Unofficial versions of the disaster are 154. “Unless it’s collective insanity. Mass media

To calculate the mass of the crashed aircraft, special techniques were used, including using data from a parametric recorder raised from the bottom of the Black Sea.

As a result, it became known that on December 24, when taking off from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow, where the Tu-1542B-2 began its route, the take-off weight of the aircraft, together with 24 tons of fuel filled into it, was 99.6 tons. This exceeded the standards, but the deviation was 1 .6 tons was insignificant. At this weight, the plane usually takes off without any problems.

In Adler, no one got out of the Tu-154B-2, with the exception of the commander and co-pilot. Nothing additional was loaded onto the plane, but the plane was refueled to the maximum. Its tanks contained 35.6 tons of fuel.

According to experts, as a result, the take-off weight of the airliner was about 110 tons instead of the standard 98 tons.

Early in the morning of December 25, the Tu-154B-2 took off along a large runway (there are two in Adler). After this, the plane had to turn first to the right, then to the left, and then head for Latakia, to the Khmeimim airbase. However, problems began during the rise.

The plane took off from the Adler runway only 37 seconds after the start of the takeoff run, at a speed of 320 km/h, with a pitch angle of 4 to 6 degrees. All these parameters indicate that the plane had difficulty getting into the air. The rate of climb was 10 m/s instead of the usual 12-15 m/s.

2 seconds after takeoff, the crew commander pulled the steering wheel towards himself, raising the nose of the plane so that the pitch was already 10-12 degrees. For the pilot of an overloaded aircraft, these were very rash actions. The crew began retracting the flaps at an altitude of 150 m and at a speed of 345 km/h. Taking into account the significant excess of the standard take-off weight of the Tu-154, these actions should have been carried out at a higher speed.

The stall speed of an aircraft (low flight speed when the angle of attack reaches a critical value and the aircraft becomes uncontrollable) increases with weight and also depends on the position of the flaps (the more they are extended, the lower it is). Therefore, at a certain weight, the speed may be such that before the flaps are retracted it will be greater than the stalling speed, and after that it will be less.

On the voice recorder recordings, you can hear how the co-pilot asked the commander for permission to remove the mechanization, but the latter did not answer. The co-pilot apparently took his silence as a sign of agreement. The lifting force naturally began to fall sharply from the moment the mechanization began to be harvested.

The plane managed to reach an altitude of 200 m when the commander again made an unexpected movement - he moved the control column away from himself and then suddenly took it over again, losing his already small altitude in the maneuver.

The flaps had not yet been completely retracted when a system in the Tu-154 cockpit activated, signaling a dangerous approach to the ground. The flap angle was 5-7 degrees when the commander moved the helm and rudder pedals to the left. As planned, he should have done the opposite. The plane fell into a bank of 30 degrees.

At this moment, a signal of a dangerous roll sounds, to which no one pays attention. "We're falling!" - the co-pilot shouts.

The commander moves the steering wheel and pedals in reverse side and takes over the helm. At this moment the angle of attack was 10 degrees. At the same time, the aircraft continued to accelerate to 500 km/h. The speed increased, the roll increased, and the lift decreased. The Tu-154 had practically no altitude reserve.

A few seconds later, already with a bank of 50 degrees and at a speed of 540 km/h, the plane touched the water with its left wing. In such conditions, a collision with a water surface is equivalent to a collision with a rock. The plane crashed and its debris was scattered over a large area.

In total, the last flight of the Tu-154 lasted only 74 seconds.

Until the moment it hit the water, the plane was fully operational. The weather conditions at the Adler airfield at the time of takeoff were favorable: ambient temperature - 5 degrees above zero, humidity - 76%, pressure - 763 mm Hg. Art., side wind - 5 m/s. No dangerous weather conditions were observed.

It also turned out that the deceased crew, together with an experienced commander, took off from the same runway in Adler just two months before the disaster - on October 1, 2016.

Then the takeoff from the runway was made at a speed of 310 km/h. With a rate of climb of 12-15 m/s, the crew began to climb. At an altitude of 450 m, a turn to the right was carried out with a right bank of 20 degrees, then the plane made a turn to the left, and only then, at an altitude of 450 m, within 13-14 seconds the flaps, which had previously been in the take-off position of 28 degrees, were retracted.

The actions of the experienced crew and the behavior of the serviceable aircraft during its next takeoff in Adler can only be explained by the fact that the Tu-154 commander did not know either the nature or the exact weight of the cargo on board, and therefore, the overload of his aircraft. That’s why fuel was poured into the plane in Adler. Probably, it would have been filled with less if they knew the exact weight of the property that was loaded onto the plane in Chkalovsky.

Perhaps something relatively small in volume, but significant in its specific gravity, was placed on the plane.

If the crew commander knew that the standard take-off weight was exceeded by more than 10 tons, he would either refuse the flight or take off taking into account the fact that the plane was overloaded.

The latest actions of the crew can be explained by the fact that the pilots realized that something was wrong with the plane, and tried to return to the departure airfield in order to land on another, smaller runway in Adler. However, there was not enough height.

Didn't play the best role dark time days: the crew had no visual idea that there was very little left to the water surface.

The Tu-154 plane, which crashed early in the morning of December 25, was carrying artists of the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble, who were supposed to give a New Year's concert at Russian base Khmeimim in Syria. They were accompanied by film crews from Channel One and Zvezda. A total of 92 people died - 84 passengers and 8 crew members.

The first two versions could well be justified by weather conditions. If not for one "but". The fact is that the meteorological situation in Sochi and its environs at the time the airliner took off at 5:20 Moscow time was quite acceptable. It is reported that visibility was within 10 kilometers, the east wind was no more than five meters per second and the pressure was 763 millimeters of mercury. Such conditions are unlikely to pose a threat to the aircraft.

There were no particular complaints about the condition of the airliner itself. Despite the fact that at the time of the crash the plane had been in service for 33 years, and its total flight time was 6,689 hours, it was repaired in 2014. Moreover, in September of this year the car underwent scheduled maintenance.

It is worth noting that this age and number of flight hours are quite normal for aircraft such as the Tu-154. For example, the American C-135 Stratolifter, which was put into operation more than 50 years ago, still feels quite good in the sky and is clearly not going to retire. However, the version of the technical problem is the main one on this moment.

The version of the human factor, that is, the pilot’s error that led to the disaster, is also considered. However, it is worth noting that the crashed plane was flown by a very experienced crew. First of all, this is first class pilot Roman Volkov, who has more than three thousand hours in the sky behind him. In addition, the navigator of the crashed airliner, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Petukhov, who in 2011 showed miracles of piloting when landing a “dancing plane” of the same model, was considered an undoubted professional in his field.

However, according to experts, the Tu-154 is a rather difficult machine to control and places very strict demands on its pilots. And three thousand hours of flight experience may not be enough for such a “capricious” aircraft. Therefore, the version of the human factor cannot be discarded.

Finally, the possibility of a terrorist attack cannot be ruled out, especially in the current extremely troubled political situation. Catastrophe Russian airliner in Sinai last year was a consequence of the activity of terrorist groups there, which declared a “holy war” on Russia over its intervention in the fight against radicals in Syria.

At the same time, earlier experts have repeatedly complained that the level of security in the military passenger transportation much lower than in the commercial sector. Eg, pre-flight inspection comes down to an empty formality in the form of checking the passenger list.

In such conditions, it can be assumed that an explosive device could well have been placed on board, for example, during loading. That is why, after the disaster, the special services began to check all those who could have access to the plane at Sochi airport.

However, among other things, a few hours after the crash of the airliner, an interesting video appeared on the Internet, which attracted the attention of many Internet users and social networks. It shows a recording from a CCTV camera at one of the Sochi airports. Somewhere in the fourth or fifth second, you can clearly see how a light suddenly flashes in the dark sky, after which it also quickly goes out. It is assumed that the recording was made this morning, and the flash on the recording is nothing more than the Tu-154 crash.

At the same time, experts argue that such an outbreak could only occur if there was an explosion on the plane or it was attacked by man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems from the ground. However, the authenticity of the film remains to be determined by competent specialists.

There was also a version that the Russian plane could have been hijacked. This version, in particular, was voiced by the Rossiya-1 TV channel, which refers to the point of view of the former shift manager of the center of the unified air traffic organization 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, which may indicate that there was a problem on board emergency situation: either an external influence on the car, or an encounter with an obstacle that was unlikely to be there,” the expert said.

In any case, specialists have a huge amount of hard and painstaking work ahead of them to find out the true reasons for what happened. At the moment, it is impossible to be more or less confident in any of the presented versions. One way or another, only a thorough investigation with the involvement of competent specialists will help shed the light of truth on what happened.

At the same time, it should be noted that investigators should carefully approach the version of a terrorist attack. The Russian plane crash in Sinai last year comes to mind again. At that time, during the initial investigation, the version of the terrorist attack was not the main one, but it was soon confirmed.

Let us remind you that the crash of the TU-154 plane occurred on Sunday morning over the Black Sea. The liner was heading for Syrian Latakia.

There were reports that there were 92 or 93 people on board the plane. Among them are the Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Ensemble, journalists from Russian TV channels, famous doctor Elizaveta Glinka and crew members. They all died.

The main versions of the crash of the military Tu-154 over the Black Sea are weather conditions, overload, terrorist attack, technical malfunction and human factor. Fontanka weighed the pros and cons.

screenshot of video from youtube.com

There were two crew members and 84 passengers on board the Tu-154 flying to Syria. More than 3 thousand people are involved in the search operation in the Black Sea. The Ministry of Defense commission is currently considering all possible versions of the Tu-154 plane crash, including a terrorist attack, a gross violation of the aircraft operating rules and a technical malfunction. According to a source in the Russian Aerospace Forces, it will be possible to talk about the priority of any of the versions only “after examining the wreckage of the aircraft and a forensic medical examination of the remains of the crew and passengers.”

According to official data from the Ministry of Defense, on December 25 there were 92 people on board, including eight crew members, eight military personnel, the head of the cultural department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Anton Gubankov with his assistant Oksana Badrutdinova, Doctor Lisa, who was transporting medicines to Syria, nine journalists and 64 artists of the Ensemble. . Alexandrova.

Fontanka’s source in the Ministry of Defense says that he would not blindly trust this list, since a reliable list of names may not exist: “The list was redone 10 times, the artists changed. And the General Staff constantly sends travel allowances to each flight before departure; the commander cannot refuse to take them. Only the commander had the exact flight sheet; drafts remained on the ground.”

The Investigative Committee on the tragedy in the Krasnodar region opened a criminal case under Article 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - violation of flight rules that resulted in serious consequences - however, reclassification is not excluded, as in the case of a civilian plane crash

Currently, at the Chkalovsky military airfield, investigators are seizing technical documentation of the deceased aircraft, fuel samples, and interviewing all persons involved in preparing the aircraft for takeoff. Questions were raised by the quantity and composition of military cargo in the Tu-154. In addition to the personal luggage of passengers, special mail was carried on board, as well as various military equipment.

Fontanka discussed with experts the arguments in favor or against the main versions.

Misalignment and overload

An additional factor leading to the disaster could have been an error when loading the plane, a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense told Fontanka. Firstly, the plane was heading to Syria to the Russian military and could be loaded to its maximum capacity. Secondly, the technicians could have made a mistake with the location of the cargo in the luggage compartment, which would have led to the aircraft being out of alignment.

During flight, the aircraft is kept in the air due to the lifting force generated due to the difference in pressure under and above the wing. Simply put, this can be represented as a swing, where the nose and tail section these are opposite ends, and the cross section of the wing is the fulcrum. Balance is maintained by speed and elevator trims. Unexpected or uncontrolled movement of the aircraft's load can cause a sudden change in alignment and loss of control. As a result, the plane will either begin to dive uncontrollably, or, conversely, will raise its nose until it reaches supercritical angles of attack of the wing, loss of lift and stall.

In the history of operation of the Tu-154 there has already been a crash, which occurred for this reason on takeoff in 1993. The civilian Tu-154B with tail number 85222 was operating a Transair Georgia flight from Tbilisi. Upon reaching takeoff speed the crew raised the nose landing gear, but the plane did not take off, but continued to roll along the runway. As a result, he drove onto the ground and crashed into the radio beacon building. The crash killed 24 people on board and four more people on the ground. The commission found that the technicians loaded the aircraft even without alignment charts for the Tu-154 aircraft.

According to the former commander of the military transport aviation regiment of the Russian Ministry of Defense, reserve colonel Leonid Kupleshnikov, the fact that the plane took off and gained altitude within a few minutes suggests that there were no problems with alignment and engines: “The loading is controlled by the flight engineer and the second the pilot personally, this is their bread. The most experienced people serve in Chkalovsky, they do not make such mistakes.” The honored pilot noted that for an aircraft of this type, 92 passengers are a very small number and there can be no talk of overload. “Weapons and ammunition are transported by transport aircraft, but only personnel, personal belongings and mail are carried in the Tu-154,” he said.

Weather conditions

According to the aviation weather report, at the time the Tu-154 took off at Adler airport, simple weather conditions were observed: wind 4 m/s, visibility without restrictions, cloud base 1000 meters. However, in Rostov air zone, which includes Adler Airport, there was a SIGMET (Significant Meteorological Information) - an aviation telegram about unfavorable weather conditions, that in the Crimea region there could be severe icing with freezing rain, which leads to the formation of ice on the surfaces of the aircraft.

If ice forms on the surface of the wing, it begins to lose its aerodynamic properties and, as a result, lift. At the same time, ice increases the weight of the aircraft. If we assume that the crashed Tu-154 was overloaded even before takeoff, this could become a critical factor. In addition, ice growing on the control surfaces blocks the control surfaces, and then the aircraft becomes uncontrollable. Ice also blocks the remote pitot tube, and the airspeed of the aircraft is measured by the movement of air inside it. If the pitot tube is faulty, the speedometer in the cockpit may show false readings. For example, a speed of zero kilometers per hour.

For example, the crew of an Aeroflot flight from Chelyabinsk to Moscow found themselves in such a situation in 1986. Tu-154B-2 with tail number 85327 fell into thunderclouds while descending over the capital. At an altitude of 3600 meters, while avoiding a thundercloud, the pilots saw the speed on the speedometer drop to zero. The flight took place in continuous clouds without visual references. To accelerate the plane, the pilots directed it towards the ground, but the speedometer needle continued to show zero. The plane came out of the clouds at an altitude of 1800 meters, the pilots got their bearings and began to fly it into the horizon. As a result of the incident, no one on board was injured. After landing, the commission found that the plane was descending at a vertical speed of 100 m/s and an airspeed of 813 km/h. During the dive recovery maneuver, the Tu-154 was subjected to overloads of 3.2 G, which significantly exceeds the maximum permissible. After this flight, the plane was written off and never took to the skies again.

Technical problem

According to several media sources, one of the priority commissions is considering the version technical malfunction aircraft. Fontanka's interlocutor, honored pilot Leonid Kupleshnikov, agrees with this.

“In the third minute of the flight, the crew is piloting manually, the autopilot is not yet turned on. The flaps are being retracted. On this type (Tu-154. – Note ed.) there were cases of non-synchronized flap retraction. In this case, a strong heeling moment occurs, and the plane can roll over; it is very difficult for the crew to counter such a malfunction,” says the reserve colonel.

In turn, the Ministry of Defense reported that the aircraft was produced in 1983. The last repairs were carried out on December 29, 2014, and scheduled maintenance was carried out in the fall of this year.

Terrorist attack

The version of a terrorist act, according to Fontanka sources, is also being considered, but is not the key one.

The loading of a military aircraft is personally controlled by the crew members. Requirements aviation security at a military airfield they are more lenient and do not provide for checking all cargo and passengers before boarding. “The flight engineer can selectively look at the cargo if something bothers him, but this is rare. And some cargo, such as mail, is prohibited from opening. Now the special services are checking all military units that sent their cargo on this plane,” said an officer serving at the Chkalovsky airfield.

After the disaster, FSB representatives checked all the personnel who prepared the plane for departure. According to the source, external surveillance cameras do not cover the entire territory of the military airfield, and in theory, an explosive device could have been brought on board before departure. Also, the bomb could have been among the medicines that Elizaveta Glinka (Dr. Lisa) was carrying. “It is unknown who collected this cargo and how; the Ministry of Defense had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Another expert in the field of combating terrorism, in a conversation with Fontanka, noted that Adler airport is many times safer than Chkalovsky: “Adler was equipped with everything necessary before the Olympics, there is continuous operational work with personnel there, but Chkalovsky is a military mess. The Ministry of Defense protects its air bases abroad and in dangerous regions, and in Moscow and St. Petersburg the level of security has remained virtually unchanged since Soviet times.”

According to the expert, the military will refute the version of the terrorist attack to the end, because it will cause colossal damage to the image of the military department. “If a terrorist attack is confirmed, the entire top of the Aerospace Forces will lose their positions,” he said.

According to him, the version of the terrorist attack will become a priority if traces of an explosion are found on the wreckage of the Tu-154. Then “they will go through the entire chain of connections between the crew, passengers and technicians, looking for the weak link.” He found the theory of a bomb among Dr. Glinka’s medications unlikely.

“A bomb in medicine is smart, it’s difficult to find, but then there would be an explosion upon departure from Moscow. No one will wait that long, they blow it up right away, remember Sinai,” he said.

Speaking about other opportunities to commit a terrorist act, the expert mentioned the use of MANPADS by the sabotage group. “At the take-off stage, it’s easy to shoot down a passenger plane with a MANPADS, even if you shoot in pursuit,” he said and suggested waiting for the examination of fragments of the airliner. “If there was a MANPADS, fragments of submunitions will be found,” the expert added, noting that this is an extremely unlikely version, but it also has a right to life.

Human factor

The concept of "human factors" is widespread in the results of aircraft accident investigations and can refer to failure at various stages of the preparation or execution of a flight. Human error is when aviation security allows a threat to enter the airport perimeter or the ground crew makes an error during aircraft maintenance.

“The human factor refers to a drunken crew or pilots who were unable to correctly assess the situation in time. Theoretically, any of them could have been involved in the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea. However, it is too early to draw any conclusions now,” say Fontanka experts, adding that we need to wait for the results of the investigation of the commission headed by the head of the Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov.

According to Leonid Kupleshnikov, crew errors can be discussed “only after deciphering the flight recorders,” the so-called “black boxes.” The head of the Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, has already reported that the Tu-154 recorders were not equipped with acoustic beacons, which means that to find them it will be necessary to “area survey of the bottom topography using side-scan sonars high resolution" According to experts, the search for recorders that are not equipped with radio beacons could take months and “will require an expensive underwater search expedition with an unclear result.”

Ivan Baranov,
Andrey Menshenin,
"Fontanka.ru"

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 wrote on Wednesday, citing the opinion of experts interviewed by the newspaper, failure to retract the flaps 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 in simulators. The 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, “with their actions they could only aggravate the emergency, but not yet critical situation that arose on board” - apparently starting Pull the steering wheels too actively and at the same time increase the operating speed of the engines. As a result, the plane 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 Tu-154 crash over the sea occurred when the pilots, as expected, removed the mechanization that increases the lift of the wing during takeoff. “At the same time, for still unclear reasons, the plane was flying with a large pitch angle,” said the agency’s source. “Apparently, it stalled from the flight level during a maneuver to the right. As a result, at the end of the turn, it collided with the surface of the water with a left roll at a speed of about 510 km/h". In addition, the plane was chattering from side to side." At a large positive pitch angle, the plane's nose turns up excessively and it 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 early Tuesday morning. “At 5 hours 42 minutes Moscow time, at a distance of 1600 meters from the coast at a depth of 17 meters, the main flight recorder was discovered by the Falcon remote-controlled vehicle. In the next few hours, the plane military transport aviation it will be delivered to the Central Research Institute Air Force to Lyubertsy, near Moscow, whose specialists will decipher it,” said a statement from the Ministry of Defense, which was quoted by TASS.

Divers from the Epron vessel, which is searching for the dead, recovered 15 bodies as of 9:00 am on Wednesday.

RIA Novosti quoted its source, who told the agency about the time frame for decoding flight data recorded by flight recorders: “From experience, I can report 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 disaster, there is reason to believe that everything was preserved.”

Data was also provided 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 discovered in addition to those raised earlier. “These are several parts of the fuselage, fragments of engines, various mechanisms and assemblies,” reports TASS.

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 resulted in loss of power and engine failure, piloting error, technical malfunction airplane."

On Tuesday morning, the possibility of foreign objects getting into the engine came to the fore. As Kommersant reported, a coast guard officer of the FSB border troops, who was on a boat in the waters of Sochi at the time of the plane crash, said that instead of gaining altitude, the plane quickly descended to the surface of the sea with its nose unnaturally raised up, after which it touched the water with its tail.

At the same time, the NSN agency quotes the words of the former deputy minister civil aviation 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, it’s night, you can’t see anything, 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 only saw a departing plane. It is impossible to see the configuration of a receding aircraft at night,” he said. NSN Smirnov.

“At present, no signs and facts indicating the possibility of committing a terrorist act or sabotage on board an aircraft have been received,” the Russian FSB Central Operations Center told the Interfax agency on Monday. They also noted that there is a video recorder that members of the investigation team are working with. In addition, eyewitnesses to the crash of the airliner have been identified.

Important evidence is the fragments of the plane already raised from the water and the bodies of those killed in the plane crash. No traces of explosives were found on them. Also, no damage characteristic of an explosion or missile hit is detected. Based on this, a source from the Interfax agency familiar with the situation concludes that “the version of the terrorist attack has not been 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 might not have time to file it. But the agency’s source 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 condition, they tried to escape, it was a matter of seconds. And it is clear that they had no time for that.” to give a 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 plane could not gain altitude 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 to the incident. “We are most likely talking about a possible breakdown of the units responsible for gaining altitude, or insufficient engine thrust. At the same time, the human factor cannot be ruled out, which could have contributed to the emergence of a critical situation,” he told the agency.

Poor quality fuel is unlikely to cause a plane crash. According to an Interfax source, others aircraft, refueled at Sochi airport at the same time as the crashed plane, completed their flights without incident.

He also noted: “At this stage, the version of a terrorist attack is practically excluded,” - it is refuted by available objective materials, including eyewitness testimony.

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 searched 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 plane would be refueled at Sochi airport.” It was also reported that at Adler airport the plane was taken under guard, only two border guards and a customs officer were allowed on board, and no food was served on board. Only the navigator left the plane to control the refueling, and it 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 aircraft was piloted by experienced first class pilot Roman Volkov. Manufactured in 1983, the Tu-154 was overhauled 2 years ago and underwent scheduled maintenance this fall.

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, who headed the government commission, explained the large scattering of debris from the Ministry of Defense Tu-154 aircraft (which some observers point to as a sign of a terrorist attack) big current in this district. President Vladimir Putin ordered the formation of 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 a terrorist attack is “completely excluded”: “The plane of the Ministry of Defense, air space Russia, there cannot be such a version here,” he told RIA Novosti. Ozerov suggested that the Tu-154 failed to achieve the required turning trajectory over the sea after takeoff.

At the same time, sources of the St. Petersburg publication Fontanka reported that the FSB is working out a version of the terrorist attack and is checking everyone who had access to the Tu-154 airliner.

The investigation into the criminal case of the crash of a Tu-154 plane 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. This was reported on Sunday by... O. Head of the Department of Interaction with the Media of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Svetlana Petrenko."On instructions from the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin, a criminal case was opened on the grounds of a crime under Article 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of flight rules that resulted in grave consequences"), regarding the crash of a Tu plane -154 in the Krasnodar Territory were transferred to the Central Office of the Investigative Committee of Russia to conduct 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 grounds of a crime under Art. 351 (violation of flight rules or preparation for them).

Tragedy

On Sunday morning, a Tu-154 plane of the Russian Ministry of Defense flying to Syria from Sochi airport fell into the water about 2 minutes after takeoff. There were 92 people on the plane, including eight crew members, two government employees, eight military personnel, almost in full force the Alexandrov ensemble choir, ballerinas, nine television journalists, as well as Elizaveta Glika, known as Doctor Lisa.

Part of the composition of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after. A. V. Alexandrova flew to Syria to the Khmeimim base to congratulate Russian military personnel on the New Year. His boss and artistic director, General Valery Khalilov, also flew with him.

Executive Director of the NGO "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 is located. Alexandrova, this Zemledelchesky lane, 20, building 1, to the building on st. Pyatnitskaya, 17/4 building 1, which houses the Elizaveta Glinka Fair Aid Foundation, as well as the Ostankino television center.

On the day of the crash, active search and rescue operations began, to which all the forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the South of Russia and reinforcements from Moscow were deployed. The rescue operation involved ships, helicopters and unmanned vehicles of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Fragments of the Tu-154 hull were discovered 1.5 kilometers from the coast at a depth of 50-70 meters. The bodies of the dead are also being discovered. According to the Ministry of Defense, as of mid-day on December 26, 45 ships and vessels (one and a half times more than the day before), 12 airplanes, and 10 helicopters are searching at the site of the Tu-154 crash. In the evening we managed to lift a large fragment of the fuselage.

In connection with the plane crash, the Russian Ministry of Defense organized hotline, phone: 8-800-100-1886. More than 3 thousand people are taking part in search and rescue operations in the Black Sea.

The President declared Monday a day of mourning for those killed in the Tu-154 crash.

Dead

Crew composition of Tu-154 85572:

1. Mr. Volkov R.V.

2. Mr. Rovensky A.S.

3. p/p-k Petukhov A.N.

4. Mr. Mamonov A.V.

5. art. Lt. Hairdressers V.N.

6. Mr. Tregubov V.A.

7. Art. Lieutenant Sushkov B.S.

8. Art. Lt Sukhanov A.O.

List of persons transported on the aircraft:

Military personnel:

1. g/l-t Khalilov V.M.

2. p-k Khasanov A.B.

3. p-k Vaganov A.I.

4. pk Ivanov A.Yu.

5. p/p-k Kolosovsky A.V.

6. Mr. Dolinsky A.I.

7. p-k Negrub A.N.

8. Mr. Abrosimov S.S.

Federal civil servants:

1. Gubankov A.N.

2. Badrutdinova O.T.

International public organization"Fair help":

1. Glinka E.P.

Facilities 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. Savelyev A.V.

33. Sokolovsky A.V.

34. Tarasenko A.N.

35. Trofimov A.S.

36. Uzlovsky A.A.

37. Khalimon B.JI.

38. Shtuko A.A.

39. Kryuchkov I.A.

40. Ermolin V.I.

41.Bykov S.JI.

42. Kolobrodov K.A.

43. Korzanov O.V.

44. Larionov I.F.

45. Lyashenko K.I.

46. ​​Mikhalin V.K.

47th senior school 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. Pyryeva 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. Suleymanov B.R.

64. Stolyar I.V.

Tragedy in the sky above 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” a space contaminated with evil was literally shattered. Scary and bitter.

This Black Sunday, December 25, 2016, became a test for final dehumanization - or for human safety. An adviser to the Ukrainian president offers to bring bottles of Hawthorn to the gates of the Russian Embassy. Belarus declares mourning. Domestic (!) journalists lament the fact that few media representatives died and declare that there is nothing to grieve about. In Donetsk they propose to name Elizaveta Glinka street, in Belgrade - a square, in Grozny - a children's clinical hospital.

A plane was flying to Syria with truly precious cargo. With talented, unique, inimitable people. “Condolences to everyone. An irreparable loss, because they were irreplaceable.", – with these words of the official speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova It's hard to disagree. But maybe these irreplaceable ones should be especially taken care of? Although, one might say: who knew...

Equipment failure or human factor?

Could bad things be the cause? weather? Unlikely. The board, 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. The weather report at the time of departure was wind 4 m/s, visibility without restrictions, cloud base 1000 meters. Human factor? Pilot error? But the plane was flown 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 Defense Ministry often flies from Chkalovsky. The plane was flown by a first class pilot Roman Volkov- a highly qualified aviator with 3,000 flight hours. In conversations with dispatchers, the pilots, according to all reports, did not show any concern. React to an emergency situation (perform emergency landing or at least send a signal to the ground) did not have time, this is true. Experts suggest that a tragic chain of accidents could have taken place: for example, equipment failure on takeoff.

There are also assumptions made about an overload of fuel (they took it with reserves “for Syria”), about a bird getting into the engine - there is an ornithological park not far from the airport. But it is unlikely that the birds were able to disable all three engines. Tu is a reliable machine, and there are cases when such aircraft landed even when all three engines failed. And even falling into a flock of birds does not explain the instant loss of communication and leaving the radar. And the Tu-154 control system has quadruple redundancy.

Wherever you throw it, there’s a wedge everywhere

If we assume that the death of the Tu-154 was the result of a terrorist attack (a week after the assassination of the ambassador in Turkey, against the backdrop of the final “speeches” of the administration Barack Obama and rumors about the supposedly announced George Soros“Day H” - December 25, when “everything will begin”), then the very idea of ​​​​sending a Russian military contingent to Syria becomes meaningless. After all, they planned to cut off oxygen to the “bearded” there, in the east - so that they would not be here.

A video of unknown 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 occurred precisely in those moments when the RA-85572 board lost contact with the ground.

Representatives of the emergency response headquarters say that approximately 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 is premature to talk about an emergency situation on board...

Looks too much like Egypt

Nobody could have known that the Tu-154 would head towards Sochi instead of Mozdok, which means they couldn’t have settled in a secluded place with MANPADS in time, some commentators argue. The most convenient disposition: to shoot “after” from a motor boat, others think. This unscheduled landing in Adler is significant in another respect: if there really was an explosive device on board the Tu-154, and indeed a timer was set to activate it, it is possible to calculate where “according to plan” the plane was supposed to explode . 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 loss of communication with the ground (before this, the pilots were completely calm and did not mention any flight difficulties), as well as the scattering of debris within a radius of 15 kilometers, are the main arguments in favor of the version of a terrorist attack. And yet - an alarming similarity with the plane crash that happened in the fall of 2015 over the Sinai. Then, as the investigation found out, the explosive device had been planted in advance in the luggage compartment. After the Egyptian disaster, the version about terrorist act haven't been announced 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 rule out that something could have been planted in the medicines that Doctor Lisa was carrying: “It is unknown who collected this cargo and how; the Ministry of Defense had nothing to do with it.”.

Officially, security circles currently deny the version of the terrorist attack. And this is understandable. If the version of a terrorist attack is confirmed, it will literally blow up the reputation of the Ministry of Defense. It was impossible to bring anything into Chkalovsky, a guarded military facility, security officials say. All passengers and their luggage were carefully checked. The refueling was unscheduled; no one could deliberately “meet” the plane there. No food was served on board. Outsiders were not allowed in; in general, only people with the appropriate form of clearance had the right to approach the military aircraft. In Adler, the plane was under guard; two border guards and a customs officer boarded; only the navigator went outside; No outsiders were involved in refueling - only regular personnel.

There are speculations online that, despite all the counterarguments, the terrorist attack option will probably become the most popular in the near future. And the real state of affairs will not matter here - this will be the only version that will allow us to relieve responsibility at least to some extent. How can you prevent a MANPADS from being fired from an inflatable boat?

Regarding the radius of debris scattering, the head of the Ministry of Transport Maxim Sokolova the answer is simple: "The current is big". Water hammer when colliding with a water surface, other commentators add. Such force that the bodies of the dead were torn into pieces...

Or maybe Tu is outdated?

The Tu-154B-2 aircraft that crashed into the Black Sea was produced 33 years ago. Experts say that if handled properly, this is not a long time for an aircraft of this class. In December 2014, the airliner underwent a major overhaul at its home plant in Samara, and in September of this year it underwent scheduled maintenance. The reserve of flight and calendar resources was sufficient. Similar aircraft in civil aviation are indeed already being written off, but military aircraft are used much less frequently and therefore serve longer.

Obviously, it is pointless to talk about the causes of the disaster now: it is necessary to wait for the inspection of the wreckage of the plane, fragments of destructive elements (if they are found), the results of a forensic 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. Finding them will require “area surveying of the bottom topography using high-resolution side-scan sonars” 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. Technical documentation, fuel samples are being confiscated, witnesses are being interviewed - everyone who was involved in preparing the Tu-154 flight, and military units from which cargo was previously sent on this plane are being checked. It is known that in addition to the personal belongings of the 84 passengers, there was military equipment and special mail on board.

According to Interfax, Joseph 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 Crimea.

Without interruption for an hour

The search operation is ongoing around the clock. Rescuers and divers from the State Central Airmobile Squad "Tsentrospas" and the Center for Special Risk Rescue Operations "Leader", who were sent to Krasnodar region The Ministry of Emergency Situations has not stopped working for two days. IL-76 delivered specialists with experience in working on great depths– with specialized diving equipment, equipment for deep-sea work, mobile pressure chambers and Falcon underwater guided vehicles. In addition, a task force from the Central Asia Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and Tsentrospas forces arrived in Adler: 45 people and 3 units of equipment. A group with a total number of personnel of more than 3 thousand people, 200 units of equipment, 30 sea ​​vessels, 7 aircraft, 12 helicopters and 20 unmanned aerial vehicles.

7 aviation helicopters of the Southern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia are in readiness. After large structures of the liner are discovered, which searchers believe are at depth, they will be examined by 48 divers.


During the day, search engines managed to examine more than 10 kilometers of the coastal zone; search sectors with an area of ​​240 square meters were checked from the air. km; YURPSO and GIMS boats examined 100 square meters. km. 5 portholes, a fragment of the casing, oxygen cylinders, seat parts, a landing gear wheel and a spare ladder have already been raised to the surface. Found bodies and fragments of bodies are delivered to the shore and handed over to representatives of the Ministry of Defense. Alas, there are no survivors.

Video of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia

With all understanding of the great mission that the musicians of the Alexandrov Choir, and Doctor Lisa, and everyone who was on board the Tu-154 flying to Latakia took on, perhaps it is worth asking the question about the need to mix PR and war. If you don’t go well with exciting events, let’s remember the recent surrender of Palmyra, especially painful after festive concert Valery Gergiev, and the voyage 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 morale of our military, but also to glorify the victories of our army at home “under the cameras” flying on the same side.

Is it possible to avoid the deaths of Russian civilians and military personnel, 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 best armies the world's employees blow themselves up in military camps and die from disease during redeployments. So in this case - regardless of the reasons for the plane crash, the death of outstanding passengers occurred due to our participation in the war. And if we saved Syria from collapse and the emergence of a new source 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 Afghanistan.

December 26 has been declared a day of national mourning in Russia. The editors of Our Version express 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, the Tu-154B-2 of the 223rd flight detachment of the Ministry of Defense, after refueling in Sochi, flew to Latakia and within a few minutes disappeared from the radar. There were 92 people on board the plane: 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 from the First TV Channel, NTV and Zvezda, as well as accompanying persons, 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 concert for the military from the Khmeimim airbase, Doctor Lisa accompanied a shipment of medicines and humanitarian aid for a hospital in Latakia.

As of the morning of December 26, 12 bodies of the dead were recovered from the water. The search operation in the area of ​​the plane crash continues.

 

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