Conclusions of the state commission on the crash of Tu 154. The mystery of the tragedy near Sochi has been revealed

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 of them 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, 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 the opposite direction and takes control of the steering column. 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 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 last 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 to board another, smaller one. runway in Adler. However, there was not enough height.

The dark time of day did not play the best role: 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 the Russian Khmeimim base 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.

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 Black Sea coast 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 then executing—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 could have led to its crash.

UPDATE 1:20 p.m.

The Chkalov airbase, whose fleet included the Tu-154 that crashed in Sochi, will be reorganized next year, and an aviation division will be re-created on its base. special purpose(ADON). 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 interlocutor 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 the 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. In absolutely any situation, every life is important, and now all of Russia has united. Population big 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 military band festival. Amur waves" This was followed by a minute of silence and the laying of flowers began.

It’s very sad that in Peaceful time people are dying. 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 act. 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 castaway 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 work. 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 13:40

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 cultural life throughout the 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 holding in the Khabarovsk Territory International festival military bands "Amur Waves", 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 band service Russian Federation, 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

Interfax source in emergency services Krasnodar region reports the discovery of the site of the alleged crash of the Tu-154.

During an inspection of the water area 6-8 kilometers from the coast, an oil slick was discovered, which, as expected, could be 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.

By official version In the crash of the Tu-154 in Sochi on December 25, 2016, an orangutan was at the controls of the plane instead of a human, and it began to jerk the control sticks absurdly, which led to the tragedy. If we draw a parallel with driving a car, it would look like this: the driver got behind the wheel, drove off, and drove into a snowdrift. I backed out and crushed three cars nearby. Then he drove forward and crashed as hard as he could into a garbage container, which is where the trip ended.

Conclusion: either the driver was dead drunk - or something happened to the car.

But the Tu-154 recorders showed that the plane was fully operational. And it also doesn’t work to assume that the pilot began to take off in a dead state in front of other crew members, who were not suicides. And his voice on the recorder is absolutely sober.

However, the plane crashed, allegedly as a result of inexplicable actions by the crew. Or is there still an explanation - but the military leadership is desperately hiding it?

Cunning journalists discovered that the plane may have been heavily overloaded - hence all the consequences. Moreover, it was reloaded not at the Sochi airport in Adler, where it made an intermediate landing, but at the Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow, from where it took off.

The weight of excess cargo is more than 10 tons. However, at Chkalovsky, according to documents, kerosene was poured into this Tu-1542B-2 10 tons less than a full bowl - 24 tons, as a result, the total weight of the aircraft was 99.6 tons. This exceeded the norm by only 1.6 tons - and therefore was uncritical. The pilot probably noted that the takeoff took place with an effort - but there could be many reasons for this: wind, atmospheric pressure, air temperature.

But in Adler, where the plane sat down to refuel, this refueling played a fatal role. Fuel was added to the plane's tanks just below the cap - up to 35.6 tons, which is why its take-off weight became more than 10 tons more than permissible.

And if we accept this version with an overload, everything further receives the most logical explanation.

The plane took off from the Adler runway at a speed of 320 km/h - instead of the nominal 270 km/h. Then the rise occurred at a speed of 10 meters per second - instead of the usual 12–15 m/s.

And 2 seconds after lifting off the ground, the ship’s commander, Roman Volkov, pulled the steering wheel towards himself in order to increase the take-off angle. The fact is that the take-off and landing trajectories are strictly defined at each airfield: landing takes place on a flatter path, take-off - on a steeper one. This is necessary to separate the planes taking off and landing in height - without which they would constantly be in danger of colliding in the air.

But an increase in the angle of climb led to a drop in speed - the aircraft was too heavy and refused to perform this maneuver. Then the pilot, probably already realizing that he had been given some kind of pig in the form of an extra load, gave the helm away from himself in order to stop the climb and thereby gain speed.

This happened at an altitude of 200 meters - and if the plane had remained at this level, even in violation of all the rules, the tragedy might not have happened. But Volkov piloted the car outside its permissible modes - something no one had done before him, since overloaded flights are strictly prohibited. And how the plane behaved under these conditions is difficult to imagine. In addition, it is possible that that extra cargo, being poorly secured, also disrupted the alignment of the aircraft during takeoff.

As a result, there was a slight panic in the cabin. Pilots began retracting the flaps ahead of schedule to reduce air resistance and thereby gain speed faster.

Here a dangerous approach to the water began, over which the take-off line was. The speed was already decent - 500 km/h, Volkov suddenly took the helm to raise the plane, at the same time starting a turn - apparently, he decided to return to the airfield. Then the irreparable happened: the plane, in response to the pilot’s actions, did not go up, but crashed into the water, scattering into fragments from the collision with it...

This scenario, based on recorder data, is absolutely consistent - and looks much more plausible than Shoigu’s delusional explanation that the pilot lost spatial orientation and began to descend instead of climbing.

During takeoff, no spatial orientation is required from the pilot at all. There are two main instruments in front of him: an altimeter and a speed indicator, he monitors their readings without being distracted by the views outside the window...

One might also ask: how did an overloaded plane manage to get off the runway? The answer is simple: there is a so-called screen effect, which significantly increases the lifting force of the wings at a height of up to 15 meters from the ground. By the way, the concept of ekranoplanes is based on it - half-planes, half-ships, flying within this 15-meter altitude with a much larger load on board than those of equal power aircraft…

Well, now the most important questions.

First: what kind of cargo was placed in the belly of this Tu - and by whom?

It is clear that these were not light drugs from Dr. Lisa, who was on this flight, and not an armored personnel carrier: a passenger plane does not have a wide port for entry of any equipment. This cargo was apparently heavy and compact enough to enter through the cargo hatch.

And what exactly - you can guess anything here: boxes of vodka, shells, gold bars, Sobyanin tiles... And why they decided to send it not by cargo, but by passenger flight - there could also be any reasons. From sloppiness for the failure to send combat cargo, which they decided to cover up gradually - to the most criminal schemes for the export of precious metals or other contraband.

Another question: did the pilots know about this left cargo? For sure! This is not a needle in a haystack - but a whole haystack that cannot be hidden from view. But what exactly was there and what the true weight of it was - the pilots may not have known. This is an army, where the order of the highest rank is higher than all instructions; and most likely that order was accompanied by some other generous promise - with a hint of all sorts of intrigues in case of refusal. Under the influence of such an explosive mixture, a lot of malfeasance is committed today - when a forced person is faced with a choice: either make decent money - or be left without work and without pants.

And the famous Russian, perhaps, at the same time, as they say, has not been canceled!

Who ordered? There can also be a big spread here: from some Lieutenant Colonel, Deputy for Armaments - to Colonel General. Depending on what kind of cargo was brought onto the plane.

In short, in Chkalovsky the plane is overloaded, but this overload is compensated for by incomplete refueling - and in Adler the tanks are already filled to capacity. Obviously, the calculation was to fly to Syrian Khmeimim (destination) and back on our own fuel. And the fact that the ship’s commander agreed in Adler to these 35.6 tons of fuel speaks in favor of the fact that he still did not know the real magnitude of the overload. If he were to fly alone, he could still indulge in the dashing daring that Chkalov himself initiated in our aviation. But behind Volkov there was his own crew of 7 people, and another 84 passengers, including artists from the Alexandrov ensemble!

The fact that the Ministry of Defense in this matter is not just obfuscating, but completely hiding the truth is evidenced by such facts.

1. Shoigu’s version of “a violation of the commander’s spatial orientation (situational awareness), which led to erroneous actions with the aircraft controls” does not stand up to criticism. For any pilot, not only with 4,000 hours of flight time, like Volkov, but also with ten times less, takeoff is the simplest action that does not require any special skills. For example, landing in difficult weather conditions is a completely different matter. The crash during the landing of the same Tu-154 from the Polish delegation near Smolensk is a typical example of the lack of skill and experience of the pilot. But no one has ever crashed while taking off on a working plane.

2. The decoding of the recorders probably already in the first days after the tragedy gave the full breakdown of what happened. An analogy with the same Polish case in 2010 is appropriate here: then, already on the 5th day, the IAC (Interstate Aviation Committee) issued a comprehensive version of the incident, which was fully confirmed later.

The IAC has been stubbornly silent about the Adler disaster for 6 months now. On his website, where detailed analyzes of all flight accidents are published, there are only two on the subject of Adler’s short messages that the investigation is ongoing. And another significant passage:

“The resources of research and expert institutions have been mobilized to investigate this disaster. Among them is the Interstate Aviation Committee, which has extensive experience in investigating accidents involving Tu-154 aircraft and the necessary resources to provide assistance in order to speed up the investigation. At the same time, the IAC informs that official comments on this investigation are provided exclusively by the Russian Ministry of Defense.”

That is, read, “we were silenced, sorry.”

3. Naturally, the Minister of Defense in the very first hours, if not minutes after the disaster, found out what cargo was on board the crashed Tu. And the incredibly long search for the wreckage of the plane, which added absolutely nothing to the information from the recorders, suggests that they were looking for that same secret cargo. And not at all the truth, which was clear to the military immediately.

Well, one more question: why do the military, led by their minister, hide this truth so much? And from whom - from Putin himself or from the people?

Well, I very much doubt that they would hide her from Putin: he doesn’t look like a person who can be fooled around his finger. This means they are hiding from the people. This means that this truth is such that it somehow terribly undermines the prestige of our military.

That is, either some lieutenant colonel, a complete idiot, loaded something into a passenger plane that should not have been on it. And then a shadow over our entire army, in which there are such idiots on horseback that they can ruin as much as the backbone of Alexandrov’s ensemble with their idiocy.

Or a colonel general, who is at the very top, is involved - and then there is also shame and disgrace: it turns out that after the change from Serdyukov to Shoigu, our army was not cleansed of general outrage?

And the very last thing. Remember, when we watched the film “Chapaev” as children, many of us shouted in the audience: “Chapay, run!” I just as spontaneously want today, when everything has practically become clear with the Adler tragedy, to shout to the pilot Volkov: “Don’t take this cargo! And if you take it, don’t fly higher than 200 meters above the sea!”

After all, if you look at the calm mind, which was not praised by the pilot caught in a storm of circumstances, he had a chance of salvation. Namely: when the plane is overloaded, do not even try to follow the instructions, which oblige you to rise to such and such a height at such and such a distance from the airfield. Violate it to hell, get a reprimand for it, even dismissal - but thereby save your life and the lives of others. That is, fly at a minimum altitude, burning off fuel, and when the weight of the plane drops in an hour and a half, begin lifting.

Another thing that comes to mind again is that if you decide to return to Adler, make a turn not by a standard turn with a side roll, which is what dumped the plane into the sea, but by the so-called “pancake”. That is, with one rudder - when the plane remains in horizontal plane, and the turning radius increases greatly: a maneuver practically not used in modern aviation.

But even this chance, which could save this plane, in the future would still be illusory and deadly. Let’s say Volkov managed to get out of the disastrous situation set by the organizers of his flight. Then next time he or his colleague would be given not 10, but 15 extra tons of some “unspecified” cargo: after all, appetites grow as their satisfaction. And the tragedy would have happened anyway - not in this case, then in the next, if its causes remained the same.

God grant that as a result of this catastrophe, someone in our armed forces will give someone a hard time, putting an end to the outrages that led to the inevitable outcome.

Alexander Roslyakov

Experts provided the latest information on the investigation into the causes of the crash. It was established: the flight lasted 70 seconds, the plane fell from a height of 250 meters. Representatives of the commission also explained what assistance is provided to the families of passengers and crew members.

Everything related to the plane crash, that is, all the parts and details of the aircraft necessary to analyze what happened, have already been raised to the surface. And, as representatives of the government commission stated, the main phase of the search operation has already been completed by this time.

It is premature to say what exactly happened during the flight. Representatives of the Ministry of Defense noted that the weather on the night of departure was good. In fact, darkness is the only factor that complicates the work of the pilots. The Tu-154 crew had sufficient qualifications to perform this flight. The aircraft commander had about four thousand hours of flight time, with more than one and a half thousand hours on aircraft of this type.

Now representatives of the investigation are working on analyzing the voice and parametric recorders. Their condition is satisfactory. We can already say for sure that the flight lasted a little more than a minute. Maximum height, which the plane climbed to, 250 meters. At the same time, its speed was about 360 kilometers per hour. Under these conditions, the crew recorded the occurrence of a certain critical situation. Judging by the negotiations in the cockpit, everything happened very quickly.

“The radio exchange was extremely short. You can imagine that the special situation developed within 10 seconds. Everything was quite standard, but one phrase from the commander, an analysis of this phase, speaks of the beginning of a special situation, the beginning of the development of a special situation. She doesn’t tell us anything else,” said Sergei Baynetov, head of the Aviation Safety Service of the Russian Armed Forces.

It will take the investigation a week and a half to collect and decipher the data. Final conclusions The commission promises to report on the causes of the disaster within 30 days. Genetic testing will take approximately the same amount of time.

“The plane was almost completely destroyed upon impact with the water surface and subsequently the bottom of the Black Sea, which, of course, complicated the search operation. The disaster area has been fully examined. During search operations, 19 bodies have been discovered and raised from the surface of the water to date. The main identification will take place through mandatory genetic testing of the remains of the bodies. To do this, with the assistance of the Ministry of Defense, our doctors have already taken the necessary biological materials from all relatives of the victims,” said Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov.

At the same time, work began to organize comprehensive assistance to relatives. Representatives of the commission are negotiating with a number of banks to support the victims. It is already known that four banks - Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, VTB24 and Otkritie - decided to write off all the debts of those killed in a plane crash over the Black Sea. As for the required compensation, these payments have already begun.

“Payments, of course, will continue in the coming days before the New Year. In agreement with the management of our largest banks, a number of branches in Moscow will work to ensure payments and new year holidays. Therefore, work here will not stop even after January 1,” said Maxim Sokolov.

In addition to compensation, the commission is ready to consider the needs of each family and provide targeted assistance to people.

“A proposal was formed to talk to each family. Look, maybe measures will be taken to provide additional employment for family members, help with placement in kindergartens, help with education and other types of social assistance,” said Vsevolod Vukolov, head of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment.

Work in the Black Sea will continue as before - without interruption, even in New Year's Eve. Divers are still searching for the dead. These dives will continue until the last minute.