Experts from the Russian Ministry of Defense completed a complete decryption of the black boxes and were able to name the final cause, which occurred on December 25, 2016 over the Black Sea. According to experts, this happened due to a combination of factors - the plane was overloaded and the co-pilot made a mistake while controlling the aircraft, writes L!FE.
Air ForceAccording to the source, investigators consider the notorious human factor. According to experts, the problem with the flaps, which caused the plane to suddenly lose altitude, was directly related to the error of the co-pilot passenger plane, 33-year-old Alexander Rovensky.
“In the third minute of the flight, when the Tu-154 was at an altitude of 450 m above sea level, the sensors of the directional stability system were activated. As a result, the car began to sharply lose altitude due to problems with the flaps. As a result, the airliner went into an extreme angle of attack, the crew all I tried to turn the car around in order to reach the ground, but I didn’t have time to do this,” says a source familiar with the investigation into the causes of the plane crash in Sochi.
Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Experts are confident that the reason for the failure of the aircraft mechanism was a trivial one - when the plane took off, instead of the landing gear, it pulled the wrong lever and removed the flaps. This is the main version of the reasons for the tragedy in which the members of the Alexandrov ensemble, the legendary and 9 journalists from Russian television channels, who flew to Syrian Latakia to give a charity concert to the military from the Russian Federation who were forced to New Year serve in Syria.
The Ministry of Defense also adds that the situation was then aggravated by another factor - the overload of the aircraft. In the luggage compartment of the Tu-154 everything was filled to capacity. Therefore, the tail part of the airliner was pulled down.
Air Force According to experts, it was impossible to save the car - there was not enough speed and height. The tail section was the first to touch the water, and then the Tu-154 hit the sea with its right wing at high speed and collapsed, which led to the death of everyone on board. The source emphasizes that the emergency situation came as a complete surprise to the crew: in the first seconds, the aircraft commander, 35-year-old Major Roman Volkov, and co-pilot Alexander Rovensky were confused, but quickly pulled themselves together and last seconds tried to save the plane.
At the same time, experts from the Russian Ministry of Defense consider the announced cause of the Tu-154 crash to be premature. Experts emphasize that a colossal amount of work still remains to collect and lay out the wreckage of the liner in order to talk about the exact causes of the tragedy.
Let us remind you that the plane crash in Sochi occurred on December 25, 2016. A Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed over the Black Sea at 5:40 am Moscow time, 1.7 km from the coast of Sochi. The plane, which carried 92 people, was flying to Syrian Khmeimim from the Chkalovsky airfield, and in Sochi it was just refueling. A few minutes after lifting off from the runway, the plane disappeared from radar screens.
Participants in the investigation of the Tu-154 plane crash over the Black Sea reconstructed the circumstances of the crash of the airliner second by second. Kommersant writes about this.
On the day of the crash, the Tu-154 was supposed to make two training flights to transport troops (passengers), equipment and cargo. The first flight went smoothly, but the second “didn’t work out from the very beginning.” According to experts, the commander of the Tu-154, Roman Volkov, “began to experience difficulties in determining his location” while still on the ground - while the vehicle was moving along taxiways. Volkov allegedly “couldn’t understand in any way” which of the two runways of the airfield he was going to take off from and which way was best to taxi to the beginning of this runway.
As a result, the airliner took off at 5:24 with a heading of 238°. Already in the seventh second after takeoff, in the cockpit, according to the participants in the investigation, a special situation arose: “Volkov began emotionally, using profanity, to find out from the crew exactly what course they took off.” The captain lost control over the takeoff parameters himself and distracted his colleagues from their work, experts say.
Then Volkov set the Tu-154 to the correct pitch of 15°, but almost immediately made the first “illogical” action, deflecting the steering wheel away from himself and slowing down the climb. At the 53rd second of the flight, when the Tu-154 rose only 157 meters, Volkov ordered the flaps to be removed, although according to the regulations this should be done at an altitude of 500 meters. At the same time, he continued to tilt the steering wheel away from himself. As a result, the airliner began to descend at around 231 meters.
The plane began to quickly (6–8 meters per second) lose altitude, and the crew’s warnings about its dangerous approach to the ground went off. However, none of the pilots paid attention to this.
At an altitude of 67 meters, the “Left bank is too large” alarm went off, and when 34 meters remained to the water, Volkov turned the helm all the way to the right, trying to correct the mistake, but it was too late. At the 73rd second of the flight, the Tu-154, touching the surface of the sea with its left wing, fell apart and sank. At the time of the collision, the left bank was about 50°, and the indicated speed was 540 kilometers per hour.
According to experts, the disaster was accompanied by fatigue and poor professional training of the crew. Captain Volkov lost orientation in space, falling into the power of so-called somatogravitational illusions. The vestibular system “told” him that the plane was gaining altitude too intensely, and the pilot began to lower the nose of the plane.
A Tu-154 flying from Sochi to Syria crashed over the Black Sea on December 25, 2016. There were 92 people on board, all of them died. Among the victims of the crash were artists of the Alexandrov Ensemble and Elizaveta Glinka (Doctor Lisa).
At the end of May, the Ministry of Defense announced part of the results of the investigation into the Tu-154 crash. The commission rejected versions with low-quality fuel, overload and exposure to external factors. According to the military department, the disaster most likely occurred due to a violation of the commander’s spatial orientation.
“Erroneous actions of the crew” are named as the cause of the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea, which occurred on December 25, 2016. RIA Novosti, citing the Ministry of Defense, reported: “Based on the results of the investigation, it was established that the cause of the incident could have been a violation of the spatial orientation (situational awareness) of the aircraft commander, which led to his erroneous actions with the aircraft controls.”
Almost simultaneously with the RIA Novosti report, four pages of the report of the head of the Aviation Safety Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, on the results of the work of the “commission for investigating the aviation accident” were leaked onto the Internet. The document is very similar to the real one. It is dated May 4, 2017 and has the reference number 137/2/883 DSP (the abbreviation DSP means for official use).
The report of Lieutenant General Baynetov describes in great detail the last flight of the crashed Tu-154, which was part of the 800th special purpose airbase of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS). At the same time, the last minutes are second by second. Key takeaways from the document: “The cause of the crash of the Tu-154 B-2 aircraft was a violation of spatial orientation (situational awareness) of the aircraft commander, which led to his erroneous actions with the aircraft controls, as a result of which the aircraft, during the climb, went into descent and collided with the water surface.” .
The document emphasizes that the aircraft commander, Major Roman Volkov “began to experience difficulties in determining his location on the airfield, associated with his idea of the upcoming take-off course”, not understanding which of the two runways of the Sochi airport would take off from.
At 5 hours 24 minutes 36 seconds the crew began takeoff with a heading of 238°. But already in the seventh second of take-off, the aircraft commander (PIC) “emotionally began to ask the crew about the take-off course.” Moreover, with the use of “obscene language,” which led to “to the PIC’s failure to control take-off ground parameters, to the distraction of crew members from performing their functional duties”.
As soon as he took off from the ground, setting the plane to a pitch of 15°, Major Volkov turned the steering wheel away from himself, slowing down the climb. And already at the 53rd second of the flight, when the plane had gained only 157 meters of altitude, the PIC ordered the flaps to be removed, although according to all regulations this operation is carried out at an altitude of at least 500 meters. At the same time, Volkov continued to tilt the steering wheel away from himself. Which led to the fact that at an altitude of 231 meters the plane switched to descent mode, losing altitude at a speed of 6-8 m/s. The siren sounded and the red display flashed in the cockpit. But none of the crew paid attention to this.
At the 70th second of the flight, when the Tu-154 was only 90 meters from the surface of the water, the PIC abruptly turned the aircraft, which was turning with a slight right bank of about 10°, into a steep left bank of 53°. The plane rushed to the surface of the water three times faster, at a speed of 20 m/s, and was already doomed.
At the 73rd second of flight, the Tu-154, at a speed of 540 km/h and a left roll of about 50, touched the surface of the sea with its left wing, fell apart and sank.
The report of Lieutenant General Baynetov indicated that the emergence of a critical situation on board the Tu-154 was facilitated by the “emotional and physiological fatigue” of commander Volkov, as well as his lack of “sustainable skills” in piloting in difficult situations.
Experienced military pilots, whom we asked to comment on the commission’s conclusions about the causes of the Sochi disaster and the document distributed on the Internet, similar to the report of the head of the Aviation Safety Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, agreed that there were many inconsistencies in both the official report and the “document.”
Our experts noticed that at the Sochi airport the planes taxi to the start behind the escort vehicle. In addition, the airport is equipped with illuminated taxiway and runway number signs. It is almost impossible to get lost at Sochi airport. If Major Volkov is already “lost” on the ground, a take-off ban should immediately follow.
It is impossible to explain what happened after takeoff:
“Unless there has been collective insanity,” said one of our experts. “The actions of both the captain and crew are absolutely inadequate. The actions of the rudders (especially the rudder - from the pedals) after takeoff cannot be explained normally. The flight speed indicated in the document allows the plane to stay in the air, but a normal, trained, tested and approved pilot for this type of flight could not allow such actions with the rudders.
The actual withdrawal of the co-pilot and navigator also defies explanation:
— The crew sees that the PIC is making one fatal mistake after another, and does nothing. This is impossible in military transport aviation.
“We can assume that KPP-1 (the flight control instrument is the main instrument of any aircraft) failed,” another of our interlocutors suggested. — The “document” says about its direct indication, they say, it’s difficult. Yes, it's difficult. During retraining, on the simulator. And Volkov was an experienced pilot. In addition, KPP-1 has a backup attitude indicator AGR-72.
Our experts noticed that the “document” says that the landing gear was removed, but in all the photographs of the collected debris of the crashed Tu-154, the landing gear is in the extended position.
One of our experts, a military transport aviation veteran with more than 10 thousand flight hours, of which about 4 thousand as a Tu-154 crew commander, continues to adhere to the version that Novaya published back in March. Our interlocutor suggests that the full-time commander of the Tu-154 crew, Major Roman Volkov, acted as a co-pilot during takeoff, although he was in his seat, and the pilot who took off was not only not trained and not authorized to fly this type of aircraft, but also not included in the flight mission, senior in rank and position. Yes, he had extensive flying experience, but on other types of aircraft, for example on the An-72. On board the crashed plane there was indeed a senior instructor-pilot of military unit 42829, a lieutenant colonel. And he flew precisely on the An-72.
The “document”, positioned as the report of Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, is very similar to the real one, but our experts do not rule out that it is a fake, made “on the basis” of the real document.
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 with the aircraft - airfield services discovered a fuel leak from the wing tank. But the problems were promptly corrected, and the work was accepted by military authorities. Before departure on December 25, 2016, the aircraft passed all the necessary checks and 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 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 voiced by the Russian FSB the day after the crash: 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 terrorist attack. 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 when he mixed up 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 the possible cause of the 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 cargo being transported.”
“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 from which of the two runways he would take off. According to the publication, the pilot 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.
