The cause of the disaster was 154 over the Black Sea. Doomed flight. Causes of the disaster over the Black Sea. Who died: military, artists, journalists, Doctor Lisa

“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 takeoff, the aircraft commander (PIC) “emotionally began to ask the crew about the takeoff 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, planes taxi to the start behind an 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 “lost” already 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 cannot be explained:

— 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.

Experts from the Russian Ministry of Defense completed a full decryption of the black boxes and were able to name the final cause, which occurred on December 25, 2016 over the Black Sea. According to experts, this happened due to a combination of factors - the plane was overloaded and the co-pilot made a mistake while controlling the aircraft, writes L!FE.

Air Force

According to the source, investigators consider the notorious human factor to be a priority. According to experts, the problem with the flaps, which caused the plane to suddenly lose altitude, was directly related to the mistake of the co-pilot of the passenger plane, 33-year-old Alexander Rovensky.

“In the third minute of the flight, when the Tu-154 was at an altitude of 450 m above sea level, the sensors of the directional stability system were activated. As a result, the car began to sharply lose altitude due to problems with the flaps. As a result, the airliner went into an extreme angle of attack, the crew all I tried to turn the car around in order to reach the ground, but I didn’t have time to do this,” says a source familiar with the investigation into the causes of the plane crash in Sochi.

Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Experts are confident that the reason for the failure of the aircraft mechanism was a trivial one - when the plane took off, instead of the landing gear, it pulled the wrong lever and removed the flaps. This is the main version of the reasons for the tragedy in which the members of the Alexandrov ensemble, the legendary and 9 journalists from Russian television channels, who flew to Syrian Latakia to give a charity concert to the military from the Russian Federation, who are forced to serve in Syria on New Year, died.

The Ministry of Defense also adds that the situation was then aggravated by another factor - the overload of the aircraft. In the luggage compartment of the Tu-154 everything was filled to capacity. Therefore, the tail part of the airliner was pulled down.


Air Force

According to experts, it was impossible to save the car - there was not enough speed and height. The tail section was the first to touch the water, and then the Tu-154 hit the sea with its right wing at high speed and collapsed, which led to the death of everyone on board. The source emphasizes that the emergency situation came as a complete surprise to the crew: in the first seconds, the plane’s commander, 35-year-old Major Roman Volkov, and co-pilot Alexander Rovensky were confused, but quickly pulled themselves together and tried to save the plane until the last seconds.

At the same time, experts from the Russian Ministry of Defense consider the announced cause of the Tu-154 crash to be premature. Experts emphasize that a colossal amount of work remains to collect and lay out the wreckage of the liner in order to talk about the exact causes of the tragedy.

Let us remind you that the plane crash in Sochi occurred on December 25, 2016. A Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed over the Black Sea at 5:40 am Moscow time, 1.7 km from the coast of Sochi. The plane, which carried 92 people, was flying to Syrian Khmeimim from the Chkalovsky airfield, and in Sochi it was just refueling. A few minutes after lifting off from the runway, the plane disappeared from radar screens.

A Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed in the Black Sea. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Sunday morning that the mark of the Tu-154 aircraft, which was performing a scheduled flight from Adler airfield, disappeared from radars. The Ministry of Defense clarified that fragments of the Tu-154 hull were found 1.5 kilometers from the Black Sea coast of Sochi at a depth of 50-70 meters.

In total, there were 92 people on board, including 64 artists of the Alexandrov Ensemble, almost the entire choir and some of the orchestra’s musicians - accordion and balalaika players.

UPDATE 19:50

The head of the Russian Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, who heads the government commission to investigate the Tu-154 crash of the Ministry of Defense, said that equipment on board the plane apparently malfunctioned. RIA Novosti reported this on Thursday, December 29.

The plane was almost completely destroyed when it hit the water surface and subsequently the bottom of the Black Sea, which, of course, complicated the search operation,” he added. Sokolov also called for refraining from disseminating any versions of the Tu-154 crash until the final announcement of the results of the commission’s work.

UPDATE 3:20 p.m.

Experts from the interdepartmental commission to investigate the reasons for the fall of the Tu-154 of the Ministry of Defense into the Black Sea are studying fragments of the plane that rescuers brought to the surface. According to Life, experts were puzzled by the damage to the engine turbine blades. On the one hand, this detail clearly rejects the version of a bird hitting the turbine, on the other hand, it indicates that the engine may have been faulty before the flight. Now the damaged turbine blades will be studied in detail by experts, after which they will give a definite answer as to whether they were deformed when they hit the water or appeared before the crash. In addition, after a preliminary study of the right wing of the Tu-154 discovered at sea, experts determined that the flap on one wing was released, but it is not yet clear what command it was executing at that time—to take off or descend.

In one of the special hangars in Sochi, the laying out of Tu-154 parts has already begun, which are daily lifted from the bottom of the Black Sea by divers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Defense. The first engine, along with the landing gear, was found on the morning of December 27, and by the evening the second one was also raised. The second one appeared to have almost no deformation, rescuers said.

In theory, now these “puzzles” should create a model of the aircraft that is as close as possible to the original appearance. The experts of the interdepartmental commission already have large fragments in their hands: the tail section of the Tu-154 with engines, the central part of the fuselage, the right wing. These details are now being carefully studied to understand the trajectory and angle of the plane's entry into the water, as well as the circumstances that may have led to its crash.

UPDATE 1:20 p.m.

The Chkalov air base, whose fleet included the Tu-154 that crashed in Sochi, will be reorganized next year, and the Special Purpose Aviation Division (ADON) will be re-created on its base. The Izvestia newspaper writes about this.

As the newspaper notes, the recreated division will be based at the Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow, and its formation will begin early next year. This information was officially confirmed to Izvestia by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Before its disbandment in 2010, planes and helicopters of the special purpose division transported and, if necessary, evacuated Soviet and Russian military personnel and civilian specialists from hot spots around the planet, the publication notes.

UPDATE 12:00

The cause of the crash of the Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense, which fell into the Black Sea near Sochi on the morning of December 25, has been preliminarily established: it was a stall at an insufficient speed to climb due to misalignment of the flaps. Interfax reported this on the evening of December 27, citing a source at the operational headquarters at the emergency site.

According to preliminary data, the flaps on board operated out of coordination, as a result of their failure, the lifting force was lost, the speed was not sufficient to gain altitude, and the plane crashed, the agency’s source said.

According to him, the reason why the flaps could have worked abnormally has not been established. There is no official confirmation of this information.

The flap hypothesis appeared immediately after the crash. Thus, Kommersant wrote that a critical malfunction could have led to their mismatch.

The uniform extension of the flaps on the Tu-154 is monitored by a special automatic system SPZ-1A, which, in case of mismatch, turns off their hydraulic drive, asking the pilot to switch to manual control of the flaps. However, in the event of, for example, a break in the flap drive, the SPZ-1A is powerless, the newspaper noted.

The day before, the Russian FSB called the main working versions of the Tu-154 crash “the entry of foreign objects into the engine, low-quality fuel, which resulted in loss of power and engine failure, piloting error and technical malfunction of the aircraft.”

UPDATE 09:30

Experts have deciphered the voice flight recorder of the crashed Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The film recording the crew's negotiations and conversations inside the cabin was not damaged.

The conversation is interrupted by one of the pilots exclaiming: “Flaps, bitch!” And then there is a cry: “Commander, we are falling!” said a source close to the investigation.

According to him, the second recorder, a parametric one, has not yet been delivered to the Central Research Institute of the Air Force and it is not known when decoding will begin.

UPDATE 2:40 p.m.

Divers discovered one of the flight recorders at the crash site of a Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense in the Black Sea. This was reported to TASS by law enforcement agencies.

During search operations, one black box was discovered under the cockpit of the aircraft. It will be removed from the water in the near future, the source said.

The source also said that the bodies of three dead and a large number of remains were found in the area of ​​the crash.

UPDATE 21:20

A mourning event was held in the regional capital for the victims who died as a result of the crash of a Ministry of Defense plane in the Black Sea. It was attended by deputies of the Legislative Duma and City Duma, military personnel and concerned citizens.

The event took place near the monument to the Su-7B attack aircraft in the area of ​​the Portovaya stop. The laying took place in the dark specifically so that after the end of the working day people could pay tribute to and memory of the dead. This is what made it possible for almost a hundred people to come to the rally.

This is a terrible tragedy. Every life is important in absolutely any situation, and now all of Russia has united. The population of a large country mourns and expresses condolences to the relatives of the crew. It’s nice that so many people were able to find the time to come today to say goodbye to the dead. If someone did not have time to join us, then he can come to honor the people later. The main thing is desire, said Ruslan Verkhoturov, co-organizer.

Representatives of the city and regional authorities took turns taking the floor. They talked about personal memories of meeting Elizaveta Glinka, who headed the charitable foundation, and Valery Khalilov, the creator of the Amur Waves military band festival. This was followed by a minute of silence and the laying of flowers began.

It is very sad that people die in peacetime. Investigations will now take place and work will be done to prevent this from happening in the future. This shouldn’t happen and I hope it won’t happen again,” said Alisa Selezneva, a student.

UPDATE 19:20

The terrorist attack is not the main version of the Tu-154 crash. Experts also do not see the need for additional security measures at Russian airports.

— As far as we know, the main versions do not include the version of a terrorist attack. We proceed from the fact that the causes of the disaster could have been either technical condition or pilot errors. But I would like to emphasize that this is established by the investigation, as well as by a special technical commission of the Ministry of Defense,” said the Russian Minister of Transport.

UPDATE 4:15 p.m.

Experts analyzed objective monitoring data from radar equipment to more accurately determine the flight path of the crashed Tu-154. They found out that the plane crashed six kilometers from the coast, reports the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Currently, 39 ships and boats, 135 divers and seven deep-sea vehicles are conducting search operations. Military personnel are also searching the shore in search of bodies of the dead, aircraft debris and personal belongings of passengers. In total, about 3.5 thousand people are involved in the operation.

UPDATE 16:06

The artist’s Khabarovsk colleagues paid tribute to the memory of the deceased Valery Khalilov.

Khabarovsk residents bring flowers to Glory Square. Valery Khalilov’s colleagues brought a music stand to Glory Square, on which was a photograph of the conductor with a mourning ribbon. Musicians and caring Khabarovsk residents laid flowers and lit candles to the music stand.

UPDATE 15:30

Among those flying was 46-year-old Lieutenant Colonel of the Eastern Military District Alexander Vaganov. He was on board a TU-154 that took off from Sochi early Sunday morning.

UPDATE 3:20 p.m.

The first plane with 10 bodies of those killed in the Tu-154 crash took off for Moscow, the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Russian Ministry of Defense told Interfax.

The Il-76 military transport aircraft with 10 bodies and 86 fragments found at the scene of the crash flew to Moscow, where their identification and genetic examination will be carried out by specialists of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination and 111 Center for Forensic Examination of the Russian Ministry of Defense, said a department employee .

UPDATES 1:40 p.m.

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, decided to perpetuate the memory of the head of the Fair Aid Foundation, Elizaveta Glinka, who died in the Tu-154 plane crash over the Black Sea, and to name the Republican Children's Clinical Hospital in Grozny after her.

UPDATE 12:30 p.m.

It is still unknown who will oversee Amur Waves after the death of Valery Khalilov.

The festival is still very far away. We are shocked by the tragedy and, of course, have not had time to discuss anything yet. It is still difficult to say who will oversee the festival after the death of Valery Mikhailovich. We will resolve this issue. An incredible loss for the cultural life of the entire country, the directorate of the Amur Waves festival told a DVhab correspondent.

UPDATE 12:10 p.m.

The match "Amur" "Admiral" will begin in Vladivostok with a minute of silence in memory of those killed in the plane crash.

UPDATE 10:40

The compensation limits for the Tu-154 crash for the military will be about 7.8 million rubles, for civilians - 3 million rubles, said the president of the All-Russian Union of Insurers, Igor Yurgens. He explained that everyone on board the plane was entitled to payments of 2 million rubles under the Air Code.

In addition to this payment, the amount of compensation for the military is as follows:
For compulsory insurance of military personnel (insurance is carried out in accordance with Law No. 52-FZ), a payment in the event of death is provided in the amount of 2.337 million rubles. In addition, the insurer is authorized to pay lump sum benefits in the event of the death of a serviceman or his recognition as unfit for military service. The size of the death benefit for a military personnel is 3.506 million rubles. Subsequently, they are compensated to the insurer from the budget.

UPDATE 10:20

The country's chief military conductor, Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, was among the passengers of the crashed Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which crashed on December 25 in the Black Sea. Valery Khalilov was the initiator of the International Festival of Military Bands “Amur Waves” in the Khabarovsk Territory, which was created with his direct support and participation. Since 2012, Valery Khalilov has come to Khabarovsk every year to participate in the festival.

From 2002 to 2016, Valery Khalilov was the head of the military orchestra service of the Russian Federation, the chief military conductor. In this position, he repeatedly acted as conductor of a combined military orchestra that took part in parades dedicated to Victory Day on Red Square.

In April 2016, Khalilov was appointed to the position of head of the ensemble - artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A. V. Alexandrov.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared December 26 a national day of mourning for the citizens of the Russian Federation who died on Sunday in the plane crash of a Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense, flying to Syria at the Khmeimim airbase of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

UPDATE 19:20

Search and rescue work at the site of the aircraft crash in the Black Sea near Sochi continues. Russian law enforcement agencies, as part of a criminal case, are investigating the causes and circumstances of the crash of the airliner, which resulted in the death of 92 people.

Plane crash in which the ensemble of the ensemble named after. Alexandrova is a tragedy of enormous proportions, because Russia has lost the best, Russian singer Lev Leshchenko said during a special edition of the Baltkom-online program on the Latvian radio station Baltkom.

UPDATE 5:50 p.m.

The Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense disappeared from radar screens a few minutes after taking off from Sochi. According to preliminary information, there were 82 passengers and ten crew members on board the liner. This was reported by a source in the emergency services.

“The Tu-154 plane took off from Sochi, but a few minutes later disappeared from the radar screens,” said the interlocutor.

UPDATE 4:20 p.m.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed the discovery of the crash site of the Tu-154 plane in the Black Sea, TASS reports. No people have been found yet.

UPDATE 16:05

An Interfax source in the emergency services of the Krasnodar Territory reports that the site of the alleged Tu-154 crash has been discovered.

During an inspection of the water area 6-8 kilometers from the coast, an oil slick was discovered, which, as expected, could have been the result of a plane crash in this place. Rescue ships have been sent there, says the agency's interlocutor. There was still no official confirmation of the fall.

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 Sochi’s Adler airport, 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 - which no one had done before, 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 to retract the flaps ahead of schedule in order 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 kind of generous promise - with a hint of all sorts of intrigues in case of refusal. Under the influence of such an explosive mixture, a lot of malfeasance is committed today - when a forced person 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 loaded with 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

 

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