The commander of the fallen Tu-154 managed to give a signal about an emergency situation on board

© Illustration by IA Rosbalt

The commander of the Tu-154 that crashed in the Black Sea, Roman Volkov, was able to report problems on board, but there is very little information. This was stated by the head of the Aviation Safety Service of the RF Armed Forces Sergey Baynetov.

“I can say that the radio exchange was extremely short. You can imagine that the situation developed in 10 seconds. What can be said in 10 seconds? .. Therefore, the analysis of the commander’s phrase indicates the beginning of a special situation, she does not tell us anything else, ”RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.

According to Baynetov, the entire flight took about 70 seconds. “The maximum height that we determined from the parametric information was about 250 meters, at this level the speed is in the range of 360-370 kilometers per hour,” he said.

So far, even talking about what the angle was when it hit the water surface is premature.

“There are certain data, but nevertheless, you understand, they are not entirely accurate. There is video information. I repeat that the process of analyzing and combining all these numerous factors is underway, ”he answered the question that, according to some eyewitnesses, the nose of the aircraft was strongly pulled up before the crash.

“I cannot yet judge the reliability of this information. I want to say that a lot of eyewitnesses offer their services, indeed, somehow everyone reacted with understanding to this tragedy ... All this is checked, of course, and checked against the objective information that is, ”he concluded.

On December 25, a Tu-154 plane crashed in the Black Sea a few minutes after taking off from the Adler airport. 92 people died. Upon the crash of the Tu-154, a criminal case was initiated under Art. 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of flight rules that entailed grave consequences).

Many people who have panic attacks hate flying. By the way, although I don’t have panic attacks, I still can’t stand airplanes.

So, this article will be useful to a lot of people. Well, except for the pilots themselves or flight attendants, who are specially trained on how to behave in emergency situations. We read and remember.

The plane is considered one of the safest modes of transport, however, even in it passengers are in danger. What are they and what to do in order to minimize the damage.

Fight on board

Fights on board the aircraft have become a common occurrence, both among our compatriots and among foreign tourists. This is explained, as a rule, by the fact that many people get drunk at the airport in order to allay the fear of flying or simply reduce the waiting time. Once in a confined space, someone just falls asleep, while someone begins to look for reasons for conflict.

The most dangerous thing on board is a group of fans who strive to get the maximum adrenaline and, along with fights, arrange a “pitching”, that is, they rush from one side to another. If there are less than 30 people, it is not dangerous, otherwise the balance of the aircraft may be disturbed.

• Having witnessed a fight on board, first of all, you need to remain calm.
• All foreign airlines have so-called "marshals" in their crews - large stewards who are much better at pacifying violent passengers than serving sandwiches.
• But in domestic companies there is no such position, so men should be ready to help the flight attendant if necessary.

Turbulence zone and air pockets

Turbulence is understood as the mixing of several air flows with different temperatures and densities, as a result of which the aircraft can instantly descend or rise several tens of meters.

Most often, this happens at an altitude of more than six thousand meters, during a flight over a city, a sandy beach or a lake, the surface of which is heated unevenly.

When an aircraft falls into a large air pocket, all objects in the cabin and not properly fixed, soar up sharply and then fall on those sitting. In addition, if you do not buckle up, you can get bruised or even fractured by hitting during the shaking that usually happens when passing through a turbulence zone.

• When boarding a plane, make sure that there are no heavy or sharp objects, loose luggage nearby.
• Even a pen in a jacket pocket can become dangerous, so it's best to pack it in a bag.
• In addition, be sure to buckle up, and if you get into a turbulence zone, group yourself as indicated in the passenger memo.

Airplane fire

It is not uncommon for passengers themselves to be responsible for a fire on an airplane, carelessly handling fire or smoking on board. True, a fire can occur during takeoff or landing, and then the passenger has no more than three minutes to get out of the plane.

• First of all, remember that the plane is a huge flying fuel truck, and it is strictly forbidden to use lighters or smoke on board.
• If a fire has already started while on the runway, try to leave the cabin as soon as possible.
• To do this, when landing, remember where the emergency exits are located, count how many rows of seats there are from you to the exit, in order to orient yourself even by touch.
• Don't inhale the smoke, walk bent over or on all fours, put on a coat or jacket, and get rid of synthetics in your clothes (including tights), because when melted, they cause the most severe burns.
• You should not take off your shoes, except for stilettos when entering the inflatable ladder, and even those should be held in your hands so that you can immediately put on shoes on the ground and not step on broken glass or plastic.

Decompression

Decompression, unlike most air accidents, happens very quickly and, although it seems frightening, is not a cause for panic. The loud noise that accompanies the release of air from the cabin can scare, but this is not the most dangerous. The plane quickly fills with fog and dust, it becomes difficult to breathe, there is ringing in the ears. At this point, the most important thing is not to panic, but to put on an oxygen mask and securely fasten it so that it does not fall off, even with a possible pitching or loss of consciousness. Know that the crew will immediately begin to correct the situation, and the aircraft will descend sharply until the pressure in the cabin and outside equalize, and then an emergency landing will be made at the nearest airport.

• At the first sign of decompression, put on your oxygen mask and then help those around you.
• Even if there is a child nearby, take care of yourself first, otherwise you may pass out and leave him without help.

Takeoff and landing accidents

It is not for nothing that flight attendants ask passengers to fasten their seat belts and raise their seat backs during takeoff and landing. The most unexpected accidents occur during these periods of flight.

• First of all, you should not rely only on the instructions of the crew.
• If you notice that the flight is going wrong (the plane is descending sharply, one of the engines has died down, or there is smoke in the cabin), buckle up, group up and get ready for an emergency landing, during which severe overloads are inevitable.
• As soon as the plane stops, passengers will be evacuated. At this point, you should not succumb to panic, but you need to do everything as quickly as possible.

Hijacking

Cases of aircraft hijacking are extremely rare, however, they quickly become known to the whole world. And although the chance that the Moscow-Antalya flight will be hijacked is negligible, it is still better to know the basic rules of behavior and survival in such situations.

• Do not stand out among other passengers, fulfill all the requirements of the criminals, and then the release groups.
• Perform any action (going to the toilet, opening luggage) only after receiving permission.
• During the assault, try to sit or lie down on the floor or hide behind the back of a chair, do not express your attitude towards the invaders and do not try to deal with them yourself.
• After your release, be prepared for the fact that for the next few hours you will have to continuously answer questions from the police and law enforcement agencies.

Water landing

In emergency cases, the plane can land on the water, but this does not mean that casualties are inevitable, since all aircraft are prepared for this. The ship can stay afloat for up to 40 minutes, and during this time everyone has time to leave it. In addition, modern aircraft are equipped with life jackets and life rafts that self-inflate in one minute.

• Before departure, find out in what position the aircraft is kept afloat - horizontally, with the tail lowered into the water or the bow. Based on this, plan which exit you will need to move to.
• After landing, start with the help of the stewards to launch self-inflating rafts. If the raft does not start to inflate by itself, pull the handle of the air supply system located on the side of the raft.

P.S. And so that you don’t feel completely scared, let me defuse the situation a little:

Crew, prepare to land! Flight mechanic, report the situation!
— No left landing gear!
- Emergency landing! Stewardess! Is there still a supply of alcohol on board?
- Yes!
- Give it to the passengers, so as not to worry!
- You already issued it once after takeoff, they are now rolling some kind of wheel along the aisle ...

IAC announced the cause of the crash of the Saratov Airlines airliner in the Moscow region. However, the pilots of the airline, on condition of anonymity, claim that it was a terrorist attack.

Sensor icing blamed for crash

By the evening of February 13, the main cause of the An-148 crash became known. As stated in the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), the total pressure sensors were iced over, as a result of which the information about the speed of the aircraft was displayed incorrectly on the indicators.

The icing of the sensors, in turn, occurred due to the fact that their heating systems were turned off.

As experts found out, an emergency situation on board the crashed An-148 began to develop 2 minutes 30 seconds after takeoff. At this time, the plane was at an altitude of 1300 meters. The crash, according to the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor's Office, occurred in the fourth minute of the flight.

However, it is not completely clear how an incorrect display of speed could lead to such a rapid fall of the liner. We remind readers that the crew did not have time to get in touch with the controllers and did not request an emergency landing.

"It was a terrorist attack"

As in any high-profile incident, there were some unofficial speculations.

Radio Liberty talked to the pilot of Saratov Airlines, who repeatedly flew the Moscow-Orsk route, including together with the deceased aircraft captain Valery Gubanov.

The pilot, on condition of anonymity, made a sensational statement.

“I believe that this is a terrorist attack, all the colleagues with whom I spoke after the tragedy are also inclined towards this,”- he said.

According to him, aircraft maintenance at Saratov Airlines is carried out as expected, according to the regulations, the An-148 model is reliable in itself, and all emergency situations are well worked out by the crew. The interlocutor of Radio Liberty denies the pilot error or technical malfunctions as versions.

An unnamed pilot draws attention to the fact that the wreckage from the plane was scattered for a kilometer, and the bodies cannot be identified without genetic examinations.

“If the plane fell apart from hitting the ground, then the bodies and debris would lie nearby, compactly, in such cases, many of the dead are found in their seats. And here they collect everyone in parts ... This means that there was a powerful explosion on board, otherwise they would not have been blown apart like that, ”- said the pilot of Saratov Airlines.

As someone who has served in the Air Force for a long time and dealt with flight safety, I also wonder why such a competent air crash investigation board accused a highly professional crew of failing to cope with an emergency that arose on board.

Lost on the ground?

In what happened in 70 seconds of the flight, the commission, apparently, could not figure it out thoroughly.

“The commander, before the plane crashed, pressed the rudder pedals, as if he was trying to bypass an unexpected obstacle”

As you know, about a minute after taking off from the runway, the Tu-154-B2 gained a height of about 250 meters and a speed of about 360–370 kilometers per hour. Immediately after that, an emergency situation began to develop rapidly on board.

At a press conference dedicated to the work of the government commission, the head of the aviation safety service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Sergei Baynetov, said that “the radio exchange was extremely short. There was a special situation for 10 seconds ... ”That is, according to him, before that everything was going quite normally. However, the analysis of the radio traffic of the crew, not only in the last seconds of the flight, but also on the ground, suggests the opposite. Andrey Krasov, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, is also inclined to this point of view: “Something extraordinary should have happened.”

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in turn, also reported an emergency situation on board the Tu-154-B2 before the fall. What turned out to be extraordinary on earth?

From the part of the investigation materials that got into the public domain, it follows that “aircraft commander R. Volkov began to experience difficulties in determining his own position on the territory of the airfield”, which was due to his idea of ​​​​the upcoming take-off course. Volkov allegedly did not understand which of the two runways he would take off from. But the Sochi airport is equipped with illuminated signs for taxiway numbers and runways. According to experts, it is impossible to “get lost” there. In addition, Volkov was familiar with the airfield. Moreover, if the commander of the liner was lost on the ground, a ban on take-off should immediately follow, which did not happen. So, everything was regular or they hide from the public that this is not so? But then there are even more questions.

The materials of the investigation on the violation of spatial orientation (situational awareness) say that it is very difficult for even a beginner to get lost in 70 seconds of flight at an altitude of up to 300 meters. And at the helm was an experienced pilot who flew, we repeat, on the Tu-154 for 1900 hours. Volkov constantly took off with a pitch to pitch, which you can’t do otherwise than according to the artificial horizon. Nearby was a trained full-time crew that controlled the situation and would respond to instrument deviations. It is hard to believe that their testimony was ignored for several tens of seconds, and collectively. The actual self-elimination of the co-pilot and navigator from ensuring a safe flight also defies explanation. Former head of the air force flight safety service (1997–2002), honored military pilot, Major General of Aviation Boris Tumanov is convinced that two professionals could not lose their spatial orientation, and the disaster could not occur due to erroneous (that is, conscious) actions of the crew. Unless, of course, his spatial orientation (situational awareness) was not violated at that time.

Similar cases were investigated by doctors of the British Air Force. Violation of spatial orientation can occur at parameters exceeding the normal ones for the life of the flight crew. This is a temperature from + 20 ° and an overload of more than 1 unit. But the work of the crew of the Tu-154-B2 corresponded to the usual parameters of vital activity. Therefore, the violation of spatial orientation, to put it mildly, is problematic. However, the State Commission made just such a conclusion. Why?

The materials of the investigation say that this “could have been facilitated ( but could not contribute! – I.S.) the resulting excessive neuropsychic stress due to a combination of a number of situational professional and psychological stress factors against the background of natural emotional and physiological fatigue; lack of sustainable skills in the distribution of attention and maintaining the specified flight parameters at the stage of takeoff and climb. And this is from a professionally trained aircraft commander and crew?

"Direct" indication of the aircraft's spatial position along the roll is displayed on the flight control instrument (CPC), it is impossible not to notice it. Then where did it come from that it caused difficulties for a particular aircraft commander? For a young pilot during retraining on a simulator - maybe. And Roman Volkov, we emphasize once again, was an experienced pilot. In addition, in the event of a checkpoint failure, there is a backup device - the AGR-72 artificial horizon.

By the way, if the "special situation" arose on the ground, then why didn't the air traffic controllers in the airport area provide the crew with timely assistance? In the materials of the investigation, this is stated as follows: “The accident was facilitated by omissions in the control of the organization of flights, objective control and flight and methodological work of the leadership of 800 (AB) ...”

Isn't it too light: "The accident was facilitated by the omissions ... of the leadership of the 800th air base." This is not a vegetable base, and not even a Voentorg base. The flight unit has a long and glorious history, it is a long-formed living organism of the Air Force. The elite special-purpose division, performing state tasks, has established itself as a responsible and trouble-free formation. A system of reliable operation of aviation equipment and training of aviation personnel was laid there. Strict control has been established to ensure trouble-free operation and flight safety on the ground and in the air. Under Serdyukov, the 8th hell (OH) was changed into the 800th (AB), lowering its status, but not cutting its responsibility. Some shortcomings in the training of the crew, of course, may occur. But I, as an expert, do not believe in the fundamental ones, marked by the commission and causing a catastrophe.

Obvious contradictions can also be traced in the assessments of the commander's activities. From the materials of the investigation follows: “R. Volkov was not ready for flight according to psychological, professional and physiological criteria as a pilot, as a ship commander, as responsible for the safety of passengers. But before that, there were completely different assessments. “The crew of the crashed Tu-154-B2 was ready for the flight, the level of its qualification corresponded to the fulfillment of the flight task,” Baynetov stated in an interview. He was supported at that moment by the Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev: “Volkov is a well-trained military pilot of the first class ...”

Nor can I imagine that the country's leadership could appoint an unprepared flight crew to such a responsible task. As Boris Tumanov said, "the commander of the Tu-154-B2 crew with such professional training and 1900 hours of flight time on the Tu-154 cannot get into a situation of spatial disorientation, especially on takeoff, when he was piloting the aircraft on instruments."

Mirage on course

During the search operation, more than 200 fragments of the crashed aircraft were found, including the fuselage side skin measuring 3.5 by 4.5 meters with windows, the tail section with pieces of the engine, a separate engine, landing gear ... 20 bodies and numerous remains of air passengers were raised . Such a spread occurs only when the aircraft is destroyed in the air.

Although the point of mass accumulation of fragments was six kilometers from the coastline, where the depth is from 80 to 100 meters, debris and personal items were found over a fairly large area, some of them - 12-14 kilometers away. In this regard, serious experts are talking about the possibility of an explosion on board. So, the version of a terrorist attack is not ruled out.

According to an expert in the aerospace field Vadim Lukashevich, the investigation turned out to have too little information. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about any specific causes of the disaster.

Specialists involved in the investigation found out that the crew commander, before the plane crashed, pressed the rudder pedals, which are not usually used during takeoff. As if trying to bypass an unexpected obstacle. At the same time, the commission rejected the option of external influence and a technical malfunction of the liner. One gets the impression that there really was some kind of obstacle in front of the plane, perhaps a flock of birds or even a mirage. However, experienced pilots believe that again there is not enough reason to talk about pilot error.

“The plane crashes very rarely on takeoff, especially of this class. It has three engines and is very reliable. It could not be that someone flew up to him, he could crash into something. And then a sharp drop, this happens when something abnormal happened, something exploded, something fell off ... The pilot could turn on the distress signal, but this also did not happen. I can’t blame the crew, and the equipment doesn’t break down like that right away,” pilot-instructor Andrey Krasnoperov shared his thoughts. - If the liner had fallen intact, it would simply have disappeared in the water, and an oil stain would have formed at the site of its fall, then fragments would have surfaced ... And then they even found a person who was injured in the coastal zone from the wreckage, and only then the remains of the aircraft . All this suggests that parts of the liner fell randomly.

Apparently, the low quality of the initial data (their absence) did not allow the participants in the investigation to thoroughly restore the entire scheme of the development of an emergency situation on board the Tu-154-B2 and, accordingly, come to a consensus.

An additional problem was the flight recorder, created in the 80s and which is essentially a reel-to-reel tape recorder of those years. It was not damaged, but there was no equipment or specialists left to obtain full information from it in the Research Center for the operation and repair of aircraft of the Air Force of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. I had to turn to the MAC for help, but the transcript of the recording added a little to the investigation.

Let's reproduce those last 10 seconds of the crew's activity before the plane crashed into the Black Sea through some versions and opinions. The Tu-154-B2 accident investigation commission stated: at the 73rd second, having touched the surface of the sea with its left wing, it fell apart and sank. I emphasize: into parts, but not into fragments, as it turned out in reality. At the time of the collision, the left bank was about 50 degrees, the indicated speed was 540 kilometers per hour. The liner managed to fly over the sea 1270 meters. Where did the numerous fragments come from at such a low flight speed and low altitude?

Initially, there were 15 or even more versions of the disaster. When we received data from two "black boxes", it became half as much. But the remaining versions have not yet been made public by officials. “It is impossible to say about one reason for this aviation accident,” Sergei Baynetov emphasized. “These reasons lie in the field of the human factor, aviation technology, and external conditions.” According to him (before the commission makes final conclusions), some kind of mechanical impact could also have influenced the development of the special situation on board. But this message also adds nothing and does not say anything specifically. All from the field of assumptions that NON-specialists could do. And what actually caused the disaster, the relatives of the victims, the Russian public still do not know. "The investigation is over, forget it..."

Almost a year has passed since the tragic event. But even after this time, personally, my soul did not become easier and calmer. As a pilot and an expert, I feel understatement, some kind of silence, the lack of clear explanations for a number of flashy facts about the behavior of the aircraft and crew on that early Sochi morning on December 25th.

The conclusions of the state commission left not only questions that have not been answered, but also logical contradictions and inconsistencies. Maybe it is beneficial for someone that the Tu-154-B2 crash remains a mystery with seven seals. But not the Russian public. Truth must prevail sooner or later.

Igor Semenchenko,
independent expert in the field of flight safety and aviation, First Deputy Chief of the Operations Directorate of the Main Staff of the Air Force (1997–2003), Major General