Occur almost annually since the start of flights of this type of aircraft. From 1973 to 2011, there were only a few years during which there would not have been a single incident related to the Tu-154.

In total, 72 Tu-154 aircraft were lost in accidents and disasters. largest Tu-154 crash(and all Soviet aviation) occurred on July 10, 1985 near Uchkuduk. The overloaded plane fell into a tailspin due to the fault of the crew. There were 200 people on board, all of them died.

In general, despite the fact that, according to some pilots, the Tu-154 is too complicated for mass passenger liner and requires highly qualified both flight and ground personnel, this airliner has established itself as a completely reliable and safe aircraft. Moreover, Tu-154 crashes do not always happen due to the fault of technology.

Of course, airliner problems happen, but more often they occur on aircraft that are overused and do not receive appropriate maintenance. In addition, errors of the crew, dispatchers, or other circumstances often lead to disasters. For example, in 2011, a civilian flight flying over the Black Sea was mistakenly shot down by a Ukrainian air defense missile during an exercise…

Of the recent disasters, it is worth noting Polish Tu-154, which crashed near Smolensk in 2010. On that plane is the President of Poland with his wife, as well as many high-ranking officials. They all died.

But there are also better outcomes. In 2010, a plane with failed engines was able to land safely at an abandoned airfield in Izhma. This legendary Alrosa company saved the lives of 81 people.

The table below provides a short list of all Tu-154 crashes compiled by Wikipedia.

date	Board number	Location of the incident	Victims/On board	Short description
19.02.1973	85023	Prague	66/100	Crashed before flying 470 meters to the runway.
03.1973	n.a.	Kyiv	0/n.a.	Crashed.
07.05.1973	85030	Vnukovo	0/6	Crashed while on a training flight.
10.07.1974	SU-AXB	Cairo	6/6	Crashed while on a training flight.
30.09.1975	HA-LCI	Beirut	60/60	Flight Budapest-Beirut, crashed in the sea while landing.
01.06.1976	85102	Malabo	46/46	Crashed into a mountain while landing.
1976	85020	Kyiv	0/n.a.	Rough landing. Now in Ukrainian state museum aviation.
02.12.1977	LZ-BTN	Benghazi	59/165	Failed to land in fog, ran out of fuel in search of an alternate airfield and made a rough landing.
23.03.1978	LZ-BTB	near Damascus	4/4	Crashed while landing.
19.05.1978	85169	Maksatikha	4/134	Due to a flight engineer's mistake, the fuel supply was cut off, he made an emergency landing in the field.
18.02.1978	85087	Tolmachevo	0/n.a.	Fire on board. The surviving tail of the liner was filmed in the movie The Crew.
01.03.1980	85103	Orenburg	0/161	Rough landing with fuselage deformation.
07.07.1980	85355	Alma-Ata	164/164	Crashed on takeoff. Wind shear.
07.08.1980	YP-TPH	Mauritania	1/168	Wrong water landing 300 m before the runway.
08.10.1980	85321	Chita	0/n.a.	Rough landing.
13.06.1981	85029	Bratsk	0/n.a.	During landing, it rolled out of the wet runway, the tail came off along the 28th row.
20.09.1981	85448	Tashkent	n.a.	Burnt out while refueling.
16.11.1981	85480	Norilsk	99/167	Rough landing 470 meters from runway due to elevator failure.
21.10.1981	HA-LCF	Prague	0/81	Rough landing due to crew error.
11.10.1984	85243	Omsk	4+174/179	Collided with aircraft during landing. Manager error.
23.12.1984	85338	Krasnoyarsk	110/110	The fire of the third engine and the failure of the hydraulic systems.
10.07.1985	85311	Uchkuduk	200/200	The overloaded aircraft fell into a flat tailspin at supercritical angles of attack due to the fault of the crew.
1986	7O-ACN	Aden	n.a.	Details are unknown. At this time, a civil war was going on in the country.
21.05.1986	85327	Domodedovo	0/175	Received a residual deformation of the structure in flight due to erroneous actions of the crew. The plane has been turned into a training aid.
18.01.1988	85254	Krasnovodsk	11/143	Rough landing, as a result the fuselage broke in half.
08.03.1988	85413	Veshchevo	9/n. d.	Blown up on the ground by Ovechkin terrorists.
24.09.1988	85479	Aleppo	0/168	Wind shear, rough landing, plane broke in two.
24.09.1988	85617	Norilsk	0/n.a.	Rough landing. The plane has been turned into a training aid.
13.01.1989	85067	Monrovia	0/n.a.	Takeoff aborted due to overload, overrun from the runway.
09.02.1989	YR-TPJ	Bucharest	5/5	Training flight. Crashed on takeoff due to engine failure.
20.10.1990	85186	Kutaisi	0/171	Due to overload at the limiting front centering, the nose landing gear broke.
17.11.1990	85664	Czech	0/6	He was transporting cigarettes from Switzerland, the cargo caught fire in flight. The pilots landed the plane in a field, where it burned down completely.
23.05.1991	85097	Pulkovo	2+13/178	Rough landing, the landing gear gave way and the plane fell apart.
14.09.1991	CU-T1227	mexico city	0/112
05.06.1992	LZ-BTD	Varna	0/130	When landing in a downpour, it skidded off the runway.
18.06.1992	85282	Bratsk	1+0/0	Burnt out while refueling. The foreman of tankers died, having led a burning fuel truck away from the airport terminal.
18.06.1992	85234	Bratsk	0/0	Burned out during refueling along with board 85282.
20.07.1992	85222	Tbilisi	4+24/24	Crashed on takeoff due to overload.
01.08.1992	YA-TAP	Kabul	0/0	Destroyed in the parking lot by mortar fire. Before that, it was hit during the landing approach, but then the damage was not very significant
05.09.1992	85269	Kyiv	0/147	Return to the airport, left landing gear failed, rough landing.
13.10.1992	85528	Vladivostok	0/67
05.12.1992	85105	Yerevan	0/154	On landing, it skidded off the runway.
19.01.1993	85533	Delhi	0/165	Rough landing due to pilot error overrunning the runway.
08.02.1993	EP-ITD	near Tehran	2+131/131	Collided in the air with the Iranian Air Force Su-22.
22.09.1993	85163	Sukhumi	108/132	Damaged by a missile fired by Abkhazian forces while landing at Sukhumi airport. The crew tried to land, but as a result of a rough collision with the runway, a fire started on board.
23.09.1993	85359	Sukhumi	0/0	Came under fire from the Abkhaz troops.
25.12.1993	85296	Grozny	0/172	Rough landing - nose landing gear broke. Destroyed at a repair site during an airstrike on December 1, 1994.
03.01.1994	85656	Irkutsk	1+125/125	Engine fire during takeoff, causing failure of hydraulic systems.
06.06.1994	B-2610	Xi'an	160/160	Broke up in the air due to overloads with an incorrectly configured autopilot.
21.01.1995	85455	Karachi	0/117	Could not take off due to overload, rolled out of the runway.
07.12.1995	85164	Khabarovsk	98/98	Asymmetric pumping of fuel from tanks; The PIC mistakenly increased the formed right roll and the flight became uncontrollable.
29.08.1996	85621	Longyearbyen	141/141	Crashed into a mountain while landing. Crew error.
13.09.1997	11+02	Namibia	24/24	Military. Collided mid-air with a US Air Force C-141.
15.12.1997	85281	Sharjah	85/86	Landing to the runway. Crew error.
29.08.1998	CU-T1264	Quito	10+70/91	Aborted takeoff, the aircraft skidded off the runway and caught fire.
24.02.1999	B-2622	Rui'an	61/61	During the descent, a technical failure occurred.
04.07.2000	HA-LCR	Thessaloniki	0/76	Couldn't go around due to heavy braking so as not to collide with another aircraft on a busy runway.
03.07.2001	85845	Irkutsk	145/145	Crashed on approach due to pilot error.
04.10.2001	85693	Black Sea	78/78	Erroneously shot down by a Ukrainian air defense missile during an exercise.
12.02.2002	EP-MBS	Khorremabad	119/119	Crashed on descent.
20.02.2002	EP-LBX	Mashhad	0/n.a.	Rough landing. Damaged during repairs at Vnukovo, decommissioned.
01.07.2002	85816	Überlingen	69/69	Collided in the air with a Boeing 757 due to controller errors.
24.08.2004	85556	Millerovo	46/46	Blown up in the air by a suicide bomber.
22.08.2006	85185	Donetsk	170/170	Aircraft commander's mistake: attempt to overfly a thunderstorm front at maximum altitude. Falling into a "flat spin".
01.09.2006	EP-MCF	Mashhad	29/147	A tire burst on landing, the aircraft skidded off the runway and caught fire.
30.06.2008	85667	Pulkovo	0/112	Engine fire on takeoff. Takeoff aborted, aircraft decommissioned.
08.05.2009	EP-MCR	near Mashhad	0/169	Caught in severe turbulence, damaged by hail. Decommissioned.
15.07.2009	EP-CPG	near Qazvin	168/168	Destruction of the engine on the echelon. Lost control and crashed.
24.01.2010	85787	Mashhad	0/170	During a rough landing, the tail fell off the liner, a fire started.
10.04.2010	101	Smolensk	96/96	Crashed on test approach in dense fog. On board were Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other dignitaries.
04.12.2010	85744	Domodedovo	2/163	Failure of two engines after takeoff from Vnukovo. During an emergency landing at Domodedovo, it skidded off the runway and fell apart.
01.01.2011	85588	Surgut	3/134	In preparation for takeoff, a fire broke out on board: the causes are being investigated, the most likely is a malfunction of electrical equipment.

And a Tu-154 passenger plane crashed into the Black Sea, 185 km from Sochi, on a Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk flight.

All 78 people on board were killed: 66 passengers and 12 crew members.

As reported, there were 15 Russian citizens and 51 Israeli citizens on board the plane. Among the passengers was Vladimir Alekseev, deputy general director of Siberia Airlines for security. According to Siberia Airlines, all crew members were company employees and Russian citizens.

Novosibirsk airline Siberia, which owned the deceased airliner, is one of the largest regional airlines in Russia. It specializes mainly in passenger transportation.

At 13:30, the aircraft entered the area of ​​responsibility of the control center in Rostov-on-Don. Everything was normal, the plane was flying at an altitude of 11.11 thousand meters at a speed of 850 kilometers per hour. At 13:44, the plane disappeared from the radar screens. Dispatchers requested aircraft located in that area. The commander of the An-24 aircraft of the Armenian airline said that the aircraft exploded to its left, its wreckage falling into the sea.

An An-26 aircraft of the Russian Federal Border Service urgently flew to the accident site from Gelendzhik. The patrol border ship "Vulture" also went there. Also, an AN-12 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense and a Mi-8 helicopter of the Sochi search and rescue service with rafts and rescuers on board flew to the crash site, two rescue tugboats - "Mercury" from Tuapse and "Kapitan Beklemishchev" from Novorossiysk - headed.

Vladimir Rushailo was appointed head of the commission to investigate the causes of the plane crash. In the meantime, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) and the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation created their own commission to investigate an aviation accident in the airspace over the Black Sea.

On October 5, 2001, Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky opened a criminal case under the article "terrorism" in connection with the crash of the Tu-154 aircraft. According to the Office of Information and Public Relations of the Prosecutor General's Office, the case was initiated at the direction of Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov. By his own order, Sergei Fridinsky headed the investigation team.

The bodies of the dead, some fragments of the crashed Tu-154 and the crew's documents found at sea were delivered to the shore by the Kapitan Vakula cargo ship.

At 9:15 am local time (5:15 pm Moscow time), almost the same day, two months after the September 11 tragedy, an American Airlines Airbus A-300-600 side number N14053 crashed into New York after taking off from international airport named after Kennedy.

The aircraft was operating flight 587 from Boston via New York to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). There were 260 people on board the aircraft, including 9 crew members. Two minutes after takeoff, an explosion occurred on the right side of the plane. Witnesses claim that before the plane hit the ground, fragments of the turbine and fuselage were already falling from the sky. There were no signals from the crew about an explosion on board.

According to eyewitnesses, after takeoff, the plane climbed unusually slowly and rolled heavily to the left side. Apparently, a fire broke out in one of the engines. The pilots activated an emergency fuel jettison to allow for an emergency landing. But a few moments later there was an explosion, and the turbine came off the wing.

She fell into the parking lot of a Texaco gas station, just a few meters from the underground gas tanks. And the plane itself crashed into neighboring houses.

More than 10 residential buildings were engulfed in flames. There is a school five blocks from the crash site. It was empty, because in America the holiday is Veterans Day. All New York airports, bridges and tunnels were closed. There was a huge column of smoke at the crash site, helicopters were circling. As the smoke turned from black to white, fire brigades were actively extinguishing the flames.

Representatives of the US Federal Transportation Safety Administration announced that the cause of the death of the American Airlines Airbus, which was operating Flight No. 587 to the Dominican Republic, was most likely some kind of malfunction, although just a day before departure, the plane passed another technical check. Data processing of the voice recorder found at the scene of the tragedy did not give any reason to believe that there were terrorists on board.

According to official data from American Airlines, there were 251 passengers on board the liner (including five infants who were not issued separate tickets) and 9 crew members. They all died. In addition, "from 6 to 9 people" who were on the ground at the time of the disaster are listed as missing. 4 houses were completely burned down, 12 more were damaged to varying degrees.

About 150 citizens were on board the crashed A-300 aircraft Dominican Republic. This was announced by the President of the Dominican Republic Hippolyte Mejia. According to official sources, there were no Russian citizens on board the crashed plane.

According to a local television channel, representatives of American Airlines did not even come out to the people gathered at the airport to explain the situation to them.

The final report of the Air Crash Investigation Commission (October 26, 2004) states that the Airbus A300 got into the wake of a Japanese airliner taking off in front of it. The high sensitivity of the rudder (height? - OK note) to the actions of the pedals was also noted.

Audio recording of the crew's conversations in the last minutes before the crash.

Crew

The coordinates of the approximate crash site have been determined 42.183333 , 37.616667 42°11′ N. sh. 37°37′ E d. /  42.183333° N. sh. 37.616667° E d.(G)(O), which is about 280 kilometers from Novorossiysk.

A special commission was set up to determine the causes of the accident. An-26 of the Russian Federal Border Service urgently flew to the accident site from Gelendzhik. The patrol border ship “Vulture” also went there. Also, an AN-12 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense and a Mi-8 helicopter of the Sochi search and rescue service with rafts and rescuers on board flew to the crash site, two rescue tugboats headed for the crash - "Mercury" from Tuapse and "Captain Beklemishchev" from Novorossiysk, as well as a vessel of the Russian Emergencies Ministry "Rescuer Prokopchik". An-12 aircraft found oil stains at the alleged crash site. Helicopters found several aircraft wreckage and the bodies of dead passengers floating on the surface of the sea.

Versions

Technical investigation

October 5 there was information about holes found in the fuselage of the Tu-154, resembling bullet holes, but this information was called premature. Vladimir Tasun, head of the West Siberian Regional Air Transport Administration, said that “according to unverified information, the dispatcher saw a luminous dot on the locator rapidly approaching the aircraft. Here is the only thing that was received from unofficial sources via telephone channels by employees of the Siberia company from Rostov. On the same day, rescuers from Israel joined the Russian rescuers, and an analysis of the conversations of the Tu-154 crew and an analysis of the videotape recording the radar readings were also started. On this day, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Kinakh made a statement that the version of a missile hitting a Tu-154 aircraft of Siberia Airlines "has the right to exist."

October 6 Vladimir Rushailo, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, said that items not related to the structure of the aircraft were found at the crash site, and that "the aircraft was destroyed as a result of an explosive impact." At the same time, Ivan Teterin, head of the Main Directorate of the North Caucasian Regional Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, expressed the opinion that the likelihood of finding any remains of the Tu-154 aircraft at the bottom of the Black Sea is minimal due to the great depth and zero visibility.

October 7th According to the commission, at 13:45:12 a ground-based tape recorder recorded the cry of the Tu-154 pilot.

October 9 According to the commission, the analysis of the holes in the fuselage shows that the aircraft could have been hit by a missile from the S-200 air defense system, since the size and shape of the holes are consistent with the shrapnel of the high-explosive fragmentation warhead of the missile of this particular complex. Establishing the details of the disaster is complicated by the inability to determine the exact place where the plane crashed - the wreckage was scattered over an area with a radius of more than 12 nautical miles.

October 10 The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia announced preliminary data from a forensic medical examination of the dead - the cause of death of all 14 passengers whose bodies were found during search and rescue operations was barotrauma. Also, according to information from Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky, carbon monoxide was found in the blood of the dead, which indicates a fire on board the ship.

October 11 Vladimir Rushailo published the conclusion of the technical commission investigating the causes of the crash of the Tu-154 aircraft: “multiple damage in the form of similar holes indicate the defeat Russian aircraft from outside". At the same time, Rushailo stressed that "the remains of the plane that crashed into the sea were not found due to the complex structure of the bottom, the aggressive sulfur-hydrogen environment and a large layer of silt - up to 6 meters."

October 12 The press secretary of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Konstantin Khivrenko, commenting on the preliminary results of the investigation into the incident, admitted that the Ukrainian missile could have caused the death of the Tu-154.

October 13 Vladimir Rushailo said that, according to the analysis of the wreckage of the aircraft and holes, an anti-aircraft missile exploded 15 meters above the aircraft. The Minister of Defense of Ukraine at a conference in Kyiv apologized to the families and friends of those who died as a result of the crash of the Russian Tu-154 aircraft. “We know that we are involved in the tragedy, although its causes have not yet been fully established.”

Ukrainian expertise

Legal investigation and claims for damages

Initially, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case under the article "Terrorism" on the fact of the crash of a Tu-154 passenger plane over the Black Sea. . After the publication of the commission's findings on October 16, 2001, the case was transferred to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, the Russian side officially closed the case.

Immediately after the court decision, the head of the Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Victims, Boris Kalinovsky, and the Belonogov family, who refused to receive material assistance, filed a lawsuit in court for compensation for moral damage - the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine were the defendants. The case was considered in the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv and on January 30, 2008 compensation was completely denied. In the motivational part of the refusal, it was indicated that the fault of the defendants in the accident was not established by the investigation of the prosecutor's office, the evidence provided by the plaintiffs is contradictory and cannot be recognized as the basis for satisfying the claim. The losing party did not appeal against the decision of the court.

Simultaneously with the lawsuit filed by the relatives of the victims, Siberia Airlines OJSC filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the State Treasury of Ukraine for damages: the amount of claims included the market value of the destroyed aircraft with additional equipment, expenses associated with the investigation of the crash, expenses for insurance, lost profits in connection with the loss of the aircraft, and non-pecuniary damage. The consideration of the case lasted more than seven years and ended with the victory of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine: based on the additional analysis of the materials of the State Commission for Investigation conducted by the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Examination, the claims were completely denied. On October 10, 2011, the losing party filed an appeal with the Kyiv Economic Court of Appeal.

On May 28, 2012, the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal dismissed the complaint Russian airline"Siberia" (S7 Airlines) against the decision of the court of first instance, which did not recognize the guilt of the Ukrainian military in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 in 2001. On December 11, 2012, the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine upheld the decision. Representatives of the airline announced their intention to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Versions of the causes of the tragedy

Operator error

The S-200 anti-aircraft missile system uses a semi-active guidance system, when a powerful ground-based radar ("target illumination") serves as a radiation source, and the missile itself is guided by the signal reflected from the target. In the S-200, there are two main modes of operation of the target illumination radar - MHI (monochromatic radiation) and FCM (phase code modulation). MHI mode is commonly used for scanning airspace when searching for targets, the elevation angle, azimuth and radial velocity of the target are determined, but there is no determination of the range to the target. The range is determined in the FKM mode, but switching the radar to this mode takes up to 30 seconds and may not be performed if there is not enough time.

It is most probable that during the training firing with the participation of the Ukrainian air defense, which was carried out on October 4, 2001 at Cape Opuk in the Crimea, the Ty-154 aircraft accidentally ended up in the center of the intended firing sector of the training target and had a radial speed close to it, as a result of which it was detected by the S-200 system radar and taken as a training target. In the conditions of lack of time and nervousness caused by the presence of the high command and foreign guests, the S-200 operator did not determine the range to the target and "highlighted" the Tu-154 (which was at a distance of 250-300 km) instead of an inconspicuous training target (launched from a range of 60 km). Thus, the defeat of the Tu-154 by an anti-aircraft missile was most likely the result not of a missile missing a training target (as is sometimes claimed), but of the S-200 operator clearly aiming the missile at an erroneously identified target. The calculation of the complex did not assume the possibility of such an outcome of the shooting and did not take measures to prevent it. The dimensions of the range did not ensure the safety of firing air defense systems of such a range. The necessary measures to free the airspace were not taken by the organizers of the firing.

terrorist attack

Due to the absence of the remains of the aircraft and the "black boxes" that were never found, the establishment of absolutely reliable causes of the crash was considered impossible by the KNIISE examination, but based on the available information, Ukrainian experts suggested that the aircraft was damaged by an explosive device that could be located "between the ceiling of the interior of the aircraft" and its body.

The reaction of the highest officials of the states affected by the plane crash

Russia

Ukraine

Israel

The statement of the Ukrainian president “there are tragedies on a larger scale” shocked the world community. The frivolous statement of L. D. Kuchma provoked an angry reaction from official Israel. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon commented on the Ukrainian president's statement:

When the victim is not a member of your people, then perhaps it is possible to make such academic inferences. 78 people died, most of them Israelis - for us this is the greatest tragedy.

16th episode of the series " Aerobatics» (Russia, 2009) contains references to the described disaster: the Russian Il-86 aircraft made a flight from Tel Aviv to Moscow, got into the air defense training area of ​​Ukraine over the Black Sea and was shot down from the S-200 air defense system (in the film , however, the plane managed to land in the steppe in the Kuban)

Perpetuation of memory

ten years later

Notes

1. I am not me and the rocket is not mine
2. Plane crash of flight Tu-154 Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk (2001). Help | Help | News feed "RIA Novosti"
3. "The crash of the Tu-154 aircraft in the Black Sea occurred due to a terrorist attack"
4. Tu-154 plane crash in the Black Sea
5. Chronicle of tragedy
6. Western media report that the TU-154 aircraft was shot down by a missile from the territory of Ukraine
7. Tu-154 was shot down by a Ukrainian missile?
8. In search of the Ukrainian trace
9. No bullet holes found on Tu-154 fuselage - News NEWSru.com
10. There is practically no hope for Triton
11. “The cause of the death of the passengers of the TU-154 was barotrauma”
12. “Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo told journalists the conclusion of the technical commission. ... "
13. “Conclusion of the commission investigating the death of TU-154: “the aircraft was hit from the outside””
14. News NEWSru.com:: Experts deny that the Russian Tu-154, which crashed in the Black Sea in 2001, was shot down by a Ukrainian missile
15. Experts deny the defeat of a Russian aircraft by a Ukrainian missile in 2001 // RIANovosti Ukraine.
16. Ukraine sees no reason to initiate proceedings over the Tu-154 crash
17. Investigation is over, forget it
18. The Prosecutor General's Office again took up the case of the crash of the Russian Tu-154 over the Black Sea
19. The court ordered the Ukrainian prosecutor's office to reopen the case of the Tu-154 crash
20. Economic court of Kyiv dismissed the claim of Siberia Airlines against the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine
21. Ukraine denied a claim to the families of those killed in the Tu-154 crash
22. The decision of the Kyiv court in the case of the downed Tu-154 in 2001 was appealed
23. The Ukrainian military is not involved in the emergency with the Tu-154 in 2001, the court confirmed // RIA Novosti, 05/28/2012, 15:27
24. Khripun, V.; Shagiakhmetov, P. Ukraine will appear before the ECHR. Kommersant (December 12, 2012). Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.

Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea- a plane crash that occurred on Thursday October 4, 2001. The Tu-154M airliner of Siberia Airlines performed a scheduled flight SBI1812 on the route Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk, but 1 hour and 45 minutes after takeoff, it crashed into the Black Sea. All 78 people on board (66 passengers and 12 crew members) were killed.

In 2003, Ukraine signed intergovernmental agreements with Russia and Israel on compensation to relatives of those killed in a plane crash without legal admission of guilt. In accordance with these agreements, Ukraine paid $200,000 for each victim - $7.8 million to Russia and $7.5 million to Israel. .

Airplane

Crew

The aircraft was flown by an experienced crew, its composition was as follows:

Five flight attendants worked in the cabin of the aircraft:

• Vladimir Dmitrievich Khomyakov, 51 years old - senior flight attendant. Born July 25, 1950 in Novosibirsk. On flight work since September 1972.
• Natalya Georgievna Kostenko, 45 years old. She was born on April 3, 1956 in Novosibirsk. On flight work since July 1977.
• Alexander Gennadievich Savich, 35 years old. Born November 3, 1966 in Novosibirsk in the family of a pilot civil aviation. On flight work since June 1992.
• Elena Vladimirovna Gusarova, 32 years old. She was born on June 24, 1969 in Novosibirsk. On flight work since January 1994.
• Igor Viktorovich Voronkov, 42 years old. Born April 2, 1959 in Novosibirsk. In flight work since 1991.

In addition, the crew included 37-year-old engineer Sergei Ivanovich Lebedinsky and 37-year-old technician Konstantin Petrovich Shcherbakov.

Chronology of events

Departure from Tel Aviv

October 3, 2001 Tu-154M board RA-85693 made flight SBI1811 on the route Novosibirsk-Sochi-Tel Aviv and back to Novosibirsk. On the way to Israel, landing in Sochi was carried out for the purpose of refueling. At the Sochi airport, the aircraft's tanks were filled with fuel in order to perform the return flight as well.

Flight SBI1812 took off from David Ben Gurion Airport at 08:00 UTC (10:00 Israel time). At 09:39 UTC, the aircraft entered the area of ​​responsibility No. 7 of the North Caucasus Center for Automated Control air traffic(SCC AUVD) "Strela", and the crew informed the controller about the passage of the point of obligatory reports ODIRA. The flight was carried out at an altitude of 11,100 meters within the B-145 international airway, which was not subject to any restrictions, including temporary ones, in effect for the period of the exercise armed forces air defense of Ukraine.

Rocket launch by Ukrainian air defense forces

In October 2001, the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces conducted exercises. On October 4, at 09:41:20 UTC (13:41:20 MSK), a battalion of the 96th anti-aircraft missile brigade of the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces launched a 5V28 missile of the S-200V complex.

The purpose of the launch was to hit the Tu-143 "Reis" target, which flew 26-28 km from the launch point of the 5V28 rocket. At the same time, with the same heading coordinates, in the same direction, only at a distance of 260 km, the Tu-154 aircraft was flying.

The 5V28 missile covered the distance to the Tu-154 in 220 seconds. Almost all this time she was pointing at this plane. The rocket overtook the plane at an altitude of 11.1 km and exploded. Thousands of fragments riddled the Tu-154, after which it collapsed into the sea.

Catastrophe

At 09:45 UTC (13:45 MSK), the tape recorder of the Strela ATC SCC recorded a sound signal corresponding to the crew leaving the external communication accompanied by the scream of a man. Later, within 45 seconds, several more signals were recorded from pressing the onboard VHF radio button by the crew members, followed by noises and screams of the crew members (including a fragment of the phrase: ... where did you get (o) ...), testifying to the sudden occurrence on board the aircraft emergency. Almost simultaneously, the aircraft's tag disappeared from the radar screens. The liner at that time was at an altitude of 11,000 meters, about 200 kilometers southwest of Sochi. At the same time, the crew of an Armavia An-24 aircraft in the same area reported a flash over it.

The crash site is located near the point with coordinates 43°11′ N. sh. 37°37′ E d. HGIOL .

search operation

A special commission was set up to investigate the causes of the disaster. An-26 of the Federal Border Service of Russia urgently took off from Gelendzhik to the crash site of the liner. The patrol border ship “Vulture” and the cargo ship “Captain Vakula” also went there. An An-12 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense and a Mi-8 helicopter of the Sochi Search and Rescue Service with rescuers on board also flew to the crash site, two rescue tugboats - Mercury from Tuapse and Kapitan Beklemishev from Novorossiysk, as well as a ship of the Ministry of Emergency situations "Rescuer Prokopchik". At the Agoy airfield near Tuapse, another MI-8 helicopter with rescuers and water rescue equipment was ready for immediate departure. He was waiting to find a place emergency landing to save fuel on the search and engage exclusively in rescue. This helicopter never took off, and no survivors were found.

An-12 aircraft found oil stains at the alleged crash site. Helicopters found several aircraft wreckage and the bodies of dead passengers floating on the surface of the sea. In total, 14 of the 78 bodies of the dead were found. No one survived .

The search was carried out within a radius of 30 km from the place indicated by the crew of the Armavia aircraft. In this area of ​​the Black Sea, the depth is over 2000 meters and the bottom is highly silted. The weather was normal. The sea was trawled, the bottom was explored with an echo sounder, floating remains were collected from the surface. In addition to the remains of the bodies, 404 fragments of the liner, personal belongings and clothes of passengers were found. It was not possible to find out the location of the liner and flight recorders. Among the collected debris was about a quarter of everything floor covering the cabin of the aircraft, in which 183 holes were found from being hit by metal balls. On the extracted fragments, 460 holes were counted. Not a single flight recorder was found.

Promotion of versions of the incident

Technical investigation

October 5. There was information about holes found in the fuselage of the Tu-154, resembling bullet holes, but this information was called premature. Vladimir Tasun, head of the West Siberian Regional Air Transport Administration, said that “according to unverified information, the dispatcher saw a luminous dot on the locator rapidly approaching the aircraft. Here is the only thing that was received from unofficial sources via telephone channels by employees of the Siberia company from Rostov. Rescuers from Israel joined the Russian rescuers, the analysis of the conversations of the Tu-154 crew and the analysis of the video tape recording the readings of the radars were started. Prime Minister of Ukraine Anatoliy Kinakh made a statement that the version of a missile hitting a Tu-154 aircraft of Siberia Airlines "has the right to exist."

October 6. Secretary of the Russian Security Council V. Rushailo stated that objects not related to the aircraft structure were found at the crash site, and that "the aircraft was destroyed as a result of an explosive defeat." At the same time, the head of the Main Directorate of the North Caucasian Regional Center of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Ivan Teterin, expressed the opinion that the likelihood of finding any remains of the Tu-154 aircraft at the bottom of the Black Sea is minimal due to the great depth and zero visibility.

October 7th. According to the commission, at 13:45:12 a ground-based tape recorder recorded the cry of a Tu-154M pilot.

October 9. According to the commission, an analysis of the holes in the fuselage showed that the aircraft could have been hit by a missile from the S-200 Surface-to-Air air defense system, since the size and shape of the holes are consistent with the shrapnel of the high-explosive fragmentation warhead of the missile of this particular complex. After the suggestion that the plane could have been shot down by a missile during an exercise on the Crimean peninsula, the media stopped referring to the exercise as a joint one and labeled it as a purely Ukrainian exercise. Finding out the details of the disaster is complicated by the inability to determine the exact place where the plane crashed - the search for the wreckage of the plane was carried out on an area with a radius of more than 12 nautical miles.

October 10. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia reported preliminary data from a forensic medical examination of the dead - the cause of death of all 14 passengers whose bodies were found during search and rescue operations was barotrauma. According to Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky, carbon monoxide was found in the blood of the dead, which indicates a fire on board the ship.

October 11. Vladimir Rushailo published the conclusion of the technical commission investigating the causes of the crash of flight 1812: “multiple damages in the form of similar holes indicate the defeat of the Russian aircraft from the outside.” At the same time, Rushailo stressed that "the remains of the plane that crashed into the sea were not found due to the complex structure of the bottom, the aggressive hydrogen sulfide environment and a large layer of silt - up to 6 meters."

October 12. The press secretary of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Konstantin Khivrenko, commenting on the preliminary results of the investigation into the incident, admitted that the Ukrainian missile could have caused the death of the Tu-154.

October 13. Vladimir Rushailo said that, according to the analysis of the wreckage of the aircraft and holes, an anti-aircraft missile exploded 15 m above the aircraft. The Minister of Defense of Ukraine at a conference in Kiev apologized to the families and friends of those killed in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 aircraft: “We know that we are involved in the tragedy, although its causes have not yet been fully established.”

Investigating authorities

Interstate Aviation Committee

Teimurazov described the investigation of the commission as follows: “The situation was clarified quite quickly, within a few days, and we conducted its investigation in accordance with international standards, involving foreign experts, including from the United States. By comparing the objective control data from four different air traffic control stations, we accurately modeled the flight path of the airliner and the trajectory of the missile. This clearly showed that the launch took place from a military training ground. In addition, we got an idea of ​​the nature of the damage received, since we were able to recover 15 bodies from the scene, as well as the wreckage of the aircraft. We restored a number of fragments of the inner and outer skin of the aircraft, including almost the entire floor. It was made of wood, which keeps well on the water. We found five submunitions of the missile's warhead. We have established the exact make and serial number of the rocket, the number of the warhead and even the serial number of the striking steel balls. The developers of the S-200 missile system directly participated in the work.

The IAC investigation was completed in 2004. According to the conclusions of the commission, the Tu-154 was shot down by a “warhead 5B14Sh of the 5V28 missile of the S-200V anti-aircraft complex.<…>The explosive device went off at 9:45 [UTC] at a height of 15 m above the aircraft body.” Based on the analysis of radar data, it was found that the missile was launched from the area of ​​Feodosia (Crimea), where at that time the exercises of the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces were taking place.

Russian State Commission for the Investigation of the Air Crash

In Russia, a state commission was created to investigate the Tu-154 crash, headed by Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo.

General Prosecutor's Office of Russia

Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky opened a criminal case on the fact of the Tu-154 crash, he also headed the investigation team.

During the investigation, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office came to the conclusion that the cause of the disaster was the negligence of officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. On December 20, 2001, the criminal case initiated in Russia on the fact of the disaster, together with material evidence, was sent to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.

State Commission of Ukraine for the Investigation of the Air Crash

On October 12, 2001, by order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine N 478-r, an Interdepartmental Commission was created to investigate the Tu-154 crash. The First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleg Dubina was appointed its leader. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Yevhen Marchuk, First Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Ivan Bizhan, Head of the Center for Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine V. Sukhoi, Deputy Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine Oleksandr Paseniuk and others took part in the work of the commission.

Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine conducted an official investigation into the circumstances related to the Tu-154 crash. Its results confirmed the main version of the incident (the defeat of the S-200V air defense missile system fired by the Ukrainian air defense forces).

KNIISE and Kharkov Air Force Institute

On November 3, 2008, as part of the consideration of the claim of Siberia Airlines against the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine, the Kyiv Economic Court, on the initiative of representatives of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, appointed a comprehensive forensic ballistic, tracing, technical and radio engineering expertise. The commission of experts included 6 employees (KNIISE) and 3 employees. These experts had no experience in air crash investigations. On May 21, 2010, the commission of experts completed its work. .

According to the examination, the Tu-154 aircraft was not hit Ukrainian rocket. The experts studied the conditions under which, according to the findings of the IAC, the Tu-154 aircraft could be hit by a missile. The commission concluded that during the explosion of the missile warhead, the distance to the aircraft should have been 780 m. In this case, “up to three striking elements” would have hit the aircraft. “The destruction of an aircraft under such conditions is practically impossible,” the KNIISE conclusions state. The report also states that three minutes before the Tu-154 crash, the Reis target was destroyed by fire from another anti-aircraft missile system - S-300PS, located 11 km from S-200V. At 9.42 UTC (at 12.42 Kyiv time), the radiation of the S-200V radar equipment was stopped, which excludes the possibility of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile hitting the plane. Denying the defeat of the aircraft by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile, KNIISE experts do not indicate otherwise possible causes Tu-154 crash. Answering questions during the court hearings, the experts did not rule out that the source of destruction of the aircraft could be located both outside and inside the liner, in particular, it could be an explosive device placed “between the ceiling of the inner part of the aircraft” and its outer shell.

Legal investigation and claims for damages

The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia opened a criminal case under the article "Terrorism" on the fact of the disaster passenger aircraft Tu-154 over the Black Sea. . After the publication of the commission's findings on October 16, 2001, the case was transferred to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, the Russian side officially closed the case.

On June 28, 2002, an interdepartmental commission was established to settle claims in connection with the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea, which was headed by Deputy. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation V. V. Loshchinin, head of the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation R. A. Kolodkin was appointed his deputy. On the same day, the Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Lost Passengers of Flight 1812 Tel Aviv Novosibirsk was registered. B. V. Kalinovsky was elected the head of the fund, coordinating the relations of the interdepartmental commission with the relatives of the victims.

Under the Claims Settlement Agreement signed by Russia and Ukraine on December 26, 2003, the Ukrainian government transferred $7,809,660 to pay the relatives of the dead Russian passengers. Compensation was paid ex gratia, that is, without recognition of legal liability.

On September 20, 2004, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine closed the criminal case on the fact of the crash, since the investigation did not establish objective data that would reliably indicate that the Tu-154 was shot down by an S-200 missile launched during the exercises of the Ukrainian air defense forces. On October 19, 2004, the military court of the Kiev garrison canceled the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office to close the case, the Supreme Court did not satisfy the complaint of the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to cancel this decision, and the investigation was resumed, but in July 2007 the case was finally closed with the previous wording.

Immediately after the court decision, the head of the Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Victims, Boris Kalinovsky, and the Belonogov family, who refused to receive material assistance, filed a lawsuit for compensation for moral damage - the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine were the defendants. The case was considered in the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv and on January 30, 2008 compensation was completely denied. In the motivational part of the refusal, it was stated that the fault of the defendants in the accident was not established by the investigation of the prosecutor's office, the evidence provided by the plaintiffs is contradictory and cannot be recognized as the basis for satisfying the claim. The losing party did not appeal against the decision of the court.

Simultaneously with the lawsuit filed by the relatives of the victims, Siberia Airlines OJSC filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the State Treasury of Ukraine for damages: the amount of claims included the market value of the destroyed aircraft with additional equipment, expenses associated with the investigation of the crash, expenses for insurance, lost profits in connection with the loss of the aircraft and non-pecuniary damage. The consideration of the case lasted more than seven years and ended with the victory of the defense side of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine: based on the additional analysis of the materials of the State Commission for Investigation conducted by the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Examination, the claims were completely denied. On October 10, 2011, the losing party filed an appeal with the Kyiv Economic Court of Appeal.

On May 28, 2012, the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of the Russian airline Siberia (S7 Airlines) against the decision of the court of first instance, which did not recognize the guilt of the Ukrainian military in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 in 2001. On December 11, 2012, the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine upheld the decision. Representatives of the airline announced their intention to apply to the European Court of Human Rights, however, after the Supreme Court of Ukraine refused to refer the case to the Supreme Court of Ukraine on April 21, 2013, the airline, having gone through all possible instances in Ukraine, did not take the opportunity to apply to the ECHR. Thus, the financial claims of "Siberia" were not satisfied.

Versions of the causes of the disaster

Operator error

The S-200 anti-aircraft missile system uses a semi-active guidance system, when a powerful ground-based radar ("target illumination") serves as a source of radiation and the missile is guided by the signal reflected from the target. In the S-200, there are two main modes of operation of the target illumination radar - MHI (monochromatic radiation) and FCM (phase code modulation). The MHI mode is typically used to scan the airspace while searching for targets, while determining the elevation, azimuth and radial velocity of the target, but there is no determination of the range to the target. The range is determined in the FKM mode, switching the radar to this mode takes up to 30 seconds and may not be performed if there is not enough time.

Supporters of this version assume that during training firing with the participation of Ukrainian air defense, which were held on October 4, 2001 at Cape Opuk in the Crimea (31 test site of the Black Sea Fleet, which is under the control of the RF Ministry of Defense), the Ty-154 aircraft accidentally ended up in the center of the alleged sector of attack on a training target and had a radial speed close to it, as a result of which it was detected by the S-200 system radar and taken as a training target. In the conditions of lack of time and nervousness caused by the presence of the high command and foreign guests, the S-200 operator did not determine the range to the target and "highlighted" the Tu-154 (located at a distance of 250-300 km) instead of an inconspicuous training target (launched at a distance of 60 km). Thus, the defeat of the Tu-154 by an anti-aircraft missile was most likely the result not of a missile missing a training target (as is sometimes claimed), but of direct guidance of the missile by the S-200 operator at an erroneously identified target.

The calculation of the complex did not assume the possibility of such an outcome of the shooting and did not take measures to prevent it. The dimensions of the range did not ensure the safety of firing air defense systems of such a range. The organizers of the firing did not take the necessary measures to free the airspace: flights were prohibited only within a radius of 50 km, although the "passport" range of hitting targets with the S-200V complex was 255 km, and the technical range of the 5V28 / 5V28M missile was about 300 km.

terrorist attack

Due to the lack of flight recorders, which were never found, finding out the absolutely reliable causes of the crash was recognized by the expertise of the Ukrainian institute KNIISE as impossible, but based on the available information, Ukrainian experts suggested that the aircraft was damaged by an explosive device that could be located "between the ceiling the inside of the aircraft" and its body.

Personnel implications

According to the results of an official investigation, 20 days after the tragedy, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Kuzmuk resigned. A few more people also “suffered”: the commander-in-chief of air defense, Colonel General V. V. Tkachev, his deputy for combat training, Lieutenant General V. V. Dyakov (the head of missile firing at the Opuk range that day), the head of the radio engineering troops Air Defense Major General Y. Korotkov, Colonels A. Lunev and N. Zhilkov, Lieutenant Colonels M. Alpatov and V. Shevchenko. Lieutenant General V. Kalinyuk, commander of the 49th corps, was dismissed from his post. The commander of the S-200 division, Major Y. Wenger, was transferred to a lower position. However, none of the military has been taken to court.

Cultural aspects

perpetuation of memory

Memorial plate at the Zaeltsovskoye cemetery

Similar cases of destruction of airliners by means of air defense

Notes

1. WE HAPPENED (indefinite) . 2001.novayagazeta.ru. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
2. I am not me and the rocket is not mine // Evening Novosibirsk. - 23.08.2007.
3. Plane crash of Tu-154 flight Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk (2001). Reference . RIA News .
4. The investigation is over, forget / Lenta.ru June 18, 2004
5. Description of the disaster on the Aviation Safety Network website.
6. Tu-154 crash: Kuzmuk apologized
7. Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk: I apologize to the Ukrainian people
8. Kuzmuk left. Kuchma banned military exercises and the use of anti-aircraft missile systems // Ukrayinska Pravda. - 24.10.2001.
9. The secret that lies at the bottom. Political interests intervened in the investigation of a ten-year-old plane crash over the Black Sea, Expert Online (10/04/2011). Retrieved 13 August 2016.
10. TU-154 - SECRET CHRONICLE OF SHAME
11. The GPU will figure out how the plane was shot down under Kuzmuk. // Ukrainian truth. - 28.10.2005
12. Ukraine transferred $7.8 million in compensation to Russia for the downed Tu-154
13. The court did not find the fault of the Ukrainian military in the crash of the Russian Tu-154. RIA Novosti, 6.9.2011
14. RA-85693 - russianplanes.net - Board card
15. Flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk: Crew: Evgeniy Garov (indefinite) (unavailable link). Archived from the original on September 24, 2015.
16. Flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk: Crew: Levchugov Boris Alexandrovich (indefinite) (unavailable link). JSC "Siberia Airlines" in memory of passengers and crew of flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk. Retrieved 6 August 2014. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016.
17. Flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk: Crew: Revtov Konstantin Yurievich (indefinite) (unavailable link). JSC "Siberia Airlines" in memory of passengers and crew of flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk. Retrieved 6 August 2014. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
18. Flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk: Crew: Laptev Valery Glebovich (indefinite) (unavailable link). JSC "Siberia Airlines" in memory of passengers and crew of flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk. Retrieved 6 August 2014. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016.
19. Flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk: Crew: Alekseev Viktor Viktorovich (indefinite) (unavailable link). JSC "Siberia Airlines" in memory of passengers and crew of flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk. Retrieved 6 August 2014. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
20. Flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk (indefinite) (unavailable link). JSC Siberia Airlines in memory of passengers and crew of flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk: Crew. Date of treatment August 6, 2014. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013.
21. Flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk: Chronicle of events (indefinite) (unavailable link). JSC "Siberia Airlines" in memory of passengers and crew of flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk. Date of treatment August 6, 2014. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013.
22. Decree of the Ministry of Transport of Russia dated December 04, 2001 No. HA-424-r "On the emergency with the aircraft TU-154M RA-85693"
23. Materials of the side back to the right No. 30/261-2004 (indefinite) (unavailable link). Retrieved 17 September 2011.