How many bodies were found after the crash? Bodies in trees, houses in kerosene. one of the largest plane crashes in the USSR. What conditions do you have to work under?

On the night of July 7-8, 1980, one of the largest plane crashes in the Soviet Union occurred. On the eastern outskirts of Almaty, a Tu-154B-2 passenger plane, which was heading to Rostov-on-Don, crashed. As a result, 166 people died - 156 passengers and 10 crew members. In addition, nine people who were on the ground were injured.

Night July flight from Almaty to Rostov-on-Don. The heat is so hot that you want to carry a fan in your hands all the time, aimed at yourself. The fathers of the family put their suitcases in luggage, hug their wives and hold the hands of their children. On board, 30 kids and schoolchildren are talking about what castles will be built on the coast and how to swim in the sea - the flight after Rostov was supposed to head to Simferopol.

Girls who go to the resort think about how they will sunbathe, and in the evenings go dancing or just listen to the sound of the surf. Or maybe someone will start an affair. With such thoughts, everyone heads to the Aeroflot "carcass".

They won’t build it, they won’t launch it. The airliner will crash 1 minute 40 seconds after takeoff and break into pieces. The victims of the largest air disaster in the republic will be 166 passengers and crew members. No one survived on the plane.

Meanwhile on earth

In private houses on Fedoseev Street, glass shook as the captain of the aircraft, Yuri Kulagin, tried to avoid a collision with the ground. The fact is that pilots have more than once encountered this situation: the “carcass” sinks 30 meters, and then continues to climb. This time the fall continued.

The liner collapsed, hitting a farm with its bow. But the movement continued: so, he “jumped” three times, falling apart as he walked. Body parts of passengers and crew flew out into huge cracks - they were literally torn to pieces by seat belts and debris. In the next three days they will be found on trees, on the roofs of houses, in bathhouses and simply on the ground.

At one point, 39 tons of fuel spilled all over the street, staining the soil, walls of houses, roofs and windows.

We lived two streets away and at night we heard an explosion and thought: a bomb had exploded. We ran out into the street, and there was a glow, as bright as day, and the terrible smell of burning kerosene filled our noses. In the morning we learned that the plane had crashed near a private sector, everyone was killed, people’s houses and gardens were burned down. Soon we moved to another area, away from the airport,” local resident Alexander Baev told the media.

The luggage also scattered in different directions. After the lampposts were blown away by the plane, the field burst into flames. A mixture of kerosene, burning and disinfectant smells hung in the air.

Many airport employees lived nearby, writes “Essays on the History of Alma-Ata.” So, one of them, Sergei, had all three sides of his house burned, the second floor and the vineyard burned to the ground.

The man transported his family to a safe place, and he himself went in search of the black boxes. Later, dozens of bodies were found in his garden.

Commission conclusions

Like many other Soviet plane crashes and hijackings, the story was not covered in the media. Some details began to emerge much later. However, even the list of victims has not been made public until now.

At the crash site, the chief designer of the Tu-154, Alexander Shengardt, worked as part of the commission assembled after the incident. According to him, there could have been a human factor. The initial medical panel concluded that the dead pilots had alcohol in their blood. However, a week later, experts from Moscow refuted this statement.

At Sochi airport there is little reminder of the Tu-154 crash of the Ministry of Defense. It works as usual. Passengers arrive and depart. They are escorted and greeted. Everything seems to be the same as always. But this is a misleading impression. Calm will not return to the city soon, even despite the approaching New Year...

One day before the New Year

There is still a congestion of ships in the Black Sea off the coast near Adler. And although there was information that the search operation had been suspended, all the rescue ships are still in the search square and, it seems, none of them is going to leave yet. If the search stops, it is most likely due to bad weather.

In several places in Sochi, on the seashore, improvised memorials with fresh flowers appeared. Sochi residents continue to bring flowers today. There is only a day until the New Year, but there is no smell of festive mood here.
“This is a huge tragedy for the whole country, for the residents of the city,” says an employee of the insurance company, composition Irina Volkova. “Many of my friends came these days to honor the memory of those who died on the seashore. I watched on television a press conference of members of the commission on the first results of the investigation into the causes of the disaster. They said that there are several versions and one of them is that birds got into the engine. Now I shudder to watch the seagulls circling over the sea. And I heard that many migratory birds fly south through Adler...

Let me remind you that the Tu-154 plane of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed on the morning of December 25 after taking off from Sochi airport. There were 92 people on board: military personnel, artists of the Alexandrov ensemble, nine Russian journalists, as well as Elizaveta Glinka, wonderful Doctor Lisa. All of them flew to Syria to congratulate the Russian Aerospace Forces servicemen at the Khmeimim airbase on the upcoming New Year.

It is already known that the entire flight lasted only 70 seconds, the maximum altitude was about 250 meters, the head of the aviation safety service of the Russian Armed Forces reported this the day before Sergey Baynetov.

The wreckage of the plane was discovered just one and a half kilometers from the seashore. More than 3.6 thousand people worked in the disaster zone. Two flight recorders were recovered from the bottom of the sea. Experts are deciphering the information... There were reports that a third black box was found, but experts claim that there are only two.
The first results of the decryption have already been announced, however, it can hardly be said that the causes of the tragedy have been completely clarified. Instead of fifteen versions there were seven. In addition to birds getting into the airliner's engine, the commission is considering several more: human factor, wind shear and equipment failure. Until the exact picture of the disaster is clarified, flights of Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense have been suspended. Indirectly, this indicates that a technical malfunction of the aircraft is also considered as the cause of the disaster, despite all the assurances that the airliner was in impeccable condition...

At the bottom of the sea

During all these days, 45 sea vessels were involved in the area of ​​the plane crash, as well as boats of the Southern Regional Search and Rescue Team and the State Inspectorate for Small Vessels of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. All ships had rescue divers and equipment to conduct underwater search operations. In 24 hours a day, divers of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations make more than 30 descents under water. At the bottom, many aircraft debris and fuselage fragments were discovered and raised to the surface. Documents and personal belongings of the tragically deceased Tu-154 passengers were found. In total, more than 140 dives were made, thousands of aircraft fragments were discovered.

At the same time, only 20 bodies of the dead were recovered from the water. One was buried. The divers who are working say that what remains of the dead are mostly small fragments that are scattered over a large area. There is practically no clothing on the fragments; personal belongings of passengers, documents, and bank cards are found. All remains are lifted onto a special vessel. Divers are guided to the wreckage and fragments by special underwater vehicles that scan the bottom. The work is psychologically and physically very difficult, because there is a lot of torn metal and fragments of bodies...

It is clear that the divers try not to say anything about their dives, and only admit on condition of anonymity that the picture at the bottom of the sea is not for the faint of heart... The dead did not have time to feel anything. Everything happened very quickly. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the remains of almost all passengers have now been brought ashore. That is why it was decided to end the active phase of the search. The longest procedure now will be the genetic examination. Biological material has already been taken from relatives.

As for the wreckage of the crashed plane, they will be laid out in the closed area of ​​the Adler airport.

44 years later

During these tragic days, Sochi residents more than once recalled previous plane crashes in the Sochi area. A similar tragedy happened on October 1, 1972 off the coast of Adler. The similarity is that the plane crash also happened on a weekend. Then it was established that at 19:21 the Il-18 took off from Adler airport at a magnetic heading of 240°, and at 19:22 the crew reported to the dispatcher that the takeoff had taken place. In response, the dispatcher conveyed the conditions for exiting the airport area - a right turn with a climb to 3000 meters to Lazarevskoye. The crew confirmed receipt of instructions, after which they no longer made contact. At an altitude of 150-250 meters, the pilots began to perform a right turn, when the plane suddenly went into a sharp left turn with a sharp descent, and then crashed into the water and was completely destroyed...
The plane sank at a depth of 500-1000 meters, where the bottom has a complex topography with slopes up to 45 degrees steep. The bottom in this place was covered with a thick layer of silt, which could have absorbed the wreckage of the Il-18. A major search operation was organized with the participation of the Black Sea Fleet, but despite all efforts, the main wreckage of the aircraft and the flight recorders were never found...
That year, my father worked on the beach in the village of Kudepsta near Adler and said that after the storms, the sea washed the personal belongings of passengers ashore for a long time. How long the sea will remain a reminder of the latest tragedy is still unknown.

It seems that in general December 25th is a tragic day for aviation. In 2012, on this day, an An-72 plane of the Border Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan crashed and, by some mythical coincidence, on this day in 2016, the President of Russia met with his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The tragedy of the Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense is deeply felt by all Sochi residents. The city doesn’t feel like the holiday is approaching at all. The administration even canceled mass celebrations on the main square on New Year's Eve.
Black sea, black mountain.

The search operation continues in the area of ​​the plane crash. Several pieces of debris were recovered from the bottom. There are dozens of ships in the area. Deep-sea vehicles are used.

The search operation continues in the area of ​​the plane crash. Several pieces of debris were recovered from the bottom. There are 45 ships in the area. Deep-sea vehicles are used. When it got dark, the spotlights were turned on.

Many agencies report that rescuers discovered the body of crew commander Roman Volkov and the body of Oksana Batrutdinova, assistant head of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense. However, there is no official confirmation of this information. It has been confirmed that by this hour the bodies of ten dead have been found, it is also reported that the remains of another 80 bodies were raised to the surface, but rescuers say that the remains of the bodies are very damaged and no one can say how many there are at the moment.

Work is currently ongoing and will continue throughout the night. The water area at the site of the Tu-154 crash is illuminated by special spotlights. The plane, according to experts, fell six kilometers from the coast, and during the day this place was clearly visible from here, but now, in the dark, neither the camera nor the human eye can see the equipment.

Meanwhile, the Interfax agency reports, citing representatives of the Ministry of Defense, divers recovered two elements of the aircraft control mechanism from the bottom of the sea. Based on the serial numbers, it has been previously established that they may belong to the crashed Tu-154. One of the raised fragments is quite impressive in size - about five meters.

45 ships continue to work at the site of the plane crash, including anti-sabotage boats and ships with sonar equipment. The seabed is being examined by divers and several deep-sea vehicles. In addition, helicopters are operating in the sky above the disaster site, even now, in the dark. In total, about 3.5 thousand people are involved in the operation. The conditions here are difficult. The depth reaches 100 meters, and due to the strong current, experts say, the wreckage of the plane is scattered over a fairly large distance. On an area of ​​240 square kilometers.

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, who heads the government commission investigating the disaster, said that due to strong currents, some of the fragments of the Tu-154 and the bodies of the dead could be carried towards Abkhazia, so their Abkhaz colleagues also joined in the rescue efforts.

Each discovered part is lifted from the bottom to the surface and then delivered to the shore. All found wreckage of the plane should help experts reconstruct the picture of what happened on board. According to the Ministry of Defense, the search operation area is divided into 15 sectors, and by this time the bottom of seven of them has been completely examined. And by this time, in the search area, the survey of the surface surface was completely - 100% - completed.

The flight recorders have not yet been found. This is explained by the same strong current and difficult bottom topography. Now fragments of the plane continue to be searched using radar equipment.

Today a tragedy occurred: a Saratov Airlines passenger plane crashed in the Moscow region. An-148 was flying from the capital to Orsk. 71 people were on board: 65 passengers and 6 crew members. There are no survivors.

The President expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. In connection with this tragedy, Vladimir Putin changed his schedule: his working trip to Sochi was postponed. As the Kremlin press service reported, in order for the president to have the opportunity to directly coordinate the work of a special commission to determine the causes of the tragedy. The commission was created on behalf of the head of state.

These images were taken by eyewitnesses a few minutes after the disaster. The wreckage of the plane is scattered in a snow-covered field; around, at least at first glance, there are no signs of fire or explosion. It was as if he had simply fallen to the ground from a height. At the same time, the picture at the crash site - the wreckage is scattered over a radius of an entire kilometer - allows us to make the assumption that the airliner collapsed while still in the air. And eyewitnesses say that before the fall the plane seemed to be engulfed in flames.

Data on how long the plane remained in the air still vary. At first it was reported that the flight lasted about seven minutes. Later, information was received that it crashed just two minutes after takeoff. One way or another, the crash site is the vicinity of the village of Argunovo in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region - located just over 30 kilometers from Domodedovo airport.

“After a very strong bang, we went to look for the place where this cotton was found. The entire field is approximately the size of two football fields,” said the eyewitness.

The Moscow-Orsk flight took off from Domodedovo airport at 14:21. And soon disappeared from the radar screens. Online publications publish the words of an air traffic controller, allegedly the same one who monitored the air situation in the area of ​​the crash - the plane took off as normal, then began to descend, but no longer made contact and did not respond to requests. Even an audio recording of the negotiations has appeared on the Internet, although it is not yet possible to guarantee its authenticity.

One thing is certain: the crew did not report any malfunctions on board, although the breakdown of the aircraft, along with piloting error and unfavorable weather conditions, are now the three main versions of the disaster.

According to the official representative of the Investigative Committee, Svetlana Petrenko, operational documentation from the Saratov Airlines company is being confiscated, and its employees are being interrogated. In addition, investigators began interrogating workers at Domodedovo airport who were preparing the aircraft for flight.

So far, too little is known about the last flight of the crashed plane, but experts have already noticed its strange trajectory. According to the Flytradar service, after takeoff from Domodedovo it began to rise to a level of 1800 meters, then dropped to one and a half thousand, then rose again, and after that the plane sharply descended. Because of these contradictory data, at first there was even a version that the An-148 could collide with a helicopter in the air. But later these rumors were denied.

Aviation experts now suggest that the cause could be icing of the airliner - in the event that a piece of ice got into the engine.

“Sometimes, because of the weather, because of icing, something can happen. The plane was poorly treated or fell into sudden, severe icing. The weather here could only play a negative role if there was an engine failure and the crew did not see the site and could not pick up and land,” says Honored Russian Pilot Yuri Sytnik.

The crashed An-148 belonged to Saratov Airlines. Until that day, its fleet had four aircraft of this type. A short-haul aircraft designed to carry 80 passengers. The plane that crashed was produced less than eight years ago. At first it belonged to Rossiya Airlines and flew, among other things, on foreign routes. Later it was sold to Saratov. And the airline assures that they have no doubts about the serviceability of the aircraft or the qualifications of the crew.

“There was an experienced crew on board. The aircraft commander is Valery Ivanovich Gubanov, who has more than 5 thousand flight hours, and on this type Valery Ivanovich had 2147 flight hours,” said Elena Voronova, head of the press service of Saratov Airlines.

“8 years is, of course, not a long time for an airplane. Moreover, Antonovskaya is a reliable company. Our airworthiness standards are the most stringent in the world. Not only for new production aircraft, but for aircraft that are being submitted for testing,” said Honored Test Pilot of the USSR Vitaly Zhiltsov.

Meanwhile, the authorities are already publishing a list of those killed in the disaster. There were 71 people on board the plane - 65 passengers and six crew members. No one had a chance to survive.

The head of the Ministry of Transport of Russia, Maxim Sokolov, said that “in accordance with federal legislation, all relatives of the victims are paid insurance in the amount of more than 2 million rubles, and the necessary additional decisions in this direction will be made through the subject.”

To identify the bodies in the An-148 crash, DNA samples from relatives of the victims will be delivered to Moscow from Orsk by a special plane of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The bodies will be identified at the Moscow Bureau of Expertise.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations has opened a hotline. Phone: 8-800-775-17-17.

The hotline also operates in the Orenburg region: 8-3532-308-999.

There are almost 600 rescuers at the crash site of the An-148 passenger plane in the Moscow region. The wreckage is scattered over a large area, the search operation will be carried out around the clock, one of the black boxes has already been found.

“We have formed operational groups that work here and in Orsk, in the Orenburg region. The operational group works in Domodedovo and, where necessary, in the Moscow region. I will ask to provide support for all relatives and friends, taking into account vital signs, to organize the duty of medical teams of social workers and all specialists who are needed for vital reasons,” instructed the head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Vladimir Puchkov.

At the Orsk airport, the relatives of the victims are provided with all the necessary assistance. Airport director Sergei Sukharev said that psychologists and doctors work at the first-aid post.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' performed a prayer service for those killed in this crash. Condolences were offered to Russian citizens in connection with the crash of the An-148 plane by the Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy, the foreign ministers of Turkey, France and Belgium and other countries.

In connection with this tragedy, Channel One is changing its broadcast schedule. Immediately after our program, instead of the club game “What? Where? When?" - broadcast from the Olympic Pyeongchang

A storm has begun. Armchair experts on the Internet claim that after a storm it will only be easier for divers to work - the water itself will wash many things ashore. Those professionals who are now examining the sunken TU-154 think differently. Bad weather, on the contrary, will confuse all the cards. The head of the search and rescue unit of the southern regional search and rescue team of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Vyacheslav Ivashchenko, told Komsomolskaya Pravda about how the search for the crashed plane is going on.

- Under what conditions do you have to work?

Almost ideal. The plane lies on a large underwater field. The depth is approximately the same everywhere - about 25 meters. That is, you can search during the day without special lighting; natural conditions are enough. The bottom is solid sandstone. There is almost no silt or dirt.

- And what can you find?

Large parts of the aircraft, small ones, some personal items. If we manage to find electronic devices - phones, tablets - they are immediately taken upstairs. Then they are sent for examination. Yesterday we lifted an aircraft engine weighing three tons from the bottom. There are also fragments of bodies (according to data, as of 18:40 on December 28, the remains of 16 people were found - Author)

Divers working underwater at the Tu-154 crash site.

- Are there any whole bodies?

Alas. This happens when you hit the water hard. The dead are literally torn apart. I saw something similar during the Armenian Airlines Airbus crash 10 years ago. Also near Adler. The injuries are similar.

(Recall that information appeared in the media that the bodies of the dead were found without clothes. Now it is clear why. By the way, the data that the passengers were wearing life jackets was also not confirmed.)

- How do you look for fragments at the bottom?

An anchor is lowered from a ship to the surface. I tie myself to it with a rope and begin to swim slowly in a circle. Then the rope lengthens, and I swim in a larger circle. The bottom is searched using such divergent trajectories. Small objects are tied with a rope and lifted by partners in the boat on the surface. Large aircraft parts are pulled out using a crane. I indicate the coordinates, a ship or barge with a lift floats on the surface. Then the find is tied with slings and lifted.

- What is more: personal belongings or aircraft parts?

90% - fuselage elements. Passengers' belongings are rarely found.

- They say the storm will help you.

No. The storm will shake everything at the bottom. Something may shift to already tested areas. In addition, now everything is clearly visible under water. And after the storm, the clouds will rise and work will become much more difficult.

- Is it psychologically difficult to swim underwater and find remains?

You need to set yourself up correctly. I focus on the idea that there is difficult but important work to be done. Return their loved ones to the relatives. Only I can do this. There will be no others. This kind of motivation helps.

- Are there any tricks to relax after work and reboot?

I return to my family, play with the children, and just try not to think about what lies at the bottom. Again, I remind myself that I don’t have an ordinary profession where anything can happen.

Vyacheslav Ivashchenko said that the divers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations work hard all day long. They go out to sea in the morning, when it begins to get light, and return to shore only in the evening when the sun sets. But even so, each submariner manages to work no more than two hours. The rest of the time is spent on diving and ascent, preparing equipment and refilling oxygen cylinders.

PHOTO REPORT

Rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations lift the wreckage of a Tu-154 from the bottom of the Black Sea

HELP "KP"

The search operation involves 45 ships, 15 deep-sea vehicles, 192 divers, 12 aircraft and five helicopters. A self-propelled crane arrived in the area of ​​the plane crash to lift large debris.

About one and a half thousand fragments of the aircraft were discovered. So far, one third has been brought to the surface. Another 12 large pieces of debris were discovered. One of them is two by three meters, the second is about five meters long, the third is more than 60 meters long.

MEANWHILE

The main phase of the search for the wreckage of the crashed Tu-154 has ended

“The active phase of the search operation in the Black Sea has been completed,” the source said. The search group recovered almost all the fragments of the Tu-154 from the bottom of the sea. The group of ships that took part in the operation left the Black Sea

BY THE WAY

Rescuers from the Tu-154 crash site: The dead have the same injuries as the victims of the 2006 disaster

Since the day of the Tu-154 crash, rescuers have been working non-stop at the crash site in the Black Sea. They are raising from the bottom the bodies of the dead and the wreckage of the plane, on board at the time of the crash there were 92 people - crew members, artists of the ensemble named after. Alexandrova, journalists and Dr. Lisa.

Our photojournalist Vladimir Velengurin observes with his own eyes how divers work and how the search operation is progressing