More than 48 years ago there was a tragedy that almost three decades hidden. And when they were allowed to speak and write about it, the titles in newspapers and magazines looked sinister: "Death under the vulture" secretly "," the mystery of the monstrous catastrophe "," as children in the Soviet Union rolled into asphalt "and so on. What happened 16 May 1972 at noon in the cozy resort town of Svetlogorsk of the Kaliningrad region of Russia?
The place of the tragedy was equalized with the Earth
The crew of the Military Transport Aircraft "An-24" Naval Aviation of the Baltic Fleet took off from the airfield at 12 o'clock 15 minutes. According to the flight plan, gaining a height, confidently moved along the scheduled route. Then turned over the Baltic Sea to reach the specified bearing. At this time, the dense fog laid everything around, although the morning was at first it was clear.And suddenly the plane faced an invisible obstacle in the fog, half of the wing broke away. Losing parts of the sheat, "An-24" rapidly rushed towards kindergarten. There was a powerful blow, the explosion, the flame shot down. Wall collapsed. And the kids just returned from the walk and prepared to dine.
So in one moment 23 children's lives were interrupted - according to the official list. But another day of the captain of long-range sailing was died; Having received a telephone program on the ship (encrypted), he asked for no time to bury the girl, and wait for his return. Therefore, she did not take into account her.
Under the ruins died a chef kindergarten. Two workers received strong burns; Later they died in a military hospital. In addition to relatives, they were visited in the hospital every day ... KGB staff, ready for any unforeseen conversation, in advance knowing how to turn it into the rod right.
The regional party leadership and the command of the Baltic Fleet, the regional party leadership and the command of the Baltic fleet, were urgently arrived at the disposal of the catastrophe. A plane cabin was lying around the fairy ruins of the kindergarten on the road. In her, clutching into the steering wheel, sat dead pilot. The second pilot lay nearby - right on the road.
The remains of the dead crew members, the corpses of children and adults were taken away. All evening and all night, the sailors cleaned the wreckage of the aircraft, cleared the ruins and even, having sisted the turden the burned land, broke the flower at the place of the former kindergarten, who was practically chained with the Earth. The tracks laid out a broken red brick. Spired broken and burnt trees. Solved like this: nothing should remind the people about this horror. Here more than two weeks strongly smelled kerosene.
While work, armed soldiers and militiamen, firmly lit up with their hands, barely held away the unfortunate parents, taking place to the place of death of children. With difficulty managed to push them for a while. For 24 hours in the city introduced a state of emergency. Residents were forbidden to leave the house, leave the limits of Svetlogorsk. Disconnected electricity and phones.
Svetlogorsk froze, frightened people sat in dark apartments. And on the coast, the outfits of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Bureau. The wreckage of the walls of the building where the kindergarten was held, taken to the outskirts of the city, to the landfill. For a long time there were burnt children's books, toys, fused parts of the aircraft and the remnants of military ammunition ...
Gossip
From Moscow, the ChP investigation commission was departed from Moscow to Svetlogorsk, he led her one of the deputy minister of defense. Due to the large number of victims, large-scale tragic consequences, the citizens of strictly-setting were forbidden to discuss a terrible event, report him to relatives and friends living in other cities. But the shocked people discussed the possible causes of what happened.
People first laughed in the professionalism of the crew. Allegedly coping with the task of the flight prevented the lack of experience in controlling aircraft in adverse conditions. I hinted into alcoholic intoxication: they say, hence the inhibition of the pilot when rapprocheted with a high pine on the steep shore ("An-24" cut off her the top) - While he realized while he reacted ...
Years have passed. After allowed to make public documents, some journalists seem to competing with each other, put forward various versions of what happened. Some argued that the plane rose ardently into the sky: others - that the crew attracted nude girls on a secluded sandy beach.
But despite the sunny weather, the air temperature on that day barely reached the plus six degrees. And the wind. How can I sunbathe? And yet the authors of some articles insisted: men wanted to see the girls closer and therefore deliberately reduced the height.
And the crew could not protect himself - all died: Captains Vilor Godnik (commander) and Alexander Kostin, Senior Lieutenant Andrey Lutov, Evalochniki Nikolay Gavrilyuk and Leonid Sergienko, senior pilot inspector Lieutenant Colonel Lion Denisov, senior engineer Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Svetlov and Senior Lieutenant Victor Baranov (two of the listed flew on that day as passengers).
But his authoritative word was told their colleagues. Particularly respectfully responded about Vilor Gutgets, who acquired invaluable piloting experience in the Yakut airline, went to distant and superdult routes. He was considered one of the best pilots, competent and disciplined. The navigator captain Alexander Kostin came to the regiment, based in the Kaliningrad region, from the new land, where he flew in difficult conditions of the Ice Ocean.
Traces of alcohol in the bodies of the victims of the Military pathologist did not discovered what a conclusion was issued. And the regimental dispatcher, when he was interviewed, adds information: According to him, at the command-dispatch point Captain Vilor Ilyich Gutnik arrived in vigorous, showed a certificate about the good state of the health of all crew members, and the dispatcher signed a flight list: to perform the task may be! The task was to check and adjust the radio equipment on board.
Black boxes
On-board data logging devices recorded an important fact: the altimeter showed a height of 150 meters above sea level, and actually from the foot of the rippled shore to the top of the pine, grew on it, approximately 85 meters. According to the investigation, the commander of the arrival did not have a couple of seconds, they all decided: coming out of a dense fog, he immediately understood the criticality of the situation, pulled the steering wheel on himself, but ... Late. Specialists said: "An-24" is not a quick maneuverable fighter. "Commission, everything carefully checking and weighing, came to a common opinion. But at the same time tested the shock. Unwittingly remember well-known: I wanted it better, but it came out ... You know how.
It turned out to be guilty ... Altomer. Rather, people who have accepted the hasty, ill-conceived decision. They started to replace the device - with "IL-14" removed the altimeter, and they put "An-24". And no one checked: how does he behave on another plane? Equipment and introduced commander misleading. The victims of the crew itself, and the kids of the kindergarten, and his staff.
After the emergency, the experiment began to conduct an experiment. Experiments have shown that the most important flight instrument, rearranged from the "IL-14" on the "An-24", gave an error to ... 60-70 (!) Meters. The height of the flight is one of the main parameters from the point of view of safety, and the altimeter is a device without which no aircraft costs. And it should be on strict control. The crew in this case was doomed. And then still fog played a mortal mystical role (the aircraft for a very short time even disappeared from radar screens).
It is a pity that the findings of the Commission were not in a timely manner brought to the public, they were given a vulture "secret". Therefore, many years in Svetlogorsk and rumors walked around the country. In fact, the tragedy of the criminal case was not excited. But about 40 military ranks according to the orders of the Minister of Defense lost their positions.
All suspicions of the crew are removed. Incorrect calculation of the flight height is not on its conscience.
Funeral under the supervision of the KGB
Despite the strict restrictive measures of those May days of 1972 (the highways was empty, the train was canceled, referring to unexpected repairs), to spend the last path of unfortunate children and kids officers came almost the entire Svetlogorsk - over seven thousand people.
The victims were buried in a fraternal grave. Not far from it, the command of the airlock, where he served the "An-24" crew, intended to betray the Earth of the body of the victims of the military. But only it was worth voicing such a thought as Parents who believed an evil gossip about the Cross State of the En-24 crew, expressed a categorical protest: "I will not help bury the killers next to our children!"
... In 1994, the temple-monument was built on the place of the tragedy in honor of the icon of Our Lady of "All Morning Joy." Inside - signs with the names of the dead. But eight surnames of the pilots and other military who were in the plane, there are no on them, because at that time they still lay in state safes the conclusions of the commission under the vulture "secret". And the people, not knowing the truth, still boiled with indignation.
Long crew covered the indelible stain of shame and contempt. It's good that the charges are finally removed. And now, on the anniversary of the tragedy, representatives of the Baltic Fleet Aviation are coming here to honor all the victims of the catastrophe. Meet relatives of the dead children. And on May 9, on the birthday of Captain Vilora Gutnik, his former fellow soldiers gather at the tomb of the pilot in Kaliningrad, on one of the city cemeteries. On its territory they buried other crew members. But the body of senior lieutenant Viktor Baranova his widow took a small homeland. But wherever, there is no accurate information.
Tatyana Bogdanova.
("The Secrets of the XX century".)