Occur almost every year since the start of flights of this type of aircraft. From 1973 to 2011, there were only a few years during which not a single incident related to the Tu-154 occurred.
In total, 72 Tu-154 aircraft were lost in accidents and disasters. The largest Tu-154 crash(and all Soviet aviation) occurred on July 10, 1985 near Uchkuduk. The overloaded plane went 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 a mass-produced passenger airliner and requires highly qualified flight and ground personnel, this airliner has proven itself to be a completely reliable and safe aircraft. Moreover, Tu-154 plane crashes are not always due to the fault of technology.
Of course, airliner problems do happen, but more often they occur on aircraft that are operated beyond normal limits and do not receive adequate 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 latest disasters, it is worth noting Polish Tu-154, 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 more favorable outcomes also happen. 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 plane crashes compiled by Wikipedia.
| date | Board number | Scene of the incident | Victims/On Board | Short description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.02.1973 | 85023 | Prague | 66/100 | He crashed before reaching 470 meters from the runway. |
| 03.1973 | n.d. | Kyiv | 0/n.d. | Crashed. |
| 07.05.1973 | 85030 | Vnukovo | 0/6 | Suffered an accident while performing a training flight. |
| 10.07.1974 | SU-AXB | Cairo | 6/6 | Suffered a disaster while performing a training flight. |
| 30.09.1975 | HA-LCI | Beirut | 60/60 | The Budapest-Beirut flight crashed at sea during landing. |
| 01.06.1976 | 85102 | Malabo | 46/46 | Crashed into a mountain during landing. |
| 1976 | 85020 | Kyiv | 0/n.d. | Rough landing. Now in the Ukrainian State Aviation Museum. |
| 02.12.1977 | LZ-BTN | Benghazi | 59/165 | Unable to land in fog, ran out of fuel while searching for an alternate airfield and made a rough landing. |
| 23.03.1978 | LZ-BTB | near Damascus | 4/4 | Crash during landing. |
| 19.05.1978 | 85169 | Maksatikha | 4/134 | Due to an error by the flight engineer, the fuel supply was cut off and he made an emergency landing in a field. |
| 18.02.1978 | 85087 | Tolmachevo | 0/n.d. | Fire on board. The surviving tail of the airliner was filmed in the film The Crew. |
| 01.03.1980 | 85103 | Orenburg | 0/161 | Rough landing with fuselage deformation. |
| 07.07.1980 | 85355 | Almaty | 164/164 | Crash on takeoff. Wind shear. |
| 07.08.1980 | YP-TPH | Mauritania | 1/168 | Wrong landing on water 300 m before the runway. |
| 08.10.1980 | 85321 | Chita | 0/n.d. | Rough landing. |
| 13.06.1981 | 85029 | Bratsk | 0/n.d. | During landing, it rolled off a wet runway and the tail came off in the 28th row. |
| 20.09.1981 | 85448 | Tashkent | n.d. | Burnt out while refueling. |
| 16.11.1981 | 85480 | Norilsk | 99/167 | Rough landing 470 meters before the 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 | During landing, he collided with airfield vehicles. Dispatcher error. |
| 23.12.1984 | 85338 | Krasnoyarsk | 110/110 | Fire of the third engine and failure of hydraulic systems. |
| 10.07.1985 | 85311 | Uchkuduk | 200/200 | The overloaded plane fell into a flat tailspin at supercritical angles of attack due to the fault of the crew. |
| 1986 | 7O-ACN | Aden | n.d. | Details unknown. At this time, there was a civil war in the country. |
| 21.05.1986 | 85327 | Domodedovo | 0/175 | Received residual deformation of the structure during flight due to erroneous actions of the crew. The plane has been turned into a teaching aid. |
| 18.01.1988 | 85254 | Krasnovodsk | 11/143 | Rough landing, resulting in the fuselage breaking in half. |
| 08.03.1988 | 85413 | Veshchevo | 9/n. d. | Blown up on the ground by the Ovechkin terrorists. |
| 24.09.1988 | 85479 | Aleppo | 0/168 | Wind shear, rough landing, the plane broke into two parts. |
| 24.09.1988 | 85617 | Norilsk | 0/n.d. | Rough landing. The plane has been turned into a teaching aid. |
| 13.01.1989 | 85067 | Monrovia | 0/n.d. | Takeoff was aborted due to overload, runway overrun. |
| 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 extreme forward alignment, the nose landing gear broke. |
| 17.11.1990 | 85664 | Czech | 0/6 | I was transporting cigarettes from Switzerland, and the cargo caught fire during the flight. The pilots landed the plane in a field, where it completely burned out. |
| 23.05.1991 | 85097 | Pulkovo | 2+13/178 | Rough landing, the landing gear broke 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 rainstorm, it rolled off the runway. |
| 18.06.1992 | 85282 | Bratsk | 1+0/0 | Burnt out while refueling. The refueling foreman who led the burning fuel tanker away from the airport terminal was killed. |
| 18.06.1992 | 85234 | Bratsk | 0/0 | Burnt out while refueling along with board 85282. |
| 20.07.1992 | 85222 | Tbilisi | 4+24/24 | Crashed during takeoff due to overload. |
| 01.08.1992 | YA-TAP | Kabul | 0/0 | Destroyed in the parking lot by mortar fire. Previously, it was hit during landing, but then the damage was not very significant. |
| 05.09.1992 | 85269 | Kyiv | 0/147 | Return to the airport, the left landing gear did not come out, rough landing. |
| 13.10.1992 | 85528 | Vladivostok | 0/67 | |
| 05.12.1992 | 85105 | Yerevan | 0/154 | During landing, it skidded off the runway. |
| 19.01.1993 | 85533 | Delhi | 0/165 | Rough landing due to pilot error missing the runway. |
| 08.02.1993 | EP-ITD | near Tehran | 2+131/131 | Collided in mid-air with an Iranian Air Force Su-22. |
| 22.09.1993 | 85163 | Sukhumi | 108/132 | Damaged by a missile fired by Abkhaz forces during landing at Sukhumi airport. The crew attempted 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 Abkhaz troops. |
| 25.12.1993 | 85296 | Grozny | 0/172 | Rough landing - the nose landing gear broke. Destroyed at a repair station 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 | Collapsed 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 off the runway. |
| 07.12.1995 | 85164 | Khabarovsk | 98/98 | Asymmetrical pumping of fuel from tanks; The PIC mistakenly increased the resulting right bank and the flight became uncontrollable. |
| 29.08.1996 | 85621 | Longyearbyen | 141/141 | Crashed into a mountain during landing. Crew error. |
| 13.09.1997 | 11+02 | Namibia | 24/24 | Military. Collided in 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 | The takeoff was aborted, the plane skidded off the runway and caught fire. |
| 24.02.1999 | B-2622 | Ruian | 61/61 | During the descent, a equipment failure occurred. |
| 04.07.2000 | HA-LCR | Thessaloniki | 0/76 | Could not go around due to sudden braking in order to avoid colliding with another aircraft on a busy runway. |
| 03.07.2001 | 85845 | Irkutsk | 145/145 | Crashed during landing due to piloting errors. |
| 04.10.2001 | 85693 | Black Sea | 78/78 | Wrongly shot down by a Ukrainian air defense missile during an exercise. |
| 12.02.2002 | EP-MBS | Khorramabad | 119/119 | Crashed while descending. |
| 20.02.2002 | EP-LBX | Mashhad | 0/n.d. | Rough landing. Damaged during repairs in Vnukovo, written off. |
| 01.07.2002 | 85816 | Uberlingen | 69/69 | Collided in mid-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 | The pilot's mistake: an attempt to fly over a thunderstorm front at the maximum altitude. Falling into a “flat corkscrew”. |
| 01.09.2006 | EP-MCF | Mashhad | 29/147 | During landing, a tire burst, the plane rolled off the runway and caught fire. |
| 30.06.2008 | 85667 | Pulkovo | 0/112 | Engine fire during takeoff. The takeoff was aborted and the vehicle was written off. |
| 08.05.2009 | EP-MCR | near Mashhad | 0/169 | Caught in severe turbulence and damaged by hail. Decommissioned. |
| 15.07.2009 | EP-CPG | near Qazvin | 168/168 | Engine destruction at flight level. Lost control and crashed. |
| 24.01.2010 | 85787 | Mashhad | 0/170 | During a rough landing, the plane's tail fell off and a fire started. |
| 10.04.2010 | 101 | Smolensk | 96/96 | Crashed during a test approach in dense fog. On board was Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other dignitaries. |
| 04.12.2010 | 85744 | Domodedovo | 2/163 | Two engines failed after takeoff from Vnukovo. During an emergency landing at Domodedovo, it rolled off the runway and fell into pieces. |
| 01.01.2011 | 85588 | Surgut | 3/134 | While preparing for takeoff, a fire started on board: the causes are being investigated, the most likely being an electrical equipment malfunction. |
Tu-154 plane crash near Irkutsk - a crash that occurred on July 4, 2001 with an airline plane flying DD 352 Ekaterinburg - Irkutsk - Vladivostok. The plane crashed while landing. As a result of the disaster, 136 passengers and 9 crew members died.
Events
The Tu-154 airliner of Vladivostok Air was performing a standard flight Ekaterinburg - Irkutsk - Vladivostok. Having taken off from Yekaterinburg, the plane flew most of the way and approached Irkutsk airport at 01:50 local time. At 02:05, the aircraft commander reported that he could see the airport runway. Three minutes later, the plane disappeared from the radar screens of the Irkutsk air traffic control service.
At that moment, residents of the village of Burdakovka, located near the airport, heard a loud bang. The called police, together with the airport emergency services, arrived at the scene at 03:25. Arriving rescuers discovered the crash site of the plane, the wreckage of which was scattered over a huge area. There were no survivors. By morning, investigative teams managed to find the flight recorders.
Air crash investigation
By the morning of the day of the disaster, the investigation team managed to find all three flight recorders, which greatly simplified the investigation of the tragedy. On December 13, 2001, the conclusion of the state commission to investigate the crash of flight DD 352 was published.
During the landing approach, the aircraft performed a turn with a left bank of 45°. However, the crew was unable to maintain the specified landing altitude of 850 meters and the required speed, as a result of which the autopilot increased the pitch angle (pitch) to compensate for the loss of altitude. Trying to prevent the threat of the airliner stalling, the crew manually reduced the altitude and increased thrust, increasing the speed, but seeing a too sharp loss of altitude, they excessively increased the angle of attack, lifting the plane nose up. The specified engine thrust at such angles of attack was not enough and the aircraft reached supercritical conditions. The crew hesitated and lost 10 seconds. By the time the engines reached maximum thrust, the plane had lost speed and was almost uncontrollable. Unable to stay in the air, the Tu-154, which had 145 people on board, crashed to the ground.
The coordinates of the approximate crash site of the plane have been determined 42.183333 , 37.616667 42°11′ N. w. 37°37′ E. d. / 42.183333° N. w. 37.616667° E. d.(G) (O), which is approximately 280 kilometers from Novorossiysk.
A special commission was created to establish the causes of the accident. An An-26 of the Russian Federal Border Service urgently flew to the scene of the accident from Gelendzhik. The border patrol ship "Grif" also went there. Also, an AN-12 plane 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 "Captain Beklemishchev" from Novorossiysk, as well as a vessel of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations - headed "Rescuer Prokopchik". The An-12 plane found oil stains at the supposed crash site. Helicopters found several pieces of the plane and the bodies of dead passengers floating on the surface of the sea.
Versions
Technical Investigation
October 5 Information appeared about bullet holes found in the Tu-154 fuselage, but this information was called premature. The head of the West Siberian Regional Air Transport Administration, Vladimir Tasun, said 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.” On the same day, rescuers from Israel joined the Russian rescuers, and an analysis of the Tu-154 crew’s conversations and an analysis of the videotape recording radar readings began. On this day, 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 Vladimir Rushailo said that objects that were not related to the structure of the aircraft were found at the scene of the accident, and that “the aircraft was destroyed 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 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 the scream of the Tu-154 pilot was recorded by a ground tape recorder.
October 9 According to the commission, an analysis of the holes in the fuselage shows that the plane could have been hit by a missile from the S-200 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. Establishing the details of the disaster is complicated by the inability to determine the exact location of the plane crash - the debris was scattered over 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 discovered 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 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 Tu-154 plane crash: “multiple damage in the form of similar holes indicate that the Russian aircraft was damaged from the 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 sulphide 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 said that according to the analysis of the plane's wreckage and holes, an anti-aircraft missile exploded 15 meters above the plane. At a conference in Kyiv, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine 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
Initially, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case under the article “Terrorism” in connection with the crash of the Tu-154 passenger plane 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.
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 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 defendants’ guilt 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 damages. 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 Kiev 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 of the Russian airline Siberia (S7 Airlines) against 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.
Versions of the causes of the tragedy
Operator error
The S-200 anti-aircraft missile system uses a semi-active guidance system, when the source of radiation is a powerful ground-based radar (“target illumination”), and the missile itself 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 FCM mode, but switching the radar to this mode takes up to 30 seconds and may not occur 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, 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 radar 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 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 the missile missing the training target (as is sometimes claimed), but of the obvious 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.
Terrorist attack
Due to the absence of the remains of the plane and the “black boxes”, which were never found, the establishment of 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 have been located "between the ceiling of the interior of the aircraft" and its body.
Reactions of senior officials of states affected by the plane crash
Russia
Ukraine
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.
The 16th episode of the series “Aerobatics” (Russia, 2009) contains references to the disaster described: the Russian Il-86 plane was flying from Tel Aviv to Moscow, fell into the zone of Ukrainian air defense training exercises over the Black Sea and was shot down from the S-200 air defense system (in the film, however, the plane was landed in the steppe in the Kuban)
Perpetuation of memory
Ten years later
Notes
- I am not me and the rocket is not mine
- Plane crash of flight Tu-154 Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk (2001). Help | Inquiries | News feed "RIA Novosti"
- "The crash of the Tu-154 plane in the Black Sea occurred due to a terrorist attack"
- Tu-154 plane crash in the Black Sea
- Chronicle of the tragedy
- Western media report that the TU-154 plane was shot down by a missile from Ukraine
- Tu-154 was shot down by a Ukrainian missile?
- In search of the Ukrainian trace
- No bullet holes were found on the fuselage of the Tu-154 - News NEWSru.com
- There is practically no hope for Triton
- “The cause of death of the TU-154 passengers was barotrauma”
- “Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo told reporters the conclusion of the technical commission. ..."
- “The conclusion of the commission to investigate the death of TU-154: “the plane was hit from the outside””
- News NEWSru.com:: Experts deny that the Russian Tu-154, which crashed into the Black Sea in 2001, was shot down by a Ukrainian missile
- Experts deny that a Russian plane was hit by a Ukrainian missile in 2001 // RIANovosti Ukraine.
- Ukraine sees no reason to initiate a case regarding the Tu-154 crash
- The investigation is over, forget it
- The Prosecutor General's Office has again taken up the case of the crash of the Russian Tu-154 over the Black Sea
- The court ordered the Ukrainian prosecutor's office to resume the case of the Tu-154 plane crash
- The Kyiv Economic Court rejected the claim of Siberia Airlines against the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine
- Ukraine denied a claim to the families of those killed in the Tu-154 crash
- The decision of the Kyiv court in the case of the Tu-154 shot down in 2001 has been appealed
- The Ukrainian military was not involved in the emergency situation with the Tu-154 in 2001, the court confirmed // RIA Novosti, 05/28/2012, 15:27
- 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.
The crash of flight MH-17 in the Donetsk region brought to mind the tragedy of 2001, when a Siberia Airlines plane exploded over the Black Sea. The Russian side blamed Ukrainian rocket scientists for both disasters. Their involvement in the downing of the Malaysian Boeing has already been refuted by the preliminary conclusions of the international commission. But the investigation into the Tu-154 crash has received far less attention, and even in Ukraine its key findings are largely unknown.
15 years ago, on October 4, 2001, a Siberia Airlines airliner crashed over the Black Sea, operating flight SBI-1812 on the route Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk. 66 passengers and 12 crew members were killed. According to the conclusion of the Interstate Aviation Committee, the plane was unintentionally shot down by a Ukrainian S-200 missile launched during an exercise. Ukraine paid the relatives of the dead passengers, but refused to admit its guilt in the incident.
A year ago, in November 2015, relatives of passengers on flight SBI-1812 appealed to the President and the Prosecutor General of Russia with a request to resume the investigation into the crash. The authors of the letter compared the 2001 plane crash with the crash of a Malaysian Boeing in 2014 and called Ukraine’s statements about non-involvement in both accidents “hypocritical and deceitful.”
Bird In Flight has collected the most important little-known details of the Tu-154 crash.
1. The plane exploded in Russia’s area of responsibility
Joint exercises on firing from ground-based and ship-based anti-aircraft missile systems were held at the training ground of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation at Cape Opuk in Crimea. A total of 23 missiles were fired. Ukrainian authorities have closed the shooting sector within their jurisdiction to flights. The Siberia Airlines plane exploded and crashed in the area of responsibility of the Russian North Caucasus Air Traffic Control Center, which did not ban passenger flights in the area.
2. The Tu-154 did not give the mandatory national identification signal “I’m mine”
According to the rules, the crew of flight SBI-1812 had to turn on the national identification system 400 kilometers before the CIS borders, but it was silent throughout the flight until the moment of the disaster.
If the plane had given the “I’m mine” signal, it would have been detected by the antenna of the S-200 complex. In this case, live firing is prohibited, and the “Start” command is automatically blocked.
3. Russian President Vladimir Putin denied the involvement of the Ukrainian military in the downing of the Tu-154
On the day of the disaster, Vladimir Putin said that the Ukrainian air defense forces could not shoot down the Tu-154 during the exercises: “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.” “It is possible that this was the result of a terrorist attack,” he said at a meeting with EU justice ministers.
4. The version of a Ukrainian missile hit became the main one after reports that the US administration had evidence of this. None of the participants in the investigation of the disaster saw them.
S-200 is a Soviet long-range anti-aircraft missile system. Designed to defend large areas from bombers and other strategic aircraft. In service since 1967. The missile is aimed at the target using the target illumination radar beam reflected from the target. The mass of the warhead is 220 kg. Contains 90 kg of explosive and 37,000 steel balls.
Already on October 4, the Kyodo Tsushin news agency, CBS and CNN television companies, citing sources in the American government, announced the presence of evidence of the Tu-154 being hit by a surface-to-air missile. After this, the Ukrainian authorities acknowledged the holding of air defense exercises on the day of the disaster, and the version of the terrorist attack faded into the background.
The US authorities never officially announced what evidence was in question and did not provide it to the participants in the investigation.
5. Steel balls and holes similar in size to the striking elements of the S-200 missile were found in the wreckage of the plane. This persuaded the Ukrainian authorities to accept responsibility for the incident. The examination cast doubt on the weight of the evidence
Five balls and 460 holes were found in Tu-154 fragments recovered from the sea, the size of which approximately corresponds to the diameter (9–12 mm) of the striking elements of the missile warhead fired by the Ukrainian military on October 4, 2001.
However, during the consideration of the case in the courts it was established:
- the warhead of such a missile is equipped with steel balls; they are used in bearings and are sold freely;
- traces of only TNT were found on the balls, although the explosive of the rocket warhead consists of 20% of it, and 80% of hexogen;
- there are round holes in the aircraft fragments, smaller in diameter than the rocket shrapnel;
- in the ceiling elements, among others, there are holes formed by a ball hitting from inside the cabin, from bottom to top.
People at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport react to reports of a crash on the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk flight. Most of the 64 passengers were Israeli citizens. Photo: Ariel Schalit / AFP / East News
6. Not found: rocket fragments, outer skin of the aircraft, black boxes
During search operations in the Black Sea, no fragments of the 11-meter rocket were found, although a significant part of it was made of floating materials.
None of the 404 pieces of aircraft recovered are from the outer skin. It was not possible to find the fuselage at the bottom using an echo sounder. Therefore, it is impossible to accurately determine whether the steel balls flew into the cabin from the outside.
7. The Russian radar complex in Gelendzhik, 30 seconds before the explosion, detected an unknown object at a distance of 50 kilometers from the Tu-154. If it was a Ukrainian missile, it would not have been able to reach the plane
At a distance of more than 150–200 kilometers from the launch complex, after running out of fuel, the speed of the 5V28 rocket drops to 1 km/s, and at a distance of 250 kilometers - to 870 m/s. The plane crashed 240 kilometers from the missile launch point. That is, it would fly a segment of 50 kilometers in no less than 50 seconds.
8. The version about the missile targeting radiation from the mobile phones of Tu-154 passengers remained unverified
According to a participant in the investigation, Lieutenant General Valery Kaminsky (in 2001 - Chief of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces of Ukraine), to capture a target at a distance of 30 kilometers, the homing head of the S-200 missile requires a radiation power of 0.35 W, despite the fact that mobile phones of that time emitted up to 2 W.
The Ukrainian side was ready to check the version: send a Tu-154 with gadgets on board along the route of flight SBI-1812 and track it with air defense systems. However, Russia categorically refused the experiment.
9. The missile detonation point determined by the Interstate Aviation Committee - behind, to the left and 15 meters above the aircraft body - does not correspond to the principle of guidance of the S-200 missile
The computing unit guides the 5B28 missile to the expected meeting point along the direction of the target's movement. Therefore, the explosion occurs in the area of the nose of the aircraft.
Buk air defense missiles are aimed using the same principle. In 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was hit over the Donetsk region by a missile that exploded to the left and above the cockpit.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before a special meeting of the Knesset in memory of the victims of the disaster on October 4, 2011. Photo: Menahem Kahana / AFP / East News
Agreement for the Settlement of Claims Arising from the Air Crash of October 4, 2001
The Government of Ukraine and the Government of the State of Israel<...>Noting that Ukraine recognizes the Air Disaster as a terrible human tragedy and has expressed deep regret over the loss of life; Noting that Ukraine has not accepted any legal obligations or liabilities in connection with the Air Disaster; Having reached agreement on the financial and legal terms of the settlement, we have agreed as follows...
10. Ukraine’s guilt has not been proven, not recognized and not confirmed by payments to the families of the dead passengers
In October 2001, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma apologized for the incident and fired Defense Minister Kuzmuk. He was guided by the conclusions of the commission investigating the disaster, headed by Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo, but continued to call the disaster the result of a “fatal combination of circumstances.”
$200 thousand for each dead passenger was paid to Israel and Russia according to the ex gratia formula - for humanitarian reasons, without admitting guilt. No claims were made against Ukraine at the interstate level.
In 2007, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine finally closed the criminal case into the crash, having found no evidence that the Tu-154 was shot down by a Ukrainian missile.
In 2008, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv refused compensation for moral damage to the head of the Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Victims, Boris Kalinovsky, and the Belonogov family, who refused to receive $200 thousand. They did not appeal.
In 2011, after seven years of consideration, Siberia Airlines' claim for damages was denied. The Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine upheld the decision. The airline announced its intention to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, but did not take advantage of this opportunity.
The last words of the crew commander - “Where did it go?”, spoke unambiguously about what was happening.
After examinations, it turned out that the damage was caused by rocket shrapnel, which is used in air defense systems. The explosion occurred 15 meters from the plane, but this was enough to cause irreparable damage to it.
Versions of what happened
1. The very first version is a terrorist attack. Moreover, three weeks earlier there was a bloody attack on the United States associated with the explosion of the twin towers. And the plane itself was flying from a country well acquainted with this evil. But at Ben Gurion Airport, unprecedented control measures are always carried out and security services assured that terrorists could not sneak on board unnoticed. At least, during the entire existence of the air harbor there has not been a single such case.
2. Soon another explanation appeared - a technical malfunction of the aircraft or unprofessional actions of the crew. By that time, 18 accidents with the TU-154 had occurred due to various problems. Experts, first of all, drew attention to the weak points of the airliner - turbines, fuel tanks, landing gear. But after a thorough check, the version turned out to be irrelevant.
3. The plane was shot down by an S-300 missile fired by the Russian side. Supporters of this version argue that the Ukrainian S-200 air defense system could not hit the plane, since it simply would not have had enough time to reach the target. And the rocket itself needs illumination from ground equipment, which was turned off 3 minutes before the explosion of the plane. In addition, they refer to the words of V. Putin, who stated on the day of the disaster that, according to the tactical and technical characteristics, the fired missile could not reach the corridor in which the ill-fated plane was flying.
4. The airliner was shot down by a Ukrainian missile. This version was initiated...by the Americans. The Pentagon allegedly obtained a recording of negotiations between the Ukrainian military, in which the words “Where did this target come from?” can be heard. Then this version was actively supported by the Russian side. In particular, the head of the commission to investigate the causes of the tragedy, V. Rushailo, 10 days after the incident, announced the defeat of the airliner from the outside.
Conclusions from the investigation
A commission created from specialists from the Interstate Aviation Committee, which at that time included representatives of 11 CIS states, began studying all the circumstances of the incident. It was established that the plane was killed by an S-200 missile, the diameter of which shrapnel corresponded to the size of the holes in the plane's hull.
As a result, the commission came to the conclusion that on that ill-fated day, the radar station, which was supposed to control the missile’s flight path, was disconnected from electricity. The radial speed of the TU-154 most likely turned out to be close to the training target. For this reason, the missile was aimed at a passenger airliner, mistakenly losing sight of the training target.
The organizers of the exercises did not take preventive measures to ensure the safety of the shooting. In particular, the corridor was “cleared” only within a radius of 50 km from the test site, although the technical range of the projectile is about 300 km. Later, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense of Ukraine, V. Tkachev, stated that the stated facts and expert assessments indicate a possible hit by a Ukrainian missile.
In 2008, official Kyiv initiated a new investigation, which was carried out only by Ukrainian experts. It is not surprising that all charges on the Ukrainian side were dropped by this conclusion.
Litigation.
The airline filed claims against the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the State Treasury in the court of the city of Kyiv back in 2004. However, the KNIISE expert commission, which carried out the examination at the initiative of the military department, issued a verdict that the TU-154 could not be destroyed by a Ukrainian missile. Then Sibir demanded that a third party be involved in the investigation, which was MAK. Its experts, on the contrary, clearly noted the cause of the plane’s death from being hit by an S-200 missile.
Despite these circumstances, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine dropped the criminal case. In 2011, the appeal court rejected Siberia's claim, citing the lack of a clear evidence base from the IAC.
In 2012, the Supreme Arbitration Court of Ukraine decided to refuse the Sibir company's appeal for damages in the amount of $15.5 million.
In 2002, an interdepartmental commission was formed to resolve claims, and a year later a corresponding agreement was signed between Russia and Ukraine. On its basis, from 2003 to 2005, the Independence government compensated moral damages to the relatives of the victims in the total amount of $15.6 million. However, all payments were made without legal admission of guilt by the Ukrainian side.
