“Unless it’s collective insanity. “Is it perhaps collective madness? A Tu 154 plane crashed in the Black Sea

Decoding the black boxes of the Tu-154 plane that crashed near Sochi showed that the cause of the accident was the error of the co-pilot and overload.

The reasons that led to it became known: the error of the co-pilot, who mixed up the control levers, as well as overload.

After a complete decoding of the black boxes of the Tu-154 that crashed in the Sochi waters at the end of December 2016 - parametric and speech - experts from the Ministry of Defense can actually accurately name the causes of the plane crash.

According to experts, the plane with passengers was destroyed by a combination of several factors: the board went on its last flight overloaded, and co-pilot Alexander Rovensky mixed up the landing gear and flap control levers during takeoff. When the crew noticed the mistake, it was already too late: the heavy Tu-154 simply did not have enough altitude for a rescue maneuver, so it hit the water with the rear fuselage and collapsed.

The human factor is recognized as the priority version of the Tu-154 crash.

“The data from speech and parametric (recording the operation of all aircraft components) recorders studied by experts from the Research Center for Operation and Repair of Aircraft of the Ministry of Defense in Lyubertsy say that in the third minute of the flight, when the airliner was at an altitude of 450 meters above sea level, the directional stability system sensors were triggered The plane began to sharply lose altitude due to problems with the flaps,” Life.ru quotes a source associated with the study of the causes of the disaster.

According to experts, this happened after the co-pilot, 33-year-old captain Alexander Rovensky, instead of retracting the landing gear, retracted the flaps.

“This caused the plane to go into an extreme angle of attack, the crew tried to turn the plane to reach the ground, but they didn’t have time to do this,” the source added.

As it turned out, the situation was aggravated by the overload of the Tu-154. Everything in the luggage compartment was filled to capacity. The tail section of the plane was pulled down. 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.

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 tried to save the plane until the last seconds.

From the phrases of the co-pilot and the commander of the ship, it becomes clear that something happened to the flaps, after which an alarm sounded due to the maximum angle of attack of the Tu-154.

Decoding the black box:

Speed ​​300... (Unintelligible.)
- (Inaudible.)
- I took the racks, commander.
- (Inaudible.)
- Wow, oh my!
(A sharp signal sounds.)
- Flaps, bitch, what the fuck!
- Altimeter!
- We... (Inaudible.)
(A signal sounds about a dangerous approach to the ground.)
- (Inaudible.)
- Commander, we are falling!

This is how the experts realized that the plane had problems with the flaps due to the fault of the crew.

The pilots who flew the Tu-154 confirm the conclusions of experts from the Ministry of Defense that the cause of the disaster could have been pilot error.

“In the Tupolev, the handles for retracting the landing gear and flaps are located on the canopy of the pilot’s cabin, between them, above the windshield. They can be confused, especially if the co-pilot sitting on the right, whose responsibilities include controlling the flaps and landing gear during takeoff, is tired. “The plane went into an extreme angle of attack, hit the water, and its tail fell off,” said Honored Pilot of the Russian Federation Viktor Sazhenin, who himself flew the Tu-154 for eight years.

This version is also considered acceptable by test pilot Hero of Russia Magomed Tolboev.

"On the control panel of the Tu-154, the flap and landing gear toggle switches are located above the windshield. The flaps are on the left, the landing gear is on the right. The co-pilot, who sits in the seat on the right, is responsible for them. It is possible that the pilot could have mixed up the levers or been distracted by something , so the plane took off with the landing gear extended and the flaps retracted,” Tolboev said.

According to Tolboev, one cannot exclude the possibility that after takeoff the crew exceeded the speed and the flap mechanism collapsed, causing the plane to fall to the right, lose speed and crash into the water.

Another factor in the Tu-154 disaster in Sochi could have been the lack of sufficient knowledge among the ship’s commander and co-pilot on how to act in an extreme situation.

“Most likely, neither the plane’s commander, Roman Volkov, nor the co-pilot, Alexander Rovensky, who graduated from military schools in the early 2000s, received special flight training,” says a source in the commission investigating the disaster in Sochi.

According to him, if the pilots had undergone special training for piloting in extreme situations at the Lipetsk Aviation Center for Retraining Military Pilots or at the Gromov Flight Research Institute, then perhaps the disaster could have been avoided.

“In the military schools that the pilots graduated from, they were hardly taught how to set the flaps to reverse when the flaps malfunction at low altitudes in order to bring the airliner out of the extreme angle of attack,” the expert explained.

In addition, engineers at the Research Center for Operation and Repair of Aircraft Equipment of the Ministry of Defense in Lyubertsy do not rule out that when the crew tried to turn the aircraft around in order to reach the ground, they had a good chance of salvation if it were not for the overload.

“The overload is evidenced by the fact that when the plane began to lose altitude, it was the tail section that hit the water first, which fell off, and then the plane’s right wing caught the water and crashed into the sea,” noted a source in the Russian Ministry of Transport.

According to him, it cannot be ruled out that the luggage compartment was simply overloaded.

“After all, this was almost the last flight of a civilian aircraft to Syria, and relatives and colleagues of the military personnel on a business trip could have asked the airfield management and the crew to take extra people on board. And during the flight and after landing in Sochi, the cargo could have been shaken. During takeoff from Sochi, the cargo moved to the rear of the airliner, and the plane was pulled down due to an emergency situation with the flaps,” says the expert.

The crash with the Tu-154 B-2 with tail number RA-85572 of the Ministry of Defense occurred on December 25, 2016. It was at 5:40 am Moscow time, 1.7 kilometers from the coast of Sochi. The Ministry of Defense plane was flying to Syrian Khmeimim from the Chkalovsky airfield, and in Sochi it was just refueling. There were 92 people on board the liner. A few minutes after lifting off from the runway, the plane disappeared from radar screens.

The crashed airliner was based at the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow and was part of the Federal State Budgetary Institution State Airlines "223rd Flight Detachment" of the Ministry of Defense, which transports military personnel.

The Tu-154 B-2 modification is designed to carry 180 economy class passengers and was produced from 1978 to 1986. A total of 382 aircraft were built. Since 2012, Russian civil airlines have not operated the Tu-154 B-2.

Daria Kobylkina, Elena Kostyuchenko

The Tu-154 crash, which occurred on December 25, was the worst plane crash of the past year. And the most secret in recent years. Almost four months later, we are forced to admit that the public has virtually no reliable information about what happened. The Ministry of Defense has completely taken over the investigation of the crash, although the flight took place from a civilian airport and the dead included not only military personnel. Air crash investigations are never quick, but in the three and a half months since the crash, we have received much more information, including about such high-profile cases as the crash of a Russian airliner over the Sinai as a result of a terrorist attack and even the destruction of a Malaysian Boeing over the Donbass.

Instead of objective data, the public is offered versions that are published by the media with reference to sources close to the investigation. Since it is impossible to verify them now, these versions can be used to trace the position of the military investigation, formulated specifically for “external use” - that is, for us.

It is known that on December 25, 2016, a Tu-154B-2 airliner belonging to the Russian Air Force was flying on the Moscow-Latakia route. The plane took off from Moscow at 1.38 am on December 25 from the Chkalovsky military airfield, delayed for several hours. The plane was supposed to refuel in Mozdok, but due to bad weather conditions it was sent to Sochi. We refueled and the border guards came on board to check for foreign passports. At 5.25 the plane took off from Sochi airport and disappeared from radar at 5.27. There was no distress signal. Subsequently, the Ministry of Defense will announce that the plane crashed into the Black Sea 70 seconds after takeoff from Sochi airport.

All 92 people on board died - 84 passengers and 8 crew members. Among them are artists of the Alexandrov Choir, journalists from NTV, Channel One, the Zvezda TV channel, and the head of the Fair Aid Foundation Elizaveta Glinka (Doctor Lisa). The Russian FSB officially reported that “according to the Ministry of Defense, there were 84 passengers and eight crew members, passenger luggage and 150 kg of cargo (food and medicine) on board the plane.” “The said aircraft did not transport military or dual-use cargo or pyrotechnics,” the FSB TsOS stated.

In the first hours after the disaster, the military investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Sochi garrison opened a criminal case under Article 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of flight rules that resulted in grave consequences”). Later, the case was transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia. The FSB is providing operational support for the investigation. Despite the fact that the case is officially being handled by the Russian Investigative Committee, in fact, a commission of the Russian Ministry of Defense headed by Deputy Minister of Defense General of the Army Pavel Popov is in charge of establishing the causes of the military aircraft crash. I can say that the search for bodies and fragments of the plane, carried out by the forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, also took place under the close control of the Ministry of Defense - as well as work with the relatives of the victims. The technical part of the investigation and analysis of the wreckage is being carried out by employees of the Research Center for the Operation and Repair of Aircraft Equipment of the Ministry of Defense. Civilian specialists, including employees of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), which investigates all plane crashes in the world, were involved in a limited and forced manner - at the end of January there were reports that the investigation encountered difficulties in deciphering and analyzing data from flight recorders. This is due to the fact that the crashed Tu-154 was equipped with recorders that looked like a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and the Ministry of Defense does not have the appropriate specialists to decipher them. IAC stated that one of the specialists is taking part in the investigation, but IAC does not have the right to comment on the Tu-154 crash. The RF IC also does not have the right to comment on the progress of the investigation and does not have operational information on the case.

In such conditions, it is difficult to guarantee the reliability and impartiality of the investigation’s conclusions. We ask readers to take a critical look at the facts presented in the material.

As Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, a member of the state commission and head of the aviation safety service of the Armed Forces, reported at the end of December, initially there were more than 15 versions of the Tu-154 crash, then their number was halved.

What was excluded?

Just four hours after the disaster (the search for debris and bodies had just begun), Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security Viktor Ozerov publicly ruled out a terrorist attack: “I completely rule out the version of a terrorist attack. The plane of the Ministry of Defense, the airspace of the Russian Federation, there cannot be such a version here.” However, the investigation continued to consider the likelihood of a terrorist attack, sabotage, and even a missile hit until mid-January 2017. Now, according to Novaya, the possibility of an explosion or any external influence on the plane is absolutely excluded.

Already in the first hours after the disaster, the possibility of low-quality fuel was practically ruled out - simultaneously with the crashed plane, other aircraft were refueling at the airport, which took off and arrived without any problems. Airport employees told Novaya that control over fuel here is “strong”: “Our president refuels here, you understand.” At the same time, the FSB, which provided operational support for the investigation, considered the possibility of foreign objects getting into the engine.

A serious technical malfunction of the aircraft - failure of one or more engines - has also now been ruled out.

Overload was also cited as a possible cause of problems with climb. The fact of overload is denied by the Ministry of Defense.

Priority versions

From the first day of the disaster, two priority versions were identified - a technical malfunction and a pilot error.

On December 27, almost simultaneously, information appeared about the decoding of the “black boxes” - speech and parametric. Life published the crew's conversations.

...Speed ​​300... (Unintelligible.)

- (Inaudible.)

- I took the racks, commander.

- (Inaudible.)

- Wow, oh my!

(A sharp signal sounds.)

- Flaps, bitch, what the f***!

- Altimeter!

- We... (Inaudible.)

(A signal sounds about dangerous proximity to the ground.)

- (Inaudible.)

- Commander, we are falling!

At the same time, according to information provided to Novaya Gazeta by the Emergency Situations Ministry employees who led and carried out the search, at the time of publication of the transcript, the voice recorder had not been recovered from the sea. The decryption never received official confirmation. On December 29, the head of the Aviation Flight Safety Service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Sergei Baynetov, said that, judging by radio traffic data, there was a “special situation” on board for 10 seconds - without further clarification.

According to Life's source, the second recorder, a parametric one, has not yet been delivered to the Central Research Institute of the Air Force, and it is not yet known when decoding will begin.

On the same day, information appeared in Kommersant that the raised and deciphered parametric recorder registered a failure to retract the flaps - that is, a technical malfunction. A source close to the investigation develops a version: the pilots tried to compensate for the diving moment that appeared when the flaps were not retracted with the steering wheel and passed a supercritical angle of attack, after which the air stopped holding the plane - and the fall became inevitable.

The assumption that the flaps did not work was put forward even before the recorder was deciphered - based on the testimony of an unnamed witness, an FSB coast guard officer, who compared the position of the plane at the moment it touched the water with a motorcycle moving on its rear wheel.

On February 7, the Kommersant newspaper reported the creation of a mathematical model of the last flight of the Tu-154, which included the flight path of the airliner and the operating parameters of all its systems, including engine mode and rudder positions, obtained from the flight recorder. According to reports from the same Kommersant on March 14, 2017, the technical part of the investigation into the disaster has now been completed. The results are described as "shocking". From the experts' conclusions it follows that the plane did not fall, but crashed while landing on water in a controlled flight. Instead of continuing to climb, managing pilot Roman Volkov, for unknown reasons, began descending. The source suggests that the pilot was disoriented in space: “Gaining altitude in the dark, above the sea, the pilot did not visually control his position, since he did not see any landmarks ahead or even the horizon. Even the stars, which were both above and below at the same time - in the form of reflections on the surface of the water - could disorient the crew. In this difficult situation, the pilot, according to experts, had to completely trust the instruments, the readings of which commander Volkov apparently ignored, trusting his experience and physiological sensations. So, for example, the overload that arose during the acceleration of the machine could create for the pilot the illusion of gaining altitude, while in fact the plane was descending.”

It is separately noted that the investigation team of the Ministry of Defense is now studying the entire professional biography of the deceased pilot, flight training, medical records, results of psychological tests, as well as the pilot’s rest regime. Failure to retract flaps are no longer mentioned.

Loss of spatial orientation has already been mentioned as the cause of the disaster. On April 2, 2016, a Eurocopter EC-130B helicopter made a hard landing in the village of Bezverkhovo, Primorsky Krai, resulting in the death of the pilot. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) mentions bad weather, loss of visibility of landmarks and the natural horizon line. On March 19, 2016, a Boeing 737-800 flying from Sharm el-Sheikh crashed while landing at Rostov-on-Don airport. 62 people died. The reason is again cited as the loss of orientation of the crew in difficult weather conditions, which could have been contributed to by the non-standard display of the main flight instrument for Russia. However, it is known that the weather conditions at the time of departure of the Tu-154 were close to ideal, and Roman Volkov had more than 1,900 hours of flight time on the Tu-154, equipped to all standards.

Elena Kostyuchenko

Experts' opinions

Vadim Lukashevich,

independent aviation expert, candidate of technical sciences

— New data in the investigation of the Tu-154 crash in Sochi is, excuse me, bullshit. They do not bring us any closer to understanding the causes of the tragedy. If this was the first data about the disaster and there was no information before that, it could be called a premature version. And so a lot of questions arise.

First: what position were the plane's flaps in? Even if the pilot lost his orientation, did not care about the instruments, trusted his feelings, he could not forget that he was actually taking off, and the flaps should have been retracted long ago, and not be in a half-opened state at the moment of impact. Second: the pilot, like the passengers on the plane, must understand in their feelings whether the plane is gaining altitude or losing altitude. After all, in the first minutes of the flight the altitude climb is the most intense. Third: if the plane did not approach supercritical angles of attack, then how can we explain the words of eyewitnesses who saw the plane flying with its nose raised very high? Is this situation really called “absolutely normal mode”?

Judging by the results of the technical investigation, the plane was descending normally. Between the lines we read that he extended the flaps, but did not retract them (unless, of course, we return to the story with the flaps not initially retracted). That is, for some reason the pilot moved the car into the landing position. In this case, talking about the pilot’s disorientation is simply not serious.

I am also confused by the description of the disorientation of the pilots due to the stars reflected in the sea. The sea near the surf line is not a perfectly flat surface of a pond or puddle. It's quite difficult to see the moon there. I can’t help but feel that these new investigation data are nothing more than testing the waters with a view to identifying the plane pilots as the culprits of the tragedy. At first they told us about the pilot’s 3,000 hours of flight time and experience, and now they are studying his medical record and the teachers who taught him to fly. It was Volkov's military crew that transported the cosmonauts to Baikonur. Such tasks are not trusted to just anyone.

Andrey Krasnoperov,

Air Force major, pilot

- I judge by facts. The last radio exchange between the pilots sounded like this: “Stand up! Racks! Flaps! Commander, we are falling." What kind of landing could there be here? 70 seconds from takeoff, about 50 seconds off the ground. Obviously, a mistake was made - the flaps were removed instead of the landing gear. The plane reached a supercritical angle of attack, speed 360, without flaps and landing gear extended, it simply fell on its tail. How could you prepare for landing? Let go of the steering wheel, let the plane accelerate, and do not take it to these angles; pilots have a special device for this. And then... The right pilot confused the landing gear with the flaps, and the second one did not appreciate it, did not understand what happened to the plane, continuing to take off at a normal angle.

As a pilot, I could support the theory that the pilots wanted to land the plane. And they could have done this if those same banal mistakes had not been made. At the moment they were discovered, it was no longer possible to change the situation. Our pilots do not know how to control a ship at supercritical angles of attack, only testers. I don’t want to blame the pilots, they fought to the last, believe me, none of us are kamikazes and don’t want to die. They took off to Sochi at five in the morning, before that there was an overnight flight from Moscow, given the fatigue and workload, they could have mixed something up.

Yuri Sytnik,

Honored Pilot of Russia

— It is premature to talk about the final version of the crash. And discussing information leaks or speculation and rumors is not entirely correct in relation to the relatives of the victims, including the Tu-154 pilots. I don't believe the pilots intended to land on water. They simply controlled the plane until the last moment, before colliding with the water surface. The crew was able to control the ship, they did not lose their functionality, they realized the criticality of the situation and tried to get the plane out of it. This is not a landing. This is a controlled plane crash.

Why did they have to land in the sea? The engines were working, and so were the instruments. If an emergency situation arose, they could land at the airfield, and if there were no problems, then calmly continue the flight. It was possible to talk about versions - that the engine failed, they collided with birds, the flaps were not removed, they were confused with the landing gear, they lost control - at the initial stage, until evidence was discovered. Now the parametric media and flight recorders have been deciphered; it is enough to wait a month or a month and a half to have all the information about what happened on board.

Igor Deldyuzhov,

President of the Sheremetyevo Union of Flight Personnel

— Loss of orientation in space is a common occurrence. And it occurs mainly in tired pilots. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, crew fatigue is a contributing cause in 30% of accidents. This may also have something to do with this story. At about six o'clock in the morning they took off from Sochi, arriving there at about 4 o'clock, from Chkalovsky they could leave at half past one, and from midnight prepare for departure. What did they do during the day? Before departure, they could well have been busy at work instead of resting. In general, this planned night flight is incomprehensible to me. Civil aviation aircraft, such as Aeroflot, often fly at night, but this is due to scheduling issues and reduced time on the ground. Why did the military board need the rush?

Judging by the latest published data, the pilot was guided by “his experience and physiological sensations.” This is strange for me, because the crew was flying not during the day, but at night, when the piloting is carried out using instruments that record pitch, vertical speed of climb or descent, roll... This is all guesswork - in order to say anything concrete, you need to wait until the end of the investigation. And so one can assume a lot. For example, one of the pilots could lose consciousness, and the second could not detect it in time. Or the crew's interaction could be disrupted in some other way. At Aeroflot, such moments are practiced on simulators. Do they teach this in the army? Don't know. In addition, I am interested in the chain of command. In civil aviation, the co-pilot is a full member of the crew who has the right to vote and influence decision-making. How is it going with the military? Can a junior in rank make comments to a senior?

Recorded by Daria Kobylkina

A Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense crashed in the Black Sea. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Sunday morning that the mark of the Tu-154 aircraft, which was performing a scheduled flight from Adler airfield, disappeared from radars. The Ministry of Defense clarified that fragments of the Tu-154 hull were found 1.5 kilometers from the Black Sea coast of Sochi at a depth of 50-70 meters.

In total, there were 92 people on board, including 64 artists of the Alexandrov Ensemble, almost the entire choir and some of the orchestra’s musicians - accordion and balalaika players.

UPDATE 19:50

The head of the Russian Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, who heads the government commission to investigate the Tu-154 crash of the Ministry of Defense, said that equipment on board the plane apparently malfunctioned. RIA Novosti reported this on Thursday, December 29.

The plane was almost completely destroyed when it hit the water surface and subsequently the bottom of the Black Sea, which, of course, complicated the search operation,” he added. Sokolov also called for refraining from disseminating any versions of the Tu-154 crash until the final announcement of the results of the commission’s work.

UPDATE 3:20 p.m.

Experts from the interdepartmental commission to investigate the reasons for the fall of the Tu-154 of the Ministry of Defense into the Black Sea are studying fragments of the plane that rescuers brought to the surface. According to Life, experts were puzzled by the damage to the engine turbine blades. On the one hand, this detail clearly rejects the version of a bird hitting the turbine, on the other hand, it indicates that the engine may have been faulty before the flight. Now the damaged turbine blades will be studied in detail by experts, after which they will give a definite answer as to whether they were deformed when they hit the water or appeared before the crash. In addition, after a preliminary study of the right wing of the Tu-154 discovered at sea, experts determined that the flap on one wing was released, but it is not yet clear what command it was then executing—to take off or descend.

In one of the special hangars in Sochi, the laying out of Tu-154 parts has already begun, which are daily lifted from the bottom of the Black Sea by divers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Defense. The first engine, along with the landing gear, was found on the morning of December 27, and by the evening the second one was also raised. The second one appeared to have almost no deformation, rescuers said.

In theory, now these “puzzles” should create a model of the aircraft that is as close as possible to the original form. The experts of the interdepartmental commission already have large fragments in their hands: the tail section of the Tu-154 with engines, the central part of the fuselage, the right wing. These details are now being carefully studied to understand the trajectory and angle of the plane's entry into the water, as well as the circumstances that could have led to its crash.

UPDATE 1:20 p.m.

The Chkalov airbase, whose fleet included the Tu-154 that crashed in Sochi, will be reorganized next year, and the Special Purpose Aviation Division (ADON) will be re-created on its base. The Izvestia newspaper writes about this.

As the newspaper notes, the recreated division will be based at the Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow, and its formation will begin early next year. This information was officially confirmed to Izvestia by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Before its disbandment in 2010, planes and helicopters of the special purpose division transported and, if necessary, evacuated Soviet and Russian military personnel and civilian specialists from hot spots around the planet, the publication notes.

UPDATE 12:00

The cause of the crash of the Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense, which fell into the Black Sea near Sochi on the morning of December 25, has been preliminarily established: it was a stall at an insufficient speed to climb due to misalignment of the flaps. Interfax reported this on the evening of December 27, citing a source at the operational headquarters at the emergency site.

According to preliminary data, the flaps on board operated out of coordination, as a result of their failure, the lifting force was lost, the speed was not sufficient to gain altitude, and the plane crashed, the agency’s source said.

According to him, the reason why the flaps could have worked abnormally has not been established. There is no official confirmation of this information.

The flap hypothesis appeared immediately after the crash. Thus, Kommersant wrote that a critical malfunction could have led to their mismatch.

The uniform extension of the flaps on the Tu-154 is monitored by a special automatic system SPZ-1A, which, in case of mismatch, turns off their hydraulic drive, asking the pilot to switch to manual control of the flaps. However, in the event of, for example, a break in the flap drive, the SPZ-1A is powerless, the newspaper noted.

The day before, the Russian FSB called the main working versions of the Tu-154 crash “the entry of foreign objects into the engine, low-quality fuel, which resulted in loss of power and engine failure, piloting error and technical malfunction of the aircraft.”

UPDATE 09:30

Experts have deciphered the voice flight recorder of the crashed Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The film recording the crew's negotiations and conversations inside the cabin was not damaged.

The conversation is interrupted by one of the pilots exclaiming: “Flaps, bitch!” And then there is a cry: “Commander, we are falling!” said a source close to the investigation.

According to him, the second recorder, a parametric one, has not yet been delivered to the Central Research Institute of the Air Force and it is not known when decoding will begin.

UPDATE 2:40 p.m.

Divers discovered one of the flight recorders at the crash site of a Tu-154 aircraft of the Ministry of Defense in the Black Sea. This was reported to TASS by law enforcement agencies.

During search operations, one black box was discovered under the cockpit of the aircraft. It will be removed from the water in the near future, the source said.

The source also said that the bodies of three dead and a large number of remains were found in the area of ​​the crash.

UPDATE 21:20

A mourning event was held in the regional capital for the victims who died as a result of the crash of a Ministry of Defense plane in the Black Sea. It was attended by deputies of the Legislative Duma and the City Duma, military personnel and concerned citizens.

The event took place near the monument to the Su-7B attack aircraft in the area of ​​the Portovaya stop. The laying took place in the dark specifically so that after the end of the working day people could pay tribute to and memory of the dead. This is what made it possible for almost a hundred people to come to the rally.

This is a terrible tragedy. In absolutely any situation, every life is important, and now all of Russia has united. The population of a large country mourns and expresses condolences to the relatives of the crew. It’s nice that so many people were able to find the time to come today to say goodbye to the dead. If someone did not have time to join us, then he can come to honor the people later. The main thing is desire, said Ruslan Verkhoturov, co-organizer.

Representatives of the city and regional authorities took turns taking the floor. They talked about personal memories of meeting Elizaveta Glinka, who headed the charitable foundation, and Valery Khalilov, the creator of the Amur Waves military band festival. This was followed by a minute of silence and the laying of flowers began.

It is very sad that people die in peacetime. Investigations will now take place and work will be done to prevent this from happening in the future. This shouldn’t happen and I hope it won’t happen again,” said Alisa Selezneva, a student.

UPDATE 19:20

The terrorist attack is not the main version of the Tu-154 crash. Experts also do not see the need for additional security measures at Russian airports.

— As far as we know, the main versions do not include the version of a terrorist act. We proceed from the fact that the causes of the disaster could have been either technical condition or pilot errors. But I would like to emphasize that this is established by the investigation, as well as by a special technical commission of the Ministry of Defense,” said the Russian Minister of Transport.

UPDATE 4:15 p.m.

Experts analyzed objective monitoring data from radar equipment to more accurately determine the flight path of the crashed Tu-154. They found out that the plane crashed six kilometers from the coast, reports the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Currently, 39 ships and boats, 135 divers and seven deep-sea vehicles are conducting search work. Military personnel are also searching the shore in search of bodies of the dead, aircraft debris and personal belongings of passengers. In total, about 3.5 thousand people are involved in the operation.

UPDATE 16:06

The artist’s Khabarovsk colleagues paid tribute to the memory of the deceased Valery Khalilov.

Khabarovsk residents bring flowers to Glory Square. Valery Khalilov’s colleagues brought a music stand to Glory Square, on which was a photograph of the conductor with a mourning ribbon. Musicians and caring Khabarovsk residents laid flowers and lit candles to the music stand.

UPDATE 15:30

Among those flying was 46-year-old Lieutenant Colonel of the Eastern Military District Alexander Vaganov. He was on board a TU-154 that took off from Sochi early Sunday morning.

UPDATE 3:20 p.m.

The first plane with 10 bodies of those killed in the Tu-154 crash took off for Moscow, the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Russian Ministry of Defense told Interfax.

The Il-76 military transport aircraft with 10 bodies and 86 fragments found at the scene of the crash flew to Moscow, where their identification and genetic examination will be carried out by specialists of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination and 111 Center for Forensic Examination of the Russian Ministry of Defense, said a department employee .

UPDATES 13:40

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, decided to perpetuate the memory of the head of the Fair Aid Foundation, Elizaveta Glinka, who died in the Tu-154 plane crash over the Black Sea, and to name the Republican Children's Clinical Hospital in Grozny after her.

UPDATE 12:30 p.m.

It is still unknown who will oversee Amur Waves after the death of Valery Khalilov.

The festival is still very far away. We are shocked by the tragedy and, of course, have not had time to discuss anything yet. It is still difficult to say who will oversee the festival after the death of Valery Mikhailovich. We will resolve this issue. An incredible loss for the cultural life of the entire country, the directorate of the Amur Waves festival told a DVhab correspondent.

UPDATE 12:10 p.m.

The match "Amur" "Admiral" will begin in Vladivostok with a minute of silence in memory of those killed in the plane crash.

UPDATE 10:40

The limits of compensation for the Tu-154 crash for the military will be about 7.8 million rubles, for civilians - 3 million rubles, said the president of the All-Russian Union of Insurers, Igor Yurgens. He explained that everyone on board the plane was entitled to payments of 2 million rubles under the Air Code.

In addition to this payment, the amount of compensation for the military is as follows:
For compulsory insurance of military personnel (insurance is carried out in accordance with Law No. 52-FZ), a payment in the event of death is provided in the amount of 2.337 million rubles. In addition, the insurer is authorized to pay lump sum benefits in the event of the death of a serviceman or his recognition as unfit for military service. The size of the death benefit for a military personnel is 3.506 million rubles. Subsequently, they are compensated to the insurer from the budget.

UPDATE 10:20

The country's chief military conductor, Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, was among the passengers of the crashed Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which crashed on December 25 in the Black Sea. Valery Khalilov was the initiator of the International Festival of Military Bands “Amur Waves” in the Khabarovsk Territory, which was created with his direct support and participation. Since 2012, Valery Khalilov has come to Khabarovsk every year to participate in the festival.

From 2002 to 2016, Valery Khalilov was the head of the military orchestra service of the Russian Federation, the chief military conductor. In this position, he repeatedly acted as conductor of a combined military orchestra that took part in parades dedicated to Victory Day on Red Square.

In April 2016, Khalilov was appointed to the position of head of the ensemble - artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A. V. Alexandrov.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared December 26 a national day of mourning for the citizens of the Russian Federation who died on Sunday in the plane crash of a Tu-154 of the Russian Ministry of Defense, flying to Syria at the Khmeimim airbase of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

UPDATE 19:20

Search and rescue work at the site of the aircraft crash in the Black Sea near Sochi continues. Russian law enforcement agencies, as part of a criminal case, are investigating the causes and circumstances of the crash of the airliner, which resulted in the death of 92 people.

Plane crash in which the ensemble of the ensemble named after. Alexandrova is a tragedy of enormous proportions, because Russia has lost the best, Russian singer Lev Leshchenko said during a special edition of the Baltkom-online program on the Latvian radio station Baltkom.

UPDATE 5:50 p.m.

The Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense disappeared from radar screens a few minutes after taking off from Sochi. According to preliminary information, there were 82 passengers and ten crew members on board the liner. This was reported by a source in the emergency services.

“The Tu-154 plane took off from Sochi, but a few minutes later disappeared from the radar screens,” said the interlocutor.

UPDATE 4:20 p.m.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed the discovery of the crash site of the Tu-154 plane in the Black Sea, TASS reports. No people have been found yet.

UPDATE 16:05

An Interfax source in the emergency services of the Krasnodar region reports that the site of the alleged Tu-154 crash has been discovered.

During an inspection of the water area 6-8 kilometers from the coast, an oil slick was discovered, which, as expected, could be the result of a plane crash in this place. Rescue ships have been sent there, says the agency's interlocutor. There was still no official confirmation of the fall.

At 5.27 Moscow time after takeoff from the Sochi airfield, located in the city district of Adler. The plane was performing a scheduled flight on the route Moscow - Khmeimim (Latakia, Syrian Arab Republic).

Artists of the Academic Twice Red Banner Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrova in front of Russian soldiers and officers. Among the dead were the artistic director of the group, People's Artist of Russia, Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, deputy head of the ensemble Andrei Sonnikov, chief choirmaster Konstantin Mayorov, and five soloists. In total, the ensemble lost almost half of its creative staff.

The plane, flying from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow to the Syrian Khmeimim airfield, was supposed to refuel in Mozdok. However, due to bad weather, the Tu-154 was sent to Sochi. Upon arrival at Adler airport, the plane was taken under guard by officers of the Border Service of the FSB of Russia and military personnel of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

An employee of the coast guard of the FSB border troops, who witnessed the crash of the Tu-154, said that before the disaster he had “an unnaturally raised nose.” The border guard was on a boat in the Black Sea. According to him, the plane, instead of gaining altitude, began to quickly descend towards the surface of the sea, as if about to land, and the next moment it touched the surface of the water with its tail, which fell off upon impact.

The maximum altitude to which the plane rose was about 250 meters, and the speed was within 360-370 kilometers per hour.

To eliminate the consequences of the aviation accident, the work of operational headquarters and operational groups of the Southern Regional Center and the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations for the Krasnodar Territory was organized. In cooperation with the relevant structures of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Rosaviation, Rosmorrechflot, the Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia, the Russian Ministry of Health, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee of Russia and government authorities of the Krasnodar Territory, search and rescue operations were organized. They were carried out by a force totaling about 3.6 thousand people, using more than 500 pieces of equipment, 45 watercraft, 15 aircraft, 16 helicopters and 20 unmanned aerial vehicles. Search work was carried out using modern underwater robotic systems. Psychological support and medical assistance were provided to the families of the victims.

December 26, 2016 was declared a day of mourning in the Russian Federation in connection with the plane crash of a Tu-154 plane near Sochi.

In the area of ​​the search operation at a distance of 1700 meters from the coastline along the axis of the aircraft takeoff by divers on the bottom of the Black Sea. Using acoustic means, the radius of their dispersion was determined in this place, which was about 500 meters.

The main phase of the search and rescue operation at the crash site. Rescuers brought to the surface all the main fragments of the crashed plane.

Complete search work in the Black Sea at the Tu-154 crash site.

More than half of the victims of the Tu-154 plane crash over the Black Sea in the Moscow region. After the funeral was completed, a memorial stone was placed at the burial sites of the victims.

On the fact of the Tu-154 crash, the military investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Sochi garrison on the grounds of a crime under Article 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of flight rules resulting in grave consequences). Head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin. On his instructions, a criminal case was opened for further investigation.

Issues related to establishing the causes of the disaster. In addition to the military, it includes representatives of the Ministry of Transport, the Interstate Aviation Committee, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Tupolev aviation concern.

Specialists and the laboratory and research base of the scientific and technical center of the Interstate Aviation Committee are also involved in the investigation of the disaster.

At the beginning of the investigation into the accident, the commission accepted more than 15 versions of the incident. The FSB called the main versions: foreign objects getting into the engine, low-quality fuel, pilot error and technical malfunction. Signs and facts indicating the possibility of committing a terrorist act or sabotage on board an aircraft. Flight recorders raised from the water made it possible to reduce the number of versions of what happened by half.

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.