"SP": - Why are we talking about flaps now?
At the site of the Tu-154 crash in the Black Sea, the body of the deceased was found 6 km from the coast. This was announced by official representative of the Ministry of Defense Igor Konashenkov. According to preliminary data, this is a journalist from Channel One; his documents were also found at the site. Earlier, wreckage of a Tu-154 was discovered in the Black Sea. The reasons for the crash are considered to be aircraft malfunction and crew error. Kommersant FM host Maxim Mitchenkov discussed the situation with Air Force Major, instructor pilot Andrei Krasnoperov.
- What could have caused the disaster of this liner, in your opinion?
Only the “black box” that will be lifted from this liner will tell about this. But, as you say, the versions - pilot error and equipment failure - are the real reasons, as always happens in such cases. But it is too suspicious that the plane, after taking off while climbing, literally a few tens of minutes, disappears from the radar screens.
Now they have clarified that this happened in the seventh minute, while gaining altitude or during a turn, apparently over the Black Sea.
This means that the engines were working properly and the fuel was normal. If this happened on takeoff, fuel could be the cause. The situation may be similar to the tragedy in Sharm el-Sheikh; there, too, very little time passed after takeoff.
- Do you mean the version of the terrorist attack?
Certainly. What is very strange is that a plane crashes on takeoff very rarely, especially of this class. The Tu-154 has three engines and is very reliable. I myself flew on them as a passenger very often.
- Why don’t you look into the plane’s malfunction? After all, the Tu-154 is far from a new aircraft.
Yes, but they are very reliable. I can look at the design of the aircraft from the point of view of the pilot, and believe me, what is connected with the control of the aircraft, there is such a reliable control system, not like electronics now, but there are cable backup systems, including aircraft control systems, that is, if one system fails , another one enters. Considering the experience of the pilots who now fly these planes, this situation is still very strange to me, that it was only the seventh minute after takeoff. I understand that the plane took off from our airfield, and it was monitored by an electronic surveillance system, so it could not have been that someone was flying up to it, it could have crashed into something.
Initially it was reported that the signal from the radar screens simply disappeared, but the plane did not send any distress signals.
This suggests that the plane, as in Sharm el-Sheikh, instantly lost speed and simply fell into a spin position, that is, uncontrollable. In this case, the pilot simply, with such an overload, which happens in this case, not only could not report to the dispatcher, but was also unable to turn on the distress signal. Just imagine, the liner just begins to rotate violently. Therefore, I think the plane was destroyed, as was the case in Sharm el-Sheikh, where its speed was first 780 km/h and then suddenly became 170 km/h, and a loss of altitude of 1000 m.
Now we need to look at the radars, exactly how the speed dropped. That is, the plane could glide and land on the water. Recently there was an incident with a Tu-154, when 37 people were saved. The pilots were then able to land the plane on an unfamiliar field with strong wind, in a severe snowstorm, and they saved almost all the people.
In this situation, there were simple weather conditions; if something had happened to the plane, to the engine, it would have simply turned around and started gliding towards the airfield and landed in the coastal zone. Even if the plane would have collapsed, the pilots, the crew, and the passengers would have been alive, you know? And then there is a sharp drop, this happens when something abnormal happens, something explodes, something falls off. As a rule, the tail of these planes can only fall off. In all other cases, the pilot could easily transmit information and turn on the distress signal, but this did not happen. This means that something was abnormal and abrupt in the seventh minute of the flight. So, I can’t blame the crew, and the equipment doesn’t break down so suddenly.
The scattering of fragments at such a speed, and its speed in the build-up is about 600-700 km/h, already there it goes over, at such a distance it may well be. But if the plane had fallen intact, then there would not have been such scattering of fragments, believe me. The plane fell apart, simply fell apart, which means it exploded, which means that somewhere someone was given a suitcase, considering that it was a flight to Syria, and musicians from the ensemble were flying, they could have brought something with these musical instruments, someone... I could have planted it. Believe me, such scattering of fragments only happens when an airplane is destroyed in the air. It just explodes, that's all. And when the liner just falls, it creates an oil stain, and then parts float up. A plane, if it falls, dives into the water, simply disappears, and is found after some time. And then they even found a person who was already in the coastal zone, damaged by debris. This suggests that the debris fell to the ground in a disorderly manner, which means it exploded in the air.
If we follow this information, the pilot still confused the landing gear control levers and the flap. The Ministry of Defense called the version a fiction
Flowers and candles on the Sochi embankment in memory of those killed in the Tu-154 plane crash of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Photo: Artur Lebedev/TASS
UPDATED 11:58
The media named the cause of the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea according to the Ministry of Defense. According to these data, two factors led to the disaster: the excess weight of the cargo on the plane and the pilot’s mistake, who mixed up the landing gear control levers and the flap. This was reported by unnamed Life.ru sources familiar with the investigation. According to the TV channel, when the crew noticed the mistake, it was already too late: the heavy Tu-154 did not have enough height, it hit the water with the rear fuselage and collapsed.
“Data from voice and parametric recorders, studied by experts from the Research Center for Operation and Repair of Aircraft Equipment of the Ministry of Defense in Lyubertsy, say that in the third minute of the flight, when the airliner was at an altitude of 450 meters above sea level, the directional stability system sensors were activated. The car began to sharply lose altitude due to problems with the flaps,” Life.ru quotes.
At the same time, the Ministry of Defense called the version of the crash due to the co-pilot “absolute nonsense and fiction,” TASS reports. “We consider it unacceptable and immoral to try to baselessly accuse someone and invent some conclusions before the investigation is completed,” said ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov. According to him, the investigation commission continues to work.
The media version is commented on by Oleg Smirnov, Honored Pilot of the USSR, President of the Civil Aviation Partner Foundation:
Oleg Smirnov President of the Civil Aviation Partner Foundation“I expressed this version on the day of the disaster, as one of the possible ones. The Tu-154B had such a drawback; the landing gear retraction lever and the flap retraction lever were located side by side. And there were cases of attempts to retract the flaps instead of the landing gear, and this is a death sentence. On takeoff, it's a death sentence. Because the plane is in such an aerodynamic configuration, when the flaps simply hold it, the lift is due to the extended flaps. There is no corresponding speed, and when the flaps are retracted with the landing gear extended, and the landing gear is a colossal aerodynamic drag, the plane immediately falls under itself, down, in this case into the sea. The levers are not the same. But imagine, you are sitting in your office, there is no chatter, no noise, no thunderstorms, no speed, and then suddenly your desk is moving at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour. Why are you looking especially closely there, or what? You have to pilot, among other things. You pull your hand and automatically confuse this lever and, accordingly, retract the flaps instead of the landing gear.”
The channel's sources add that due to a pilot error, the plane went into an extreme angle of attack; the crew tried to turn the car around in order to reach the ground, but did not have time to do this. Comment by the Vice-President of the Russian Flight Personnel Trade Union, Honored Transport Worker Russian Federation Alfred Malinovsky:
Alfred MalinovskyVice-President of the Russian Flight Crew Trade Union“The levers are located next to each other, but they are visually very different. The landing gear retraction lever in the form of a wheel is pneumatic, that is, here it is, the landing gear wheel. And the flap retraction lever has a completely different look. That is, visually, if you look at them, you cannot confuse them. Well, in the end, the transcript will definitely show. As for the overload, yes, I talked about it, because there was no control on the part of the ground services; it was controlled by one crew. The crew is inexperienced, I repeat and will repeat. Three thousand hours of flight time and less than a thousand hours as a ship commander is a child's flight time. He didn't have enough experience to check it himself. And besides the overload, because he refueled for 37 tons, he refueled with the calculation of both back and forth, so as not to do this in Syria. It's clear that it's overloaded. And I am also convinced that, in addition to the overload, there was rear alignment, which contributed to the fact that, as one of the border guard witnesses said, he ran away like a motorcycle on the rear wheel. That is, as soon as the speed appeared, he raised his nose, and the rear alignment determined this takeoff configuration. He was already at supercritical angles on the take-off run, and there could be no further climb, so he hit his tail.”
The crash with the Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense occurred on December 25. The plane was heading to the Syrian Khmeimim base with refueling in Sochi. Early in the morning, after taking off from the Sochi airfield, the plane crashed into the water a few kilometers from the shore. There were 92 people on board the liner, including artists from the Russian Army Musical Ensemble named after Alexandrov and Elizaveta Glinka, known as Doctor Lisa.
How events unfolded on the fateful night
The flight to Syria was planned in advance. The artists of the Alexandrov Ensemble, almost in full force, flew to the Khmeimim airbase to congratulate our military on the New Year. Along with them on board were the famous and beloved doctor Elizaveta Glinka (Doctor Lisa), 9 journalists from federal television channels: Channel One, NTV, Zvezda. In total there were 8 crew members and 84 passengers on board. Another plane was also flying to Syria - but only with military personnel.
A lot of accidents have accumulated in this tragedy. As it turned out, until the last minute the lists of journalists who were supposed to fly to Syria were being agreed upon. For example, as MK learned, from only one TV channel, which also lost its correspondents in this tragedy, two people canceled their business trip at the last moment. Joseph Kobzon was also supposed to fly on this plane. One of the soloists of the ensemble refused to tour due to the birth of his son... As a result, at least a day before departure, a final list of all those flying was compiled.
(24.12) 21.00. By this hour, almost everyone flying to Syria had gathered at Chkalovsky airport. It is from here that military flights to Syria take off.
00.00. As a rule, no more than three hours are allotted for collection at Chkalovsky airport and check-in for the flight. And around midnight, the Ministry of Defense plane took off from Moscow to Sochi.
(25.12). 2.30. The Ministry of Defense plane landed safely at Adler airport. Customs clearance has begun.
2.30–5.00. The plane went through customs, refueled and began preparing for the scheduled flight Sochi-Khmeimim.
5.21. The plane took off from Adler airport. He began to gain altitude.
5.25. Without gaining altitude, the plane made a turn towards the departure airfield.
5.27. The mark of the Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense disappeared from the radars.
7.50. The first reports of a plane crash were received.
7.59. Information was confirmed that on board the plane there were artists from the ensemble named after. Alexandrova.
8.20. It was confirmed that there were also journalists on board.
9.00. It was confirmed that human rights activist and doctor Elizaveta Glinka, also known as Doctor Lisa, was on board.
9.20. Information has appeared that 1.5 kilometers from Black Sea coast Sochi, at a depth of about 70 meters, fragments of the aircraft body were discovered.
13.00. The Ministry of Defense specified the number of those on board - 84 passengers and 8 crew members. It was also reported that the search and rescue operation involved 4 ships, 4 helicopters, one airplane and unmanned aerial vehicles. aircrafts. At first, 4 bodies of the dead were lifted aboard the rescue ship. Then - six more. Additionally, 6 ships and vessels of the Black Sea Fleet, remote-controlled deep-sea vehicles and 63 divers were sent to the disaster area. Then - another 50 divers from other fleets.
15.00. The search and rescue force continued to build up in the area of the plane crash. A search area of 10.5 square meters was formed. km. The area was divided into sectors, and the search was organized around the clock. For highlighting coastline at night, floodlights and special equipment are deployed. By this time, 27 ships and vessels, 37 divers, 4 helicopters, UAVs and remote-controlled deep-sea vehicles had already been involved in the search. Medical and psychological assistance teams were on duty at the Adler airfield, and vehicles were allocated to transport relatives of the victims to temporary accommodation.
Why did the airliner make a 180-degree turn before disappearing from radar? Why didn't the crew send a distress signal?
Too many "buts"
Where did the bodies of the dead go and why are mostly their fragments found? Coupled with the huge, up to 8 kilometers, radius of scattering of debris, this leads to certain thoughts, the main one of which is why the version of a terrorist attack is so persistently rejected? An alarming association arises with the crash over the Sinai. A very similar picture is emerging.
At the same time, the reasons for the disaster that are voiced official sources among the most likely, crumble like a house of cards. Crew error? The board was controlled by top-class craftsmen. Technical problem? Reputable experts are convinced that everything was in perfect order with the car. Poor quality fuel? Didn't stop other planes from flying safely. Foreign object? Only one engine could have been damaged, and again, the commander would have had time to issue an SOS signal.
By the evening of December 26, another version was heard - overload, which is difficult to comment from the position common sense.By the way, the leaders of the LDPR and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Gennady Zyuganov, consider the possibility of an explosion on board to be the most likely.
Was there an outbreak?
Today it also became known that divers found an object similar in outline to the fuselage of an aircraft. The plane's flight recorders have not yet been found. The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Viktor Bondarev, is confident that “if an aircraft is discovered at the bottom of the sea, information storage devices will definitely be raised. He clarified that “the plane was technically sound, it had recently undergone technical repairs,” and “the readiness of the crew fully met all requirements.”
And here is how eyewitnesses described the Tu-154 crash. “My husband and I stood and listened to the sound of the sea, then we heard a plane taking off. The engines were working normally. Out of the corner of my eye I saw - airplanes fly with lights - right above the sea, a bright flash, or rather, not a flash, but the light from the airplane headlights and then splashes. And very big ones,” said a resident Krasnodar region Irina Avdeenko to one of the Russian TV channels.
“At that moment there was no more engine noise. That is, the motors no longer worked. They somehow died at one point. They buzzed and buzzed and suddenly died out and splashed,” she added.
The flash that this woman is talking about was caught on someone's dash cam. Soon this recording was posted on the Internet, however, it is not possible for a non-specialist to say anything specific after viewing it.
Honored Pilot of the USSR, Head of the Commission for civil aviation public council Rostransnadzor Oleg Smirnov, who previously took part in the investigation of other aircraft accidents, told Gazeta Ru that none of the versions of the death of the Tu-154 could be ruled out.
The specialist noted that even if the “black boxes” cannot be detected, analysis of fragments of the airliner can tell a lot, including why the plane crashed.
“Only for this it is necessary to carry out chemical, physical and mathematical analysis of the debris, as well as a number of other examinations. For example, this was not done for the Boeing that was shot down over Donbass. Our experts have the opportunity to conduct such an analysis, they can do it if they wish,”- he concluded.
The Ministry of Transport does not yet consider the version of a terrorist attack to be the main one. But others don't line up. Weather? She was great. Pilots? Experienced. Airplane? Technically correct. The incident is very similar to the explosion of the Kogalymavia plane over Sinai. Then the FSB officially announced the terrorist attack only two weeks after the crash... And there is another version - about an electronic attack.
Secret investigation: How will they find out the cause of the Tu-154 tragedy
Versions of the disaster
What are the main versions? This is a pilot error, incorrect load alignment. But the commander of the Tu-154, Roman Volkov, had a total flight time of more than three thousand hours and repeatedly made flights to Khmeimim along this route. Navigator Alexander Petukhov was awarded the Order of Courage for landing the emergency Tu-154 at Chkalovsky in 2011.
Airplanes like the TU-154, according to experts, don’t just fall apart in the air. The aircraft is made to withstand loads many times greater than flight loads; it has a three-fold safety margin for all systems. Aging and fatigue of the metal after replacing parts is not critical for it. Incorrect alignment? But then there would not have been such a scattering of debris.
The plane began to crash at a flight speed of about 300 km per hour, the altitude was approximately 1200 meters, this is the standard for a two-minute flight. “If there was a shaking, an extraneous sound, or a flash, one of the crew members or correspondents would give out some information,” Hero of Russia, pilot Anatoly Knyshov told Pravda.Ru.
“Every passenger has a phone, even if it were 15-20 seconds, that would be enough. But judging by the fact that no one was able to somehow report their condition, the situation on board, the state of the equipment, this indicates instantaneous destruction of the aircraft", - expert.
This was not an ordinary flight - a status one
Many experts note that the nature of the debris and their scattering over a long distance indicate an explosion on board. For example, the landing gear was found in the water. It is removed immediately after takeoff and is located in a gondola. Could there be something in this nacelle that caused the landing gear to separate from the plane, then part of the wing could fall off and the plane would break up in the air?
The main arguments “in favor” of the version of the terrorist attack are the ownership of the plane by the Ministry of Defense and the status of the flight on which Russian celebrities flew. Who could have carried the bomb? Just like in Sharm el-Sheikh, an airfield employee in Moscow or Adler. Or they could have sent something to Syria through the artists as a parcel or in Dr. Lisa’s luggage. An Interfax source in law enforcement agencies assured that Chkalovsky Airport is a well-guarded military facility, and it is impossible to penetrate there in order to plant an explosive device on board.
The airport in Sochi, the agency’s interlocutor noted, is dual-use, therefore it is guarded under heavy security. And here is the opinion of pilot-instructor Andrei Krasnoperov. “I flew from Chkalovsky to the east, and there was no inspection, the security was much worse than at civilian airports. And you yourself know this if you flew on military transport aircraft,” Krasnoperov said.
If this is a terrorist attack, then it is on a par with the murder of Ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara. In line with the coffins, if Russia does not stop in Syria. Note that the disabled transponders and all communication systems can be explained as follows. On the eve of the tragedy, the French reconnaissance ship Dupuy de Lome entered the Black Sea, which can disable all the “electronics” of the aircraft with a radio pulse. This practice is widely used by Israel specifically in relation to Russian aircraft in Syria. It is reported that the bodies of the victims of the disaster were wearing life jackets. This means that the crew managed to warn them, but not the dispatcher. This fits into the version of an electronic attack. But this is no longer terrorism, this is a war with NATO.
There is another question: why was it necessary to send the ensemble to a warring country, where nearby tens of thousands of heavily armed thugs with mentors from NATO have not yet surrendered at all? Complacency that everyone has been defeated? This is evident both in the president’s words that “we are stronger than any aggressor,” and in the statement of the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, Viktor Ozerov, who, a few hours after the tragedy, said that “.