Photo: Nina Zotina, Sputnik

The crash of the Tu-154 aircraft of the 223rd flight detachment of the Ministry of Defense was one of the biggest tragedies of the outgoing year. There were 92 people on board the ship, all of them died. In each such case, the appearance of different versions of what happened is inevitable. “Lenta.ru” tried to figure out what was happening.

NB: Everything said below about the causes of the aircraft accident is a presentation of versions that have not yet been officially confirmed. Before the publication of official conclusions on the results of the investigation into the causes of the disaster, none of these versions can be considered true.

Circumstances

The Tu-154B-2 aircraft, tail number RA-85572, manufactured in 1983 at the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant (now the Aviakor plant), was operated almost all the time - first as part of the 8th Special Purpose Aviation Division of the Air Force, then - created in 1993 223 th flight squad.

As of the day of the disaster, the aircraft has worked out about 11 percent of its flight resource with an average flying time of just over 200 hours per year, which is relatively small for passenger liners that are operated in civil aviation with an intensity of 1000 or more hours per year. The assigned resource of the board was 37,500 hours, or 16,000 landings, while it could be extended to 60,000 hours and 22,000 landings.

Tu-154B-2s have already been withdrawn from commercial operation due to non-compliance with accepted noise standards and high fuel consumption, but military vehicles still remain in service.

The aircraft operator - the 223rd Flight Detachment of the Ministry of Defense, a Russian state aviation enterprise - provides air transportation in the interests of state structures and performs irregular cargo and passenger transportation, as a rule, of personnel of the armed forces. The enterprise was organized on the basis of the 8th Special Purpose Aviation Division (8 adOSNAZ, 8 adon) in Chkalovsky in accordance with the order of the President of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 1993 No. 37-rp “On ensuring the activities of the 223rd and 224th flight detachments of the Ministry of Defense Russia” for air transportation in the interests of government agencies.

The plane took off from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow and was supposed to land for refueling in Mozdok, however, due to weather conditions, the refueling airfield was changed to. From Sochi, the liner took off at 05:25 and fell, according to reports, after spending two minutes in the air before the crash.

The flight's destination was the Russian Khmeimim airbase. The plane was carrying artists of the Alexandrov Military Ensemble, journalists and the servicemen accompanying them. In addition, on board was known as Doctor Liza, and the head of the culture department of the Ministry of Defense Anton Gubankov.

Versions

The main publicly discussed versions of what happened come down to three: a technical malfunction, a pilot error, and a terrorist act. The concomitant circumstance to the first two could be the weather, but the available data on the actual weather conditions in Sochi at the time of the disaster suggest that they were quite acceptable:

Visibility is 10 kilometers or more. Cloudiness in several layers: the lower layer is 5-7 oktants (eighths), with a lower edge of 1000 meters, there is another layer above it, continuous with a lower edge of 2800 meters, temperature +5, dew point +1, pressure about 763 millimeters of mercury column. Runways are dry. East wind 5 meters per second. At sea - wave height up to 0.1 meters.

All three versions can neither be confirmed nor ruled out before the official conclusions of the commission of inquiry, however, one can try to “spread out on the table” the available information, at least in order to streamline it.

The last time the RA-85572 board was repaired was in December 2014, and in September 2016 it underwent scheduled maintenance. The total flight time of the aircraft for 33 years of operation amounted to 6689 hours.

This age and resource is completely normal for liners in military operation. So, one of the main cargo-passenger aircraft C-135 Stratolifter, built from 1956 to 1965, is still in operation, and the total service life of these aircraft may approach a century - they will remain in the Air Force at least until the 2040s.

By itself, the Tu-154 is a reliable aircraft, however, no aircraft is immune from technical failures, and, of course, this version will be one of the main ones.

The crew of the crashed liner is characterized as experienced. The Tu-154 aircraft that crashed in was flown by first-class pilot Roman Volkov.

“The Tu-154 aircraft of the military transport aviation of the Russian Ministry of Defense was flown by an experienced pilot Roman Alexandrovich Volkov. Roman Volkov is a first class pilot. The total flight time is more than three thousand hours, ”the military department told a TASS correspondent.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Petukhov - navigator of the crashed Tu-154B-2 - in April 2011 participated in the rescue of the "dancing liner". Then the plane of the same model landed at the Chkalovsky airport with a faulty control system. The Tu-154B-2 RA-88563 board was planned to be transferred to Samara for repairs. After the plane took off, malfunctions were discovered in the operation of its control system. The plane began to sway in the air and bounce, which was noticeable from the ground. Journalists later called the liner dancing.

Nevertheless, the plane managed to return to the runway in Chkalovsky thanks to the skillful actions of the crew. Petukhov was the navigator of the "dancing liner". He, along with his colleagues, was awarded the Order of Courage.

At the same time, taking off from coastal airfields has always been not the easiest procedure, and the Tu-154, especially in version “B”, is described by many pilots as a rather strict aircraft in control, making high demands on the pilot, which also does not allow to dismiss the version on the move. possible tragic mistake. According to civil aviation pilots, an experience of more than three thousand hours is not enough for the commander of a machine of this class.

Finally, given the political situation, the version of a terrorist attack cannot be ruled out, including due to the specifics of the organization of military flights. Unfortunately, the stringency of screening and security on military passenger flights is generally much more relaxed than on commercial airlines. As noted by many servicemen and civilians who have experience flying by aircraft of the Ministry of Defense from Chkalovsky and other military airfields, pre-flight screening on such flights often comes down to an empty formality in the form of checking passenger lists with documents, especially when “our” team is flying. When flying abroad - to the same Syria - it is somewhat stricter (border formalities are included), but even in this case it does not compare with traditional measures in the vast majority of civil airports in developed countries.

Under these conditions, it is possible to admit both the possibility of having an explosive device on board, which could have been placed in the luggage of the liner during loading, and the possibility of carrying it on board during an intermediate landing in Sochi. In any case, the likelihood of such a development of events is not ruled out by the special services, which began checking those who could have access to the aircraft at the airport of departure and in Sochi.

A variation of the version of the attack is the assumption put forward in some media about a possible attack on the aircraft using a portable anti-aircraft missile system, which could be carried out by terrorists either from a boat or from a residential area on the coast, but this option is unlikely to be true, given that the lost airliner originally he was supposed to land in Mozdok, and if they intended to attack him during landing / takeoff from the refueling airfield, they would have been waiting for him there.

Ministry of Emergency Situations and - deep-sea divers from all four fleets, with special equipment and underwater vehicles.

MOSCOW, December 25 - RIA Novosti, Andrey Kots. December 2016 left another terrible date in the historical calendar of Russia. Exactly one year ago, over the Black Sea, the catastrophe claimed the lives of 92 people. Pilots, our fellow journalists, the famous volunteer doctor Elizaveta Glinka. And 64 military musicians of the Academic Twice Red Banner Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after Alexander Alexandrov. On December 25, 2016, the legendary band lost its best soloists, the first line-up. Passengers on a military flight flew to the Khmeimim airbase to wish Happy New Year to Russian soldiers and officers who had been liberating Syria from terrorists for the second year. The causes of the disaster have not been fully elucidated to this day. About the current versions - in the material RIA Novosti.

Old but reliable

Board RA-85572 could hardly be called new. It was built at the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant in 1983. By December 2016, the 33-year-old Tu-154 managed to fly 6689 hours. However, for aircraft of this type, the age limit is 40 years, and the resource is 60,000 flight hours. Over the entire period of operation, it has never seriously broken down, and the last scheduled repair took place in 2014. A few days before the crash, some difficulties arose with the aircraft - airfield services discovered a fuel leak from the wing tank. But the problems were quickly eliminated, the work was accepted by military acceptance. Before departure on December 25, 2016, the aircraft passed all the necessary checks, it was recognized as fully operational and ready for a long flight.

The plane took off after refueling at the Sochi airport at 05:25 Moscow time. The liner was piloted by 35-year-old major Roman Volkov, who had flown more than three thousand hours during his practice. The weather conditions that morning were favorable: visibility was about 10 kilometers, the air temperature was minus five degrees, the height of the lower boundary of the clouds was 1000 meters, and the wind speed did not exceed four meters per second. The aircraft took off from the runway (RWY) at the 37th second after the start of the run, at a speed of 320 kilometers per hour. The crew made two 90-degree turns to starboard and headed east. At 05:27, the Tu-154 disappeared from the radar screens and fell into the sea 1.6 kilometers from the coast and six kilometers from the edge of the runway. The flight lasted only 70 seconds.

Shortly after the tragedy, the military investigative department of the Investigative Committee (IC) for the Sochi garrison opened a criminal case under Article 351 of the Russian Criminal Code - "Violation of flight rules that entailed grave consequences." Later, the case was transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee. The operational support of the investigation was undertaken by the FSB of Russia. In addition, a commission of the Ministry of Defense headed by Deputy Minister, General of the Army Pavel Popov was created. As Lieutenant-General Sergei Bainetov, head of the aviation safety service of the Armed Forces, said at the end of December, more than 15 versions of the plane crash were initially worked out. Later their number decreased.

Human factor

The first versions of the causes of the crash the day after the crash were voiced by the FSB of Russia: foreign objects getting into the engine, low-quality fuel, piloting error or a technical malfunction of the aircraft. Representatives of the investigation stressed that the plane did not carry military or dual-use cargo. No signs of sabotage or terrorist attack were found either. In Sochi, only two border guards and a customs officer boarded the plane.

The expert community also voiced several versions, including quite exotic ones. In particular, it was assumed that the Tu-154 could open fire from a portable anti-aircraft missile system, which led to the destruction of the airframe in the air. In addition, experts did not rule out that co-pilot Alexander Rovensky could have made a fatal mistake by mixing up the landing gear and flaps control levers. For this reason, the aircraft could not gain altitude, began to fall and hit the tail of the water.

The Ministry of Defense named the possible cause of the Tu-154 crash over the Black SeaAccording to the accident investigation commission, the plane could have crashed due to the erroneous actions of the crew commander as a result of "violation of spatial orientation."

Later, experts studied the issue of the ship's workload. In April, the media reported that the crash could have occurred due to an overload of the liner. Then the journalists claimed that instead of the normative 98 tons, the weight of the aircraft during takeoff allegedly amounted to more than 110 tons. As a result, the Ministry of Defense did not find "violations of the current requirements regarding the seating of passengers in the Tu-154 cabin, as well as loading and centering the transported cargo."

"According to the results of the investigation, it was established that the cause of the accident could be a violation of spatial orientation - the situational awareness of the aircraft commander, which led to his erroneous actions," representatives of the military department voiced their version at the end of May.

Set point early

Earlier, journalists from the Kommersant newspaper came to similar conclusions by publishing their own investigation, supported by comments from informed sources. It was alleged, in particular, that the pilot Roman Volkov began to experience difficulties in determining his location while still on the ground - he could not figure out which of the two lanes he would take off from. According to the publication, the aircraft commander stopped navigating in space immediately after takeoff. Instead of relying on instrument readings, as required by all flight instructions, pilot Volkov began to rely on his own physiological sensations. The vestibular apparatus "informed" him that the car was climbing too fast, so the major began to lower the nose of the plane. This, as Kommersant writes, led to the crash.

However, the Investigative Committee, which has already extended the investigation several times, should put an end to the clarification of the causes of the disaster. Last Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation told RIA Novosti that specialists would need a few more months. According to him, the repeated suspensions are due to the need for additional investigative actions and the collection of exhaustive evidence in the criminal case.

“It is quite possible that this is not the last extension of the investigation due to the fact that a complex examination is currently being carried out, which is not possible to complete in a short time,” the source emphasized.

Deciphering the black boxes of the Tu-154 aircraft that crashed near Sochi showed that the cause of the accident was the error of the co-pilot and overload.

The reasons that led to: the error of the co-pilot, who mixed up the control levers, as well as overload, became known.

After a complete decoding of the black boxes of the Tu-154 crashed at the end of December 2016 in the waters of Sochi - parametric and speech - the experts of the Ministry of Defense can in fact accurately name the causes of the crash.

According to experts, the plane with passengers was ruined by a combination of several factors: the board went on its last flight overloaded, and co-pilot Alexander Rovensky on takeoff mixed up the landing gear and flaps control levers. When the crew noticed the mistake, it was already too late: the heavy Tu-154 simply did not have enough height for a saving maneuver, so it hit the water with the tail section of the fuselage and collapsed.

The human factor is recognized as a priority version of the Tu-154 crash.

"Studied by the experts of the Research Center for the Operation and Repair of Aircraft of the Ministry of Defense in Lyubertsy, the data of speech and parametric (fixing the operation of all aircraft units) recorders say that in the third minute of the flight, when the liner was at an altitude of 450 meters above sea level, the sensors of the directional stability system worked The car began to lose altitude sharply due to problems with the flaps, "Life.ru quotes a source related to the study of the causes of the disaster.

According to experts, this happened after the co-pilot, 33-year-old captain Alexander Rovensky, instead of retracting the landing gear, retracted the flaps.

“From this, the plane went into an outrageous angle of attack, the crew tried to turn the car around to reach the ground, but they didn’t have time to do this,” the source added.

As it turned out, the situation was aggravated by the overload of the Tu-154. In the luggage compartment, everything was filled to capacity. The tail of the aircraft pulled down. It was impossible to save the car: there was not enough speed and height. The tail section of the first touched the water, and then the Tu-154 hit the sea with its right wing at high speed and collapsed.

The emergency situation was a complete surprise for the crew: in the first seconds, the aircraft 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.

From the words of the co-pilot and the commander of the ship, it becomes clear that something happened to the flaps, after which an alarm sounded due to the maximum angle of attack of the Tu-154.

Black box decryption:

Speed ​​300... (Unintelligible.)
- (Unintelligible.)
- Took the racks, commander.
- (Unintelligible.)
- Wow, my!
(Sharp beep sounds.)
- Flaps, bitch, what the fuck!
- Altimeter!
- We ... (inaudible.)
(Ground proximity warning sounds.)
- (Unintelligible.)
- Commander, we're falling!

So the experts realized that the aircraft had problems with the flaps precisely through the fault of the crew.

The pilots who flew the Tu-154 confirm the conclusions of experts from the Ministry of Defense that the cause of the disaster could be pilot error.

"At Tupolev, the landing gear and flaps retract handles are made on the canopy of the cockpit, between them, above the windshield. You can confuse them, especially if the co-pilot, sitting on the right, whose duties include controlling the flaps and landing gear during takeoff, is tired. From After that, the aircraft went into an extreme angle of attack, hit the water, and its tail section fell off," said Viktor Sazhenin, Honored Pilot of the Russian Federation, who himself flew the Tu-154 for eight years.

This version is also considered acceptable by test pilot Hero of Russia Magomed Tolboev.

"On the Tu-154 control panel, the flaps and landing gear toggle switches are located above the windshield. The flaps are on the left, the landing gear is on the right. The co-pilot, who sits in the seat on the right, is responsible for them. It is possible that the pilot could mix up the levers or be distracted by something , so the plane took off with the landing gear extended and the flaps retracted," Tolboev said.

According to Tolboev, one cannot exclude such a version that after takeoff the crew exceeded the speed and the flap mechanism collapsed, due to which the liner fell to the right, lost speed and crashed into the water.

Another factor in the Tu-154 disaster in Sochi could be the lack of sufficient knowledge on how to act in an emergency situation from the commander of the ship and the co-pilot.

“Most likely, neither the commander of the aircraft, Roman Volkov, nor the co-pilot Alexander Rovensky, who graduated from military schools in the early 2000s, underwent special flight training,” says a source in the commission investigating the crash in Sochi.

According to him, if the pilots had undergone special training for piloting in extreme situations at the Lipetsk Aviation Center for the Retraining of Military Pilots or at the Gromov Flight Research Institute, then perhaps the disaster could have been avoided.

“In the military schools that the pilots graduated from, they were hardly taught how, in the event of a failure of the flaps at low altitudes, set them to reverse release in order to bring the liner out of the prohibitive angle of attack,” the expert explained.

In addition, the engineers of the Scientific Research Center for the Operation and Repair of Aircraft of the Ministry of Defense in Lyubertsy do not exclude that when the crew tried to turn the car around to reach the ground, it had a good chance of salvation, if not for the overload.

“Overload is evidenced by the fact that when the plane began to lose altitude, it was the tail section that hit the water first, which fell off, and then the car’s right wing caught the water and crashed into the sea,” said a source in the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation.

According to him, it cannot be ruled out that the luggage compartment was simply overloaded.

“After all, this was almost the last flight of a civilian aircraft to Syria, and relatives and colleagues of the military on a business trip could beg the airfield management and the crew to take on board too much. And during the flight and after landing in Sochi, the cargo could shake. During takeoff from Sochi, the cargo moved to the tail section of the liner, and the car was pulled down in an emergency situation with flaps," the expert says.

The accident with the Tu-154 B-2 with tail number RA-85572 of the Ministry of Defense occurred on December 25, 2016. It was at 5:40 am Moscow time, 1.7 kilometers from the coast of Sochi. The aircraft of the Ministry of Defense flew to the Syrian Khmeimim from the Chkalovsky airfield, and in Sochi it was only refueling. There were 92 people on board the ship. A few minutes after taking off from the runway, the plane disappeared from the radar screens.

The crashed airliner was based at the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow and was part of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "State Airline" 223rd Flight Detachment "of the Ministry of Defense, which transports military personnel.

The Tu-154 B-2 modification is designed to carry 180 economy class passengers and was produced from 1978 to 1986. A total of 382 aircraft were built. Since 2012, Russian civil airlines have not operated the Tu-154 B-2.

Participants in the investigation of the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea, second by second, restored the circumstances of the crash of the liner. Writes about this "Kommersant".

On the day of the crash, the Tu-154 was supposed to make two training flights to transport troops (passengers), equipment and cargo. The first flight went smoothly, but the second "didn't work out right from the start." According to experts, Tu-154 commander Roman Volkov “began to experience difficulties in determining his location” while still on the ground - while the car was moving along taxiways. Volkov allegedly “could not understand at all” from which of the two runways of the airfield he was to take off and which way was better to taxi to the beginning of this runway.

As a result, the liner took off at 5:24 with a heading of 238 °. Already at the seventh second after takeoff, in the cockpit, according to the participants in the investigation, a special situation arose: “Volkov began emotionally, using profanity, to find out from the crew which course they took off.” The captain lost control over the take-off parameters himself and distracted his colleagues from work, experts say.

Then Volkov set the Tu-154 to the correct pitch of 15°, but almost immediately made the first "illogical" action, deflecting the steering wheel away from him and slowing down the climb. At the 53rd second of the flight, when the Tu-154 climbed only 157 meters, Volkov ordered the flaps to be removed, although according to the regulations this must be done at an altitude of 500 meters. At the same time, he himself continued to deflect the helm away from himself. As a result, the liner at around 231 meters went down.

The aircraft began to quickly (6-8 meters per second) lose altitude, the crew's warnings about a dangerous approach to the ground worked. However, none of the pilots paid any attention to this.

At an altitude of 67 meters, the “Left roll is high” alarm went off, and when 34 meters were left to the water, Volkov turned the steering wheel all the way to the right, trying to correct the mistake, but it was too late. At the 73rd second of the flight, the Tu-154, having touched the surface of the sea with its left wing, fell apart and sank. At the time of the collision, the left bank was about 50 °, and the indicated speed was 540 kilometers per hour.

According to experts, the disaster was accompanied by fatigue and poor professional training of the crew. Captain Volkov lost his orientation in space, having fallen into the power of the so-called somatogravitational illusions. The vestibular apparatus "told" him that the plane was climbing too fast, and the pilot began to lower the nose of the plane.

Tu-154 flying from Sochi to Syria, crashed over the Black Sea on 25 December 2016. There were 92 people on board, all of them died. Among the victims of the crash were the artists of the Alexandrov Ensemble and Elizaveta Glinka (Doctor Lisa).

At the end of May, the Ministry of Defense announced part of the results of the investigation into the Tu-154 crash. The commission rejected versions with low-quality fuel, overload and the impact of external factors. According to the military department, the disaster most likely occurred due to a violation of the spatial orientation of the commander.

"Crew's erroneous actions" are called 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: "According to the results of the investigation, it was established that the cause of the accident could be 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 a report by Lieutenant-General Sergei Baynetov, head of the Aviation Safety Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, on the results of the work of the “accident investigation commission” were leaked to the Internet. The document is very similar to the real one. It is dated May 4, 2017 and has an outgoing 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 air base for special purposes of the aerospace forces (VKS) of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the last minutes are by the second. The key takeaway from the paper is: “The cause of the crash of the Tu-154 B-2 aircraft was a violation of the 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 switched to a descent at the climb stage and collided with the water surface” .

The document emphasizes that the commander of the aircraft, Major Roman Volkov "began to experience difficulties in determining his location on the territory of the airfield, associated with his idea of ​​​​the upcoming take-off course", not understanding which of the two runways of the Sochi airport will take off.

At 5 hours 24 minutes 36 seconds the crew began to take off with a heading of 238°. But already at the seventh second of the takeoff run, the aircraft commander (PIC) "emotionally began to ask the crew about the take-off course." At the same time, using "profanity", which led "to the PIC's omission to control the ground take-off parameters, distracting crew members from their functional duties".

Having barely lifted off the ground, having given the aircraft a pitch of 15 °, Major Volkov deflected the helm away from himself, slowing down the climb. And already at the 53rd second of the flight, when the aircraft gained only 157 meters of altitude, the PIC ordered to remove the flaps, 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 deflect the steering wheel away from himself. This led to the fact that at an altitude of 231 meters the aircraft switched to the descent mode, losing altitude at a speed of 6-8 m/s. A siren went off, a red display flashed in the cockpit. But none of the crew paid any attention to it.

At the 70th second of the flight, when the Tu-154 was only 90 meters from the water surface, the PIC abruptly turned the aircraft, which was going into a turn 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 the flight, the Tu-154 at a speed of 540 km / h and a left bank of about 50, touching 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 "steady skills" of piloting in difficult situations.

Experienced military pilots, whom we asked to comment on the conclusions of the commission on the causes of the Sochi disaster and a document circulated 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 are many inconsistencies in both the official report and the “document”.

Our experts noticed that at the Sochi airport, planes are taxiing to the start behind the escort car. In addition, the airport is equipped with illuminated signs for taxiway numbers and runways. It is almost impossible to get lost at the Sochi airport. If Major Volkov is “lost” already on the ground, a take-off ban should immediately follow.

What happened after takeoff cannot be explained:

“Unless there was a collective insanity,” said one of our experts. - The actions of both the captain and the crew are absolutely inadequate. The actions of the rudders (especially the rudder - from the pedals) after takeoff do not lend themselves to a normal explanation. The flight speed indicated in the document allows the aircraft to stay in the air, but a normal, trained, tested and approved pilot for this type of flight could not allow such actions with rudders.

The actual self-withdrawal of the co-pilot and navigator also defies explanation:

- The crew sees that the PIC makes one fatal mistake after another, and does nothing. This is impossible in military transport aviation.

“It can be assumed that the checkpoint-1 (commander and flight instrument is the main instrument of any aircraft) failed,” suggested another of our interlocutors. - The "document" says about its direct indication, they say, it's complicated. Yes, it's difficult. During retraining, on the simulator. And Volkov was an experienced pilot. In addition, checkpoint-1 has a duplicate artificial horizon AGR-72.

Our experts noticed that the "document" says that the landing gear was removed, but in all the photographs of the collected wreckage of the crashed Tu-154, the landing gear is in the extended position.

One of our experts, a veteran of military transport aviation with more than 10,000 flight hours, of which about 4,000 is a Tu-154 crew commander, continues to adhere to the version that Novaya published back in March. Our interlocutor assumes that the regular crew commander of the Tu-154, Major Roman Volkov, during takeoff served as the co-pilot, however, being in his place, and the pilot took off, not only not trained and not allowed to fly on this type of aircraft, but also not included in the flight assignment, 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 aircraft was indeed a senior instructor-pilot of military unit 42829, lieutenant colonel. And he flew precisely on the An-72.

The “document”, positioned as a report by Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, is very similar to the real one, but our experts do not rule out that this is a fake made “on the basis” of this document.