Plane crash TU 154 over the Black Sea. “Unless it’s collective insanity. How did it happen, because the plane was military

How the Tu-154 fell

The Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense took off after refueling in Sochi towards Syria at 5:25 am on December 25 and disappeared from radar screens at 5:27. The last flight of the Tu-154 lasted 70 seconds: the plane rose to a height of 250 meters at a speed of 360-370 kilometers per hour. When it hit the water and the bottom of the Black Sea, the liner was completely destroyed.

“There was an abnormal operation of equipment on board,” Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said. The commander of the Tu-154, Roman Volkov, reported the incident to dispatchers, as follows from the transcript of the on-board voice recorder. One phrase from the conversation between the pilots indicates the “development of a special situation” on board, which lasted about 10 seconds, said Sergei Baynetov, head of the aviation safety service of the Russian Armed Forces.

Information from the parametric black box, which experts are deciphering, does not yet confirm that there was a technical failure on the aircraft. “Based on a preliminary assessment of the parametric information, there are no obvious failures,” a Defense Ministry spokesman said. He noted that not all Tu-154 instruments have yet been recovered from the bottom of the Black Sea.

During an emergency situation, “Flaps, bitch, what the f**k,” Life wrote on December 27. Defense Ministry spokesman Sergei Baynetov refused to comment on this: “I cannot tell you about the flaps and other things that we heard.”

Before the crash, the Tu-154 tried to make a maneuver to the right and was flying with its nose highly raised, “it was dangling from side to side” and it fell into the water with a left bank at a speed of about 510 kilometers per hour, TASS wrote on December 27, citing sources. However, the Ministry of Defense officially reported that it is “premature” to say what the angle of the collision was.

Versions of the Tu-154 crash

After the crash of the Ministry of Defense plane, the investigation participants considered 15 versions of the plane crash, but after deciphering the first black box, 7 versions remained. There is no priority among them. Experts are considering four “standard” versions of the plane crash:

• human factor
• equipment failure
• wind shear
• bird strike

They are also considering a version of a terrorist attack. “A terrorist attack is not necessarily an explosion; it could also be a mechanical impact. This version is also being considered by the commission,” said a representative of the Ministry of Defense. He noted that during refueling in Sochi, only employees of the Russian FSB border service boarded the plane.

No other versions of the crash have been reported. To the FSB on December 26: foreign objects entering the engine, low-quality fuel, piloting error, technical malfunction of the aircraft.

The plane could have crashed due to equipment failure and pilot error, as indicated by the decoding of the main (parametric) black box, an anonymous source told Interfax on December 28.

The Russian Minister of Transport urged journalists not to disseminate unofficial versions of the crash until the final work of the commission conducting the investigation.

The funerals of the dead have begun

No survivors were found at the Tu-154 crash site. By official information, rescuers discovered 19 corpses and several hundred fragments of the bodies of the dead.

On December 28, at the federal military memorial cemetery in Mytishchi, the first person died in a plane crash. Many victims of the plane crash will be buried after genetic examinations are completed. The necessary materials were taken from all the relatives of the victims.

The head of the Fair Aid Foundation, Elizaveta Glinka (Doctor Lisa), who was on board the plane, may be buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. The city authorities have made such a request. The Presidential Council for Human Rights wants to hold an evening in memory of Doctor Lisa on the 40th day after her death.

To calculate the mass of the crashed aircraft, special techniques were used, including using data from a parametric recorder raised from the bottom of the Black Sea.

As a result, it became known that on December 24, when taking off from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow, where the Tu-1542B-2 began its route, the take-off weight of the aircraft, together with 24 tons of fuel filled into it, was 99.6 tons. This exceeded the standards, but the deviation was 1 .6 tons was insignificant. At this weight, the plane usually takes off without any problems.

In Adler, no one got out of the Tu-154B-2, with the exception of the commander and co-pilot. Nothing additional was loaded onto the plane, but the plane was refueled to the maximum. Its tanks contained 35.6 tons of fuel.

According to experts, as a result, the take-off weight of the airliner was about 110 tons instead of the standard 98 tons.

Early in the morning of December 25, the Tu-154B-2 took off along a large runway (there are two of them in Adler). After this, the plane had to turn first to the right, then to the left, and then head for Latakia, to the Khmeimim airbase. However, problems began during the rise.

The plane took off from the Adler runway only 37 seconds after the start of the takeoff run, at a speed of 320 km/h, with a pitch angle of 4 to 6 degrees. All these parameters indicate that the plane had difficulty getting into the air. The rate of climb was 10 m/s instead of the usual 12-15 m/s.

2 seconds after takeoff, the crew commander pulled the steering wheel, raising the nose of the plane so that the pitch was already 10-12 degrees. For the pilot of an overloaded aircraft, these were very rash actions. The crew began retracting the flaps at an altitude of 150 m and at a speed of 345 km/h. Taking into account the significant excess of the standard take-off weight of the Tu-154, these actions should have been carried out at a higher speed.

The stall speed of an aircraft (low flight speed when the angle of attack reaches a critical value and the aircraft becomes uncontrollable) increases with weight and also depends on the position of the flaps (the more they are extended, the lower it is). Therefore, at a certain weight, the speed may be such that before the flaps are retracted it will be greater than the stalling speed, and after that it will be less.

On the voice recorder recordings, you can hear how the co-pilot asked the commander for permission to remove the mechanization, but the latter did not answer. The co-pilot apparently took his silence as a sign of agreement. The lifting force naturally began to fall sharply from the moment the mechanization began to be harvested.

The plane managed to reach an altitude of 200 m when the commander again made an unexpected movement - he moved the control column away from himself and then suddenly took it over again, losing his already small altitude in the maneuver.

The flaps had not yet been completely retracted when a system in the Tu-154 cockpit activated, signaling a dangerous approach to the ground. The flap angle was 5-7 degrees when the commander moved the helm and rudder pedals to the left. As planned, he should have done the opposite. The plane fell into a bank of 30 degrees.

At this moment, a signal of a dangerous roll sounds, to which no one pays attention. "We're falling!" - the co-pilot shouts.

The commander moves the steering wheel and pedals in the opposite direction and takes control of the steering column. At this moment the angle of attack was 10 degrees. At the same time, the aircraft continued to accelerate to 500 km/h. The speed increased, the roll increased, and the lift decreased. The Tu-154 had practically no altitude reserve.

A few seconds later, already with a bank of 50 degrees and at a speed of 540 km/h, the plane touched the water with its left wing. In such conditions, a collision with a water surface is equivalent to a collision with a rock. The plane crashed and its debris was scattered over a large area.

In total, the last flight of the Tu-154 lasted only 74 seconds.

Until the moment it hit the water, the plane was fully operational. The weather conditions at the Adler airfield at the time of takeoff were favorable: ambient temperature - 5 degrees above zero, humidity - 76%, pressure - 763 mm Hg. Art., side wind - 5 m/s. No dangerous weather conditions were observed.

It also turned out that the deceased crew, together with an experienced commander, took off from the same runway in Adler just two months before the disaster - on October 1, 2016.

Then the takeoff from the runway was made at a speed of 310 km/h. With a rate of climb of 12-15 m/s, the crew began to climb. At an altitude of 450 m, a turn to the right was carried out with a right bank of 20 degrees, then the plane made a turn to the left, and only then, at an altitude of 450 m, within 13-14 seconds the flaps, which had previously been in the take-off position of 28 degrees, were retracted.

The actions of the experienced crew and the behavior of the serviceable aircraft during its next takeoff in Adler can only be explained by the fact that the Tu-154 commander did not know either the nature or the exact weight of the cargo on board, and therefore, the overload of his aircraft. That’s why fuel was poured into the plane in Adler. Probably, it would have been filled less if they knew the exact weight of the property that was loaded onto the plane in Chkalovsky.

Perhaps something relatively small in volume, but significant in its specific gravity, was placed on the plane.

If the crew commander knew that the standard take-off weight was exceeded by more than 10 tons, he would either refuse the flight or take off taking into account the fact that the plane was overloaded.

The latest actions of the crew can be explained by the fact that the pilots realized that something was wrong with the plane, and tried to return to the departure airfield in order to land on another, smaller runway in Adler. However, there was not enough height.

The dark time of day did not play the best role: the crew had no visual idea that there was very little left to the water surface.

The Tu-154 plane, which crashed early in the morning of December 25, was carrying artists of the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble, who were supposed to give a New Year's concert at Russian base Khmeimim in Syria. They were accompanied by film crews from Channel One and Zvezda. A total of 92 people died - 84 passengers and 8 crew members.

MOSCOW, December 25 – RIA Novosti, Andrey Kots. December 2016 left another terrible date in the historical calendar of Russia. Exactly a year ago, the disaster over the Black Sea 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 Russian Army named after Alexander Alexandrov. On December 25, 2016, the legendary band lost its best soloists, the first lineup. Passengers on the military flight flew to the Khmeimim airbase to congratulate Russian soldiers and officers who had been liberating Syria from terrorists for the second year. The causes of the disaster are not fully understood to this day. About the current versions - in the RIA Novosti material.

Old but reliable

The RA-85572 aircraft could hardly be called new. It was built at the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant in 1983. By December 2016, the 33-year-old Tu-154 had flown 6,689 hours. However, for aircraft of this type the age limit is 40 years, and the service life is 60 thousand flight hours. During its entire operation, it never seriously broke down, and the last scheduled repair took place in 2014. A few days before the disaster, some difficulties arose on board - airfield services We discovered a fuel leak from the wing tank. But the problems were promptly corrected, and the work was accepted by military personnel. Before departure on December 25, 2016, the plane passed all the necessary checks, it was found to be fully operational and ready for a long flight.

The plane took off after refueling at Sochi airport at 05:25 Moscow time. The airliner 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 base of the clouds was 1000 meters, the wind speed did not exceed four meters per second. The plane lifted off the runway at 37 seconds after the start of the takeoff 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.

Soon 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 Criminal Code of Russia - “Violation of flight rules that resulted in grave consequences.” Later the case was transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee. The Russian FSB took over operational support of the investigation. In addition, a commission of the Ministry of Defense was created, headed by Deputy Minister, Army General Pavel Popov. As the head of the aviation safety service of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, said at the end of December, initially more than 15 versions of the plane crash were worked out. Later their number decreased.

Human factor

The first versions of the causes of the crash were announced the day after the plane crash by the Russian FSB: foreign objects entering the engine, low-quality fuel, piloting error or technical malfunction of the aircraft. Representatives of the investigation emphasized that the plane did not transport military or dual-use cargo. There were also no signs of sabotage or terrorism. 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 have been opened fire from a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system, which resulted in the destruction of the airframe in the air. In addition, experts did not rule out that the co-pilot Alexander Rovensky could have made a fatal mistake by confusing the landing gear and flap control levers. For this reason, the plane was unable to gain altitude, began to fall and hit the water with its tail.

The Ministry of Defense named possible reason Tu-154 crash over the Black SeaAccording to the accident investigation commission, the plane could have crashed due to 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, information appeared in the media that the crash could have occurred due to the airliner being overloaded. Then journalists claimed that instead of the standard 98 tons, the weight of the plane at takeoff was allegedly more than 110 tons. As a result, the Ministry of Defense found no “violations of the current requirements regarding the seating of passengers in the Tu-154 cabin, as well as the loading and alignment of the transported cargo.”

“Based on the results of the investigation, it was established that the cause of the incident could have been a violation of spatial orientation - the situational awareness of the aircraft commander, which led to his erroneous actions,” representatives of the military department announced their version at the end of May.

It’s too early to draw a line

Earlier, journalists from the Kommersant newspaper came to similar conclusions, publishing their own investigation, supported by comments from informed sources. It was alleged, in particular, that the pilot Roman Volkov began to have difficulty determining his location while still on the ground - he could not understand in any way which of the two runways he would take off from. According to the publication, the commander of the aircraft lost his orientation in space immediately after takeoff. Instead of trusting the instrument readings, as required by all flight instructions, the pilot Volkov began to rely on his own physiological sensations. The vestibular apparatus “informed” him that the car was gaining altitude too quickly, 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 period several times, must put an end to finding out the causes of the disaster. Last Wednesday, a source familiar with the situation told RIA Novosti that specialists would need several more months. According to him, repeated suspensions are due to the need to conduct additional investigative actions and collect comprehensive evidence in a 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.

Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea- plane crash that occurred on October 4, 2001. The Siberia Airlines Tu-154M airliner was performing scheduled flight SBI1812 on the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk route, 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 the plane crash. Under these agreements, Ukraine paid US$200,000 for each death - US$7,800,000 to Russia and US$7,500,000 to Israel.

In 2004, Siberia Airlines filed a lawsuit in the Economic Court of Kyiv against the Ministry of Defense and the Treasury of Ukraine for an amount of more than $15,000,000. In 2011, the court rejected this claim based on the conclusion of Ukrainian experts from , who admitted that the plane was hit by many solid objects measuring about 10 mm in size, but did not establish their belonging to a specific explosive device. According to an analysis of data from the Gelendzhik radar complex dated October 4, 2001, carried out by KNIISE, the Ukrainian 5V28 S-200V air defense missile, possibly corresponding to an unknown object 50 km from the disaster, could not reach the aircraft in 30 seconds.

Airplane

Crew

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

Five flight attendants worked in the aircraft cabin:

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

On 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, the plane landed in Sochi for the purpose of refueling. At Sochi airport, fuel was filled into the aircraft's tanks for the return flight.

Flight SBI1812 took off from International airport named after David Ben-Gurion at 08:00 UTC (10:00 Israeli time). At 09:39 UTC the plane entered area of ​​responsibility No. 7 of the North Caucasus Automated Control Center air traffic(SCC AUTC) “Strela”, and the crew informed the controller about the passage of the ODIRA mandatory reporting point. The flight was carried out at an altitude of 11,100 meters within the international air route B-145, which was not subject to any restrictions, including temporary ones, in force during the period of the exercises armed forces air defense of Ukraine.

At 09:45 UTC (13:45 MSK), the tape recorder of the Strela SCC AUVD recorded a sound signal corresponding to the crew’s access to external communication, accompanied by a person’s scream. Subsequently, within 45 seconds, several more signals were recorded from the crew members pressing the button on the on-board VHF radio station, followed by noises and screams from the crew members (including a fragment of the phrase: ...where did it go...), indicating the sudden occurrence on board the aircraft emergency situation. Almost simultaneously, the plane's mark disappeared from the radar screens. The liner at that time was at an altitude of 11,000 meters, approximately 200 kilometers southwest of Sochi. At the same time, the crew of an Armavia An-24 aircraft located in the same area reported a recorded flash above it.

The coordinates of the approximate crash site of the plane have been determined 42°11′ N. w.  37°37′ E. d.HGIO L

, which is approximately 340 kilometers from the launch site (Cape Opuk, Crimea).

A special commission was created to investigate the causes of the disaster. An An-26 of the Russian Federal Border Service urgently took off from Gelendzhik to the crash site. The border guard ship "Grif" and the cargo ship "Captain Vakula" also went there. The An-12 plane of the Ministry of Defense and the 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 "Captain Beklemishev" from Novorossiysk, as well as a ship from the Ministry of Emergency Situations situations "Rescuer Prokopchik". At the Agoy airfield near Tuapse, another MI-8 helicopter with rescuers and equipment for water rescue was ready for immediate departure. He was waiting for the location to be discovered emergency landing, to save fuel on search and engage exclusively in rescue. This helicopter never took off, and no survivors were found.

The An-12 plane found oil stains at the supposed crash site. Helicopters found several pieces of plane debris and bodies. dead passengers floating on the surface of the sea. In total, 14 of the 78 bodies were recovered. No one survived .

The search was carried out within a radius of 30 kilometers 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 examined with an echo sounder, and floating remains were collected from the surface. In addition to the remains of bodies, 404 fragments of the liner, personal belongings and clothing of passengers were found. The location of the airliner and flight recorders could not be determined. Among the collected debris was about a quarter of the entire floor covering of the plane's cabin, in which 183 holes from metal balls were found. 460 holes were counted on the extracted fragments. Not a single fragment of the rocket or a single flight recorder was found.

Technical investigation

October 5. Information appeared about bullet holes found in the Tu-154 fuselage, but this information was called premature. Head of the West Siberian Regional Directorate air transport Vladimir Tasun stated that “according to unverified information, the controller on the locator saw a luminous point quickly approaching the plane. This is the only thing that was received from unofficial sources via telephone channels by employees of the Sibir company from Rostov.” Rescuers from Israel joined the Russian rescuers, an analysis of the Tu-154 crew’s negotiations and an analysis of the videotape recording radar readings began. Prime Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Kinakh made a statement that the version of a missile hitting the Siberia Airlines Tu-154 plane “has a right to exist.”

October 6. Secretary of the Russian Security Council V. Rushailo stated that objects that were not related to the structure of the aircraft were found at the scene of the accident, and that “the destruction of the aircraft occurred as a result of an explosive attack.” At the same time, the head of the Main Directorate of the North Caucasus Regional Center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ivan Teterin, expressed the opinion that the likelihood of discovering 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 the scream of the Tu-154M pilot was recorded by a ground tape recorder.

October 9. According to the commission, an analysis of the holes in the fuselage showed that the plane 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 quite consistent with the shrapnel of the high-explosive fragmentation warhead of the missile of this particular complex. After the assumption that the plane could have been shot down by a missile during exercises on the Crimean peninsula, the media stopped calling these exercises joint and noted them as exclusively Ukrainian exercises. Finding out the details of the disaster is complicated by the inability to determine the exact location of the plane crash - the search for the plane's wreckage was carried out in an area with a radius of more than 12 nautical miles.

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

October 11. Vladimir Rushailo announced the conclusion of the technical commission that investigated the causes of the crash of flight 1812: “multiple damage in the form of similar holes indicate defeat Russian plane from outside." At the same time, Rushailo emphasized 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. Press Secretary of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Konstantin Khivrenko, commenting on the preliminary results of the investigation into the incident, admitted that a Ukrainian missile could have caused the death of the Tu-154.

October 13. Vladimir Rushailo stated that, according to the analysis of the plane's wreckage and holes, the anti-aircraft missile exploded 15 m above the plane. The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, at a conference in Kyiv, 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.”

Ukrainian expertise

Legal investigation and claims for damages

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case under the article "Terrorism" in connection with the disaster passenger plane Tu-154 over the Black Sea. . After the publication of the commission’s findings on October 16, 2001, the case was transferred for proceedings to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, and the Russian side officially closed the case.

On June 28, 2002, an interdepartmental commission was created to resolve claims in connection with the Tu-154 plane crash over the Black Sea, headed by Deputy. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation V.V. Loschinin, the 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 head of the fund, coordinating the interdepartmental commission’s communications with the relatives of the victims.

In accordance with the Agreement on the Settlement of Claims, signed by Russia and Ukraine on December 26, 2003, the Ukrainian government transferred $7,809,660 to pay the relatives of the deceased Russian passengers. Payment of compensation was carried out ex gratia, that is, without recognition of legal liability.

On September 20, 2004, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine closed the criminal case into 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 an exercise by the Ukrainian air defense forces. On October 19, 2004, the Military Court of the Kyiv Garrison overturned 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's decision, the head of the Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Victims, Boris Kalinovsky, and the Belonogov family, which refused to receive financial assistance, filed a lawsuit for compensation for moral damage - the defendants were the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine. The case was heard in the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv and on January 30, 2008, compensation was completely denied. The motivational part of the refusal stated that the guilt of the defendants in the disaster was not established by the investigation of the prosecutor's office, the evidence presented by the plaintiffs is contradictory and cannot be recognized as a basis for satisfying the claim. The losing party did not file an appeal against the court's decision.

Simultaneously with the claim from the relatives of the victims, Siberia Airlines OJSC filed a claim against the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the State Treasury of Ukraine for damages: the amount of the claim included the market value of the destroyed aircraft with additional equipment, costs associated with the investigation of the disaster, expenses for insurance, lost profits due to the loss of the aircraft and moral injury. The consideration of the case lasted more than seven years and ended in a victory for the defense of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine: based on an additional analysis of the materials of the State Commission of Investigation carried out by the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, the claims were completely rejected. On October 10, 2011, the losing party filed an appeal to the Economic Court of Appeal of Kyiv.

On May 28, 2012, the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal rejected the complaint Russian airline"Siberia" (S7 Airlines) on the decision of the court of first instance, which did not admit 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, however, after on April 21, 2013, the MHC refused to transfer the case to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, the airline, having gone through all possible authorities in Ukraine, did not take the opportunity to appeal to the ECHR. Thus, Siberia's financial claims 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 the radiation source is a powerful ground-based radar (“target illumination”) and the missile is guided by the signal reflected from the target. In the S-200, there are two main operating modes of the target illumination radar - MHI (monochromatic radiation) and FCM (phase code modulation). The MHI mode is typically used to scan the airspace when searching for targets, which determines the elevation angle, azimuth and radial speed of the target, but does not determine the range to the target. The range is determined in the FCM mode; switching the radar to this mode takes up to 30 seconds and may not be done if there is not enough time.

It is most likely that during firing training with the participation of Ukrainian air defense, which was carried out on October 4, 2001 at Cape Opuk in Crimea (31 test range of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which is managed by the Russian Ministry of Defense), the Ty-154 aircraft accidentally ended up in the center of the expected firing sector training target and had a radial speed close to it, as a result of which it was detected by the radar of the S-200 system and accepted as a training target. In conditions of lack of time and nervousness caused by the presence of 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 range of 250-300 km) instead of an inconspicuous training target (launched at a range of 60 km). Thus, the defeat of the Tu-154 by an anti-aircraft missile was most likely the result not of the missile missing the training target (as is sometimes claimed), but of the direct aiming of the missile by the S-200 operator at an erroneously identified target.

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

But since the distance to the place where the wreckage of the plane was discovered is more than 340 km, and even more to the place where the missile hit the plane, the version of the destruction by the S-200B complex looks unconvincing.

Terrorist attack

Due to the lack of aircraft remains and flight recorders, which were never found, finding out the absolutely reliable causes of the disaster was considered impossible by the KNIISE examination, but based on the available information, Ukrainian experts suggested that the plane was damaged by an explosive device that could be located “between the ceiling of the interior of the plane” and its body.

Personnel implications

Based on the results of an internal investigation, 20 days after the tragedy, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexander Kuzmuk resigned. Several other people were also “suffered”: the air defense commander-in-chief, Colonel-General V. V. Tkachev, his deputy for combat training, Lieutenant General V. V. Dyakov (the head of missile firing at the Opuk training ground that day), and the head of the radio engineering troops were fired from the army Air defense of Major General Yu. Korotkov, Colonels A. Lunev and N. Zhilkov, Lieutenant Colonels M. Alpatov and V. Shevchenko. Lieutenant General V. Kalinyuk, commander of the 49th Corps, was removed from office. The commander of the S-200 division, Major Yu. Wenger, was transferred to a lower position. However, none of the military personnel were brought to trial.

Reaction of senior officials of states affected by the disaster

Russia

Firstly, all necessary services in Ukraine were notified in advance. Secondly, the weapons that were used at that time, according to tactical and technical data, could not reach the air corridors in which our aircraft was located...

In any case, there is no reason not to trust the Ukrainian side.

Ukraine

Look what's going on around the world, in Europe? We are not the first and we are not the last, there is no need to make a tragedy out of this. Errors happen everywhere, and not only on this scale, but on a much larger, planetary scale. If we do not lower ourselves below the civilized level, everything will be fine. And if we pour a bucket of dirt on ourselves, then you’re welcome.

Israel

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

When the person killed is not a representative of your people, then it is probably possible to make such academic conclusions. 78 people died, most of whom were Israelis - for us this is the greatest tragedy.

Cultural aspects

Perpetuation of memory

Similar cases of airliners being destroyed by air defense systems

Notes

1. WE'RE GOT (undefined) . 2001.novayagazeta.ru. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
2. I am not me and the rocket is not mine // Evening Novosibirsk. - 08/23/2007.
3. Plane crash of Tu-154 flight Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk (2001). 
4. Reference . RIA News .
5. The investigation is over, forget it / Lenta.ru June 18, 2004
6. Description of the disaster on the Aviation Safety Network website.
7. Kuzmuk left. 
8. Kuchma banned military exercises and the use of anti-aircraft missile systems // Ukrainian Truth. - 10/24/2001.
9. The mystery of what lies at the bottom. 
10. Political interests intervened in the investigation of a plane crash over the Black Sea ten years ago, Expert Online (04.10.2011). Retrieved August 13, 2016.
11. The GPU will figure out how the plane was shot down under Kuzmuk. //Ukrainian truth. - 10/28/2005. (undefined) Ukraine transferred $7.8 million in compensation to Russia for the downed Tu-154. Lenta.ru, 12/15/2004.
12. The court did not find the Ukrainian military guilty in the crash of the Russian Tu-154. RIA Novosti, 6.9.2011.
13. The court did not find the Ukrainian military guilty in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 (undefined) . . RIA Novosti (06.09.2011). Retrieved July 17, 2014. RA-85693 - russianplanes.net - Airboard card