash. The commission was headed by Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. December 26 has been declared a day of mourning.
A criminal case under the article “Violation of flight rules or preparation for them” (Article 351 of the Criminal Code) was opened by the Investigative Committee. As the official representative of the department, Svetlana Petrenko, told RBC, a group of employees from the central office of the Investigative Committee, who have extensive experience in investigating aviation accidents, were sent to Sochi. According to the head of the press service of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, Natalia Zemskova, a joint group of employees of the supervisory agency and the Ministry of Defense also flew to Sochi.
Emergency services discovered an oil slick 6-8 km from the coast in the Black Sea. The wreckage of the plane was found at a depth of 50-70 m, one and a half kilometers from the coast. Personal belongings of passengers are found 12-14 km from the coast; the first body was found 6 km from the coast.
The head of the monitoring service of the central joint All-Russian Water Rescue Society, Vladimir Gritsikhin, believes that the wreckage of the Tu-154, under favorable conditions, can be lifted from the bottom in a week. “The depth of 50-70 m is not great; it is quite possible to carefully lift large fragments with soft pontoons. The depth is such that it is unlikely that anyone will be saved, but it is possible to recover all the fragments of the plane. I think that everything can be extracted in a week if the services work in time. The Ministry of Emergency Situations has good specialists, if they call, we will get involved,” he told TASS.
This is the fifth plane crash involving a Tu-154 in the last ten years.
On January 1, 2011, a Tu-154 B-2 aircraft flying from Surgut to Moscow caught fire on the runway. 134 passengers and crew members were evacuated, three people were killed and about 40 were injured. The plane was completely burned out.
On April 10, 2010, the Tu-154 of the President of Poland, flying from Warsaw to Smolensk, crashed while landing at the Severny military airfield in the Smolensk region. 89 passengers and eight crew members, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, were killed.
On July 15, 2009, a Tu-154 crashed in Iran while flying from Tehran to Yerevan. There were 153 people on board the plane plus 15 crew members; the passengers included mainly citizens of Armenia, as well as Iran and Georgia. They all died.
On August 22, 2006, a Tu-154M flying from Anapa to St. Petersburg lost control and fell into a flat tailspin. The plane crashed near the village of Sukhaya Balka near Donetsk. 160 passengers died, including 49 children and ten crew members.
Versions of what happened
The official reasons for the plane crash have not yet been announced. Roshydrometcenter notes that weather conditions in the area of the crash on the morning of December 25 were normal and easy for piloting the aircraft. An Interfax source in the emergency services stated that one of the versions of the plane crash is that a bird got into the Tu-154 engine (near Sochi there is a station for migratory birds and an ornithological park). In addition, according to the source, versions of a technical malfunction of the Tu-154 and the possible refueling of the aircraft with low-quality fuel are being considered. According to a RIA Novosti source, the cause of the crash could have been a crew error.
“If a bird had been hit, the crew would have had the opportunity to report to the ground. After takeoff, the crew gained a sufficient altitude; birds don’t fly at that altitude,” flight safety specialist Alexander Romanov emphasized in a conversation with RBC, pointing out that he considers a terrorist attack to be one of the most likely versions of what happened.
Fontanka in the Ministry of Defense notes that the FSB has joined the investigation. Special service officers are checking everyone who might have approached the ship at the Chkalovsky military airport and in Adler. Security forces are working on a version of a terrorist attack. This information is confirmed by RBC’s interlocutor in the FSB. According to him, we are talking about a standard check that is carried out in such cases. The FSB public relations center was officially unable to either confirm or deny information about a possible terrorist attack.
“If there was an instant loss of communication with the crew, then it was most likely an explosion of the plane or a collision in the air with some object,” Yuri Sytnikov, a member of the Presidential Commission for the Development of General Aviation, told RBC.
“The plane was landing for refueling, in this case many technical services approached the plane, so people had the opportunity to put an explosive device in the compartments,” Romanov is sure.
According to Honored Test Pilot Hero of Russia Yuri Vashchuk, equipment failure is unlikely. He believes that an incident on board the plane could have led to the disaster.
A Kommersant correspondent in the Krasnodar region reports that at the time of the crash, none of the local residents heard the explosion or saw the flash.
Interfax's source in law enforcement agencies excludes the possibility of a terrorist attack. “Apparently, when the aircraft collided with the water surface, a water hammer occurred, which resulted in a large scattering of debris,” the agency’s source said.
“This happened after takeoff, when the landing gear and flaps are retracted. There are a lot of technical things that can happen here. As a result, the plane may simply roll over due to its low speed,” noted Honored Test Pilot of the USSR Viktor Zabolotsky in a conversation with RBC.
“For three engines to fail at once, something supernatural must happen. The failure of even one engine is a critical situation, but I don’t think it could lead to a disaster. Something happened on board, to which the pilots did not have time to react. This, for example, happened with the crash of a passenger plane over Egypt. The plane depressurized at lightning speed, and it lost control,” Vashchuk told RBC.
The president of the Association of Veterans of the Alpha anti-terrorism unit, Sergei Goncharov, told RBC that a version of a terrorist attack may exist, but not as a priority. “This is a Ministry of Defense aircraft, it is maintained at a high level by trusted people. All the people who knew each other were on the plane; there were no strangers. The plane did not fly over the sea for so long, and if there had been an explosion, one of the eyewitnesses would have heard it,” Goncharov noted.
There were no complaints about the plane
The crashed Tu-154 was produced more than 30 years ago, but “there were no complaints about its technical condition,” an Interfax source in the emergency services told Interfax. Before departure, the plane was in good working order; in general, the Tu-154 was operated “in a gentle manner.”
The Ministry of Defense said that the last repair of the airliner took place in December 2014, RIA Novosti reports. The crashed aircraft was piloted by first class pilot Roman Volkov, who had flown more than 3,000 hours.
The Tu-154 that crashed near Sochi underwent three major repairs during its operation, the press service of the Russian Machines corporation told TASS. “The Tu-154 aircraft number 85572 was produced on March 29, 1983 at the Kuibyshev aircraft plant (now the Aviakor aircraft plant). The last, third overhaul of the aircraft took place at Aviakor in December 2014. Since the completion of this overhaul, Aviakor has not received any requests from the operator for scheduled periodic maintenance of the aircraft or extension of resources. Accordingly, Aviakor did not provide maintenance for this aircraft,” the company said in a statement.
After the plane crash, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that the decision to decommission Tu-154 aircraft “would be premature.” “The service life of this aircraft today is 40 years, and if we take foreign analogues, then some aircraft have a service life of up to 60 years, so in aviation there are completely different principles for assigning a resource, the question of operating time before the cycle,” Manturov noted.
Since the early 2000s, the Tu-154 has been decommissioned almost everywhere.
S7 Airlines was the first to announce the withdrawal of Soviet-made aircraft - Tu-154 and Il-86 - from its fleets. In November 2009, St. Petersburg-based Rossiya Airlines stopped flying the Tu-154. The carrier replaced these aircraft with Boeing 737, but later opted for the A320 family. Aeroflot announced its plans in 2008 and completed the process in early 2010. The main reasons for the removal of the Tu-154 from fleets are the low fuel efficiency of the aircraft, as well as the high accident rate.
In January 2014, only 80 Tu-154 aircraft remained in service in the world. As of July 2016, the only commercial operator of Tu-154 aircraft in Russia was ALROSA Airlines with two aircraft.
The last aircraft of the family with serial number 998 was released on February 19, 2013 and transferred to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“Erroneous actions of the crew” are named as 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: “Based on the results of the investigation, it was established that the cause of the incident could have been 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 the report of the head of the Aviation Safety Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, on the results of the work of the “commission for investigating the aviation accident” were leaked onto the Internet. The document is very similar to the real one. It is dated May 4, 2017 and has the reference 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 special purpose airbase of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS). At the same time, the last minutes are second by second. Key takeaways from the document: “The cause of the crash of the Tu-154 B-2 aircraft was a violation of 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, during the climb, went into descent and collided with the water surface.” .
The document emphasizes that the aircraft commander, Major Roman Volkov “began to experience difficulties in determining his location on the airfield, associated with his idea of the upcoming take-off course”, not understanding which of the two runways of the Sochi airport would take off from.
At 5 hours 24 minutes 36 seconds the crew began takeoff with a heading of 238°. But already in the seventh second of take-off, the aircraft commander (PIC) “emotionally began to ask the crew about the take-off course.” Moreover, with the use of “obscene language,” which led to “to the PIC’s failure to control take-off ground parameters, to the distraction of crew members from performing their functional duties”.
As soon as he took off from the ground, setting the plane to a pitch of 15°, Major Volkov turned the steering wheel away from himself, slowing down the climb. And already at the 53rd second of the flight, when the plane had gained only 157 meters of altitude, the PIC ordered the flaps to be removed, 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 tilt the steering wheel away from himself. Which led to the fact that at an altitude of 231 meters the plane switched to descent mode, losing altitude at a speed of 6-8 m/s. The siren sounded and the red display flashed in the cockpit. But none of the crew paid attention to this.
At the 70th second of the flight, when the Tu-154 was only 90 meters from the surface of the water, the PIC abruptly turned the aircraft, which was turning 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 flight, the Tu-154, at a speed of 540 km/h and a left roll of about 50, touched 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 “sustainable skills” in piloting in difficult situations.
Experienced military pilots, whom we asked to comment on the commission’s conclusions about the causes of the Sochi disaster and the document distributed 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 were many inconsistencies in both the official report and the “document.”
Our experts noticed that at the Sochi airport the planes taxi to the start behind the escort vehicle. In addition, the airport is equipped with illuminated taxiway and runway number signs. It is almost impossible to get lost at Sochi airport. If Major Volkov is already “lost” on the ground, a take-off ban should immediately follow.
It is impossible to explain what happened after takeoff:
“Unless there has been collective insanity,” said one of our experts. “The actions of both the captain and crew are absolutely inadequate. The actions of the rudders (especially the rudder - from the pedals) after takeoff cannot be explained normally. The flight speed indicated in the document allows the plane to stay in the air, but a normal, trained, tested and approved pilot for this type of flight could not allow such actions with the rudders.
The actual withdrawal of the co-pilot and navigator also defies explanation:
— The crew sees that the PIC is making one fatal mistake after another, and does nothing. This is impossible in military transport aviation.
“We can assume that KPP-1 (the flight control instrument is the main instrument of any aircraft) failed,” another of our interlocutors suggested. — The “document” says about its direct indication, they say, it’s difficult. Yes, it's difficult. During retraining, on the simulator. And Volkov was an experienced pilot. In addition, KPP-1 has a backup attitude indicator AGR-72.
Our experts noticed that the “document” says that the landing gear was removed, but in all the photographs of the collected debris of the crashed Tu-154, the landing gear is in the extended position.
One of our experts, a military transport aviation veteran with more than 10 thousand flight hours, of which about 4 thousand as a Tu-154 crew commander, continues to adhere to the version that Novaya published back in March. Our interlocutor suggests that the full-time commander of the Tu-154 crew, Major Roman Volkov, acted as a co-pilot during takeoff, although he was in his seat, and the pilot who took off was not only not trained and not authorized to fly this type of aircraft, but also not included in the flight mission, 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 plane there was indeed a senior instructor-pilot of military unit 42829, a lieutenant colonel. And he flew precisely on the An-72.
The “document”, positioned as the report of Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, is very similar to the real one, but our experts do not rule out that it is a fake, made “on the basis” of the real 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 human, and began to jerk the control sticks absurdly, 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, drove off, and drove into a snowdrift. I backed out and crushed three cars nearby. Then he drove forward and crashed as hard as he could into a garbage container, which is where 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 fully operational. And it also doesn’t work to assume that the pilot began to take off in a dead state in front of other crew members, who were not suicides. And his voice on the recorder is absolutely sober.
However, the plane crashed, allegedly as a result of inexplicable actions by the crew. Or is there still an explanation - but the military leadership is desperately hiding it?
Cunning journalists discovered that the plane may have been heavily overloaded - hence all the consequences. Moreover, it was reloaded not at the Sochi airport in Adler, where it made an intermediate landing, but at the Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow, from where it took off.
The weight of excess cargo is more than 10 tons. However, at Chkalovsky, according to documents, kerosene was poured into this Tu-1542B-2 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 uncritical. The pilot probably noted that the takeoff took place with an effort - but there could be many reasons for this: wind, atmospheric pressure, air temperature.
But in Adler, where the plane sat down to refuel, this refueling played a fatal role. Fuel was added to the plane's tanks just below the cap - up to 35.6 tons, which is why its take-off weight became more than 10 tons more than permissible.
And if we accept this version with an overload, everything further receives 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. Then the rise occurred at a speed of 10 meters per second - instead of the usual 12–15 m/s.
And 2 seconds after lifting off the ground, the ship’s commander, 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 flatter path, take-off - on a steeper one. This is necessary to separate the planes taking off and landing in height - without which they would constantly be in danger of colliding in the air.
But an increase in the angle of climb led to a drop in speed - the aircraft was too heavy and refused to perform this maneuver. Then the pilot, probably already realizing that he had been given some kind of pig in the form of an extra load, gave the helm away from himself in order to stop the climb and thereby gain speed.
This happened at an altitude of 200 meters - and if the plane had remained at this level, even in violation of all the rules, the tragedy might not have happened. But Volkov piloted the car outside its permissible modes - something no one had done before him, since overloaded flights are strictly prohibited. And how the plane behaved under these conditions is difficult to imagine. In addition, it is possible that that extra cargo, being poorly secured, also disrupted the alignment of the aircraft during takeoff.
As a result, there was a slight panic in the cabin. Pilots began retracting the flaps ahead of schedule to reduce air resistance and thereby gain speed faster.
Here a dangerous approach to the water began, over which the take-off line was. The speed was already decent - 500 km/h, Volkov suddenly took the helm to raise 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 pilot’s actions, did not go up, but crashed into the water, scattering into fragments from the collision with it...
This scenario, based on recorder data, is absolutely consistent - and looks much more plausible than Shoigu’s delusional explanation that the pilot lost spatial orientation and began to descend instead of climbing.
During takeoff, no spatial orientation is required from the pilot at all. There are two main instruments in front of him: an altimeter and a speed indicator, he monitors their readings without being distracted by the views outside the window...
One might also ask: how did an overloaded plane manage to get off the runway? The answer is simple: there is a so-called screen effect, which significantly increases the lifting force of the wings at a height of up to 15 meters from the ground. By the way, the concept of ekranoplanes is based on it - half-planes, half-ships, flying within this 15-meter altitude with a much larger load 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 light drugs from Dr. Lisa, who was on this flight, and not an armored personnel carrier: a passenger plane does not have a wide port for 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 tiles... And why they decided to send it not by cargo, but by passenger flight - there could also be any reasons. From sloppiness for the failure to send combat cargo, which they decided to cover up gradually - to the most 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 haystack that cannot be hidden from view. But what exactly was there and what the true weight of it was - the pilots may not have known. This is an army, where the order of the highest rank is higher than all instructions; and most likely that order was accompanied by some other 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 is faced with a choice: either make decent money - or be left without work and without pants.
And the famous Russian, perhaps, at the same time, as they say, has not been canceled!
Who ordered? There can also be a big spread here: from some Lieutenant Colonel, Deputy for Armaments - to Colonel General. Depending on what kind of cargo was brought onto the plane.
In short, in Chkalovsky the plane is overloaded, but this overload is compensated for by incomplete refueling - and in Adler the tanks are already filled to capacity. Obviously, the calculation was to fly to Syrian Khmeimim (destination) and back on our own fuel. And the fact that the ship’s commander agreed in Adler to these 35.6 tons of fuel speaks in favor of the fact that he still did not know the real magnitude of the overload. If he were to fly alone, he could still indulge in the dashing daring that Chkalov himself initiated in our aviation. But behind Volkov there was his own crew of 7 people, and another 84 passengers, including artists from the Alexandrov ensemble!
The fact that the Ministry of Defense in this matter is not just obfuscating, but completely hiding the truth is evidenced by such facts.
1. Shoigu’s version of “a violation of the commander’s spatial orientation (situational awareness), which led to erroneous actions with the aircraft controls” does not stand up to criticism. For any pilot, not only with 4,000 hours of flight time, like Volkov, but also with ten times less, takeoff is the simplest action that does not require any special skills. For example, landing in difficult weather conditions is a completely different matter. The crash 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 no one has ever crashed while taking off on a working plane.
2. The decoding of the recorders probably already in the first days after the tragedy gave the full breakdown of what happened. An analogy with the same Polish case in 2010 is appropriate here: then, already on the 5th day, the IAC (Interstate Aviation Committee) issued a comprehensive version of the incident, which was fully confirmed later.
The IAC has been stubbornly silent about the Adler disaster for 6 months now. On his website, where detailed analyzes of all flight accidents are published, there are only two brief messages about the Adler incident that the investigation is ongoing. And another significant passage:
“The resources of research and expert institutions have been mobilized to investigate this disaster. Among them is the Interstate Aviation Committee, which has extensive experience in investigating accidents involving Tu-154 aircraft and the necessary resources to provide assistance in order to speed up the investigation. At the same time, the IAC informs that official comments on this investigation are provided exclusively by the Russian Ministry of Defense.”
That is, read, “we were silenced, sorry.”
3. Naturally, the Minister of Defense in the very first hours, if not minutes after the disaster, found out what cargo was on board the crashed Tu. And the incredibly long search for the wreckage of the plane, which added absolutely nothing to the information from the recorders, suggests that they were looking for that same secret cargo. And not at all the truth, which was clear to the military immediately.
Well, one more question: why do the military, led by their minister, hide this truth so much? And from whom - from Putin himself or from the people?
Well, I very much doubt that they would hide her from Putin: he doesn’t look like a person who can be fooled around his finger. This means 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 something into a passenger plane that should not have been on it. And then a shadow over our entire army, in which there are such idiots on horseback that they can ruin as much as the backbone of Alexandrov’s ensemble with their idiocy.
Or a colonel general, who is at the very top, is involved - and then there is also shame and disgrace: it turns out that after the change from Serdyukov to Shoigu, our army was not cleansed of general outrage?
And the very last thing. Remember, when we watched the film “Chapaev” as children, many of us shouted in the audience: “Chapay, run!” I just as spontaneously want today, when everything has practically become clear with the Adler tragedy, to shout to the pilot Volkov: “Don’t take this cargo! And if you take it, don’t fly higher than 200 meters above the sea!”
After all, if you look at the calm mind, which was not praised by the pilot caught in a storm of circumstances, he had a chance of salvation. Namely: when the plane is overloaded, do not even try to follow the instructions, which oblige you to rise to such and such a height at such and such a distance from the airfield. Violate it to hell, get a reprimand for it, even dismissal - but thereby save your life and the lives of others. That is, fly at a minimum altitude, burning off fuel, and when the weight of the plane drops in an hour and a half, begin lifting.
Another thing that comes to mind again is that if you decide to return to Adler, make a turn not by a standard turn with a side roll, which is what 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 increases greatly: a maneuver practically not used in modern aviation.
But even this chance, which could save this plane, in the future would still be illusory and deadly. Let’s say Volkov managed to get out of the disastrous situation set by the organizers of his flight. Then next time he or his colleague would be given not 10, but 15 extra tons of some “unspecified” cargo: after all, appetites grow as their satisfaction. And the tragedy would have happened anyway - not in this case, then in the next, if its causes remained the same.
God grant that as a result of this catastrophe, someone in our armed forces will give someone a hard time, putting an end to the outrages that led to the inevitable outcome.
Alexander Roslyakov
