Downed Tu 154 over the Black Sea. Catastrophe in the sky over the Black Sea: Ukraine paid money, but did not admit guilt

Now in the TOP there is a post about this tragedy from the point of view of an awkward "conspiracy theory". But I caught myself thinking that I knew about her only in general terms, although it was actually quite recently. Let's try to collect more real information about this tragedy, which is known at the moment.

The flight of Siberia Airlines flight 1812 Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk was tragically interrupted on October 4, 2001. The circumstances of the loss of the liner are not fully known even now - 15 years after the disaster.

The passenger plane performed the flight Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk, there were 78 people on board. No one was left alive. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the plane was shot down by a Ukrainian S-200 anti-aircraft missile. However, the courts in Ukraine refused to admit the guilt of their military. The specific culprits of the tragedy have not been identified.

This is how it was ...

WITNESSES IN THE SKY

It was a Siberia Airlines flight SBI1812; on October 4, 2001, the plane took off from the Israeli Ben Gurion Airport. Communication with the liner was cut off at 13.45 Moscow time. The last words, which were made out by the dispatchers among the shouts: "Where is it?" An S-200 air defense missile missile launched by the Ukrainian military during an exercise in Crimea hit the board. The plane began to fall apart right in the air. It happened in front of the pilots and passengers of the An-24 flying alongside from Simferopol to Yerevan. Here is what his pilot David Sargasyan told Komsomolskaya Pravda:

- We flew at an altitude of 6300 meters. The Russian "carcass" was at an altitude of 11 kilometers, about 20 kilometers from us. It could be seen if desired. None of us caught the exact moment of the explosion, because we had to keep an eye on our instruments. Suddenly someone shouted that there was a burning object ahead. As it turned out later, these were the wreckage of an aircraft. We had no right to leave the given height, and we had to make a detour of several kilometers, flying around the crash site. We also had no right to delay according to the instructions. It only remained to inform the dispatcher about the incident and continue the flight.

"WE ARE NOT THE FIRST AND NOT THE LAST"

On October 10, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said that a forensic examination of the bodies raised from the water showed that all the victims died from barotrauma. This meant that the liner collapsed rapidly at high altitude. The presence of carbon monoxide in the blood of the victims indicated that there was a fire on board.
The totality of facts left no doubt - Tu-154 was destroyed by an anti-aircraft missile.

On the same day, journalists asked Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma if he agreed with the conclusions of Russian experts. The President replied that he would accept the conclusions that the joint working group would finally approve.

Kuchma did not stop there and uttered the words that have gone down in history: “Look what is happening around in the world, in Europe ... we are not the first and not the last, there is no need to make a tragedy out of this. Errors are everywhere, and not only on this scale, but on a much larger, planetary scale. If we do not lower ourselves below the civilized level, everything will be fine. And if we pour a bucket of dirt on ourselves, then you are welcome. "

The words of the President of Ukraine caused, to put it mildly, misunderstanding. The Israeli Prime Minister's press office issued the following response: “When the murdered person is not a representative of your people, then it is probably possible to make such academic inferences. 78 people were killed, most of whom were Israelis - for us this is the greatest tragedy. "

VOLUNTARY PAYMENTS IN MILLIONS

An international scandal erupted. In Russia, a criminal case was immediately initiated under the article "Terrorism", but on October 16 all materials were transferred to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine. There, reluctantly and with reservations, they admitted that, possibly, their S-200 missile deviated from the target during the exercise and hit a Russian plane. Perhaps not. The archives of our newspaper have preserved the words of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense of Ukraine Vladimir Tkachev:

- Experts' estimates and most of the factors indicate that this could be our rocket.

Monetary compensation Ukraine paid under the agreement of 2003 "On the settlement of claims": $ 7.5 million to the relatives of the killed Israelis and 7.8 million - to the relatives of the killed Russians. However, payments were made on the terms of Ex Gratia, that is, voluntary, without any legal liability. Officially, Nezalezhnaya never admitted her guilt. And all claims of Siberia Airlines were rejected by the Ukrainian court.

- For unknown reasons, the investigation did not continue in international courts, which casts a shadow on the international community. Today we ask the United Nations to remedy this situation. The Ukrainian military most likely made a technical mistake. But the behavior of the top officials of Ukraine of those years, who directly covered up a terrible crime, is a shock to any civilized person. The families of the victims cannot return their relatives back, but the impunity of top-level officials who committed and deny this crime is a dangerous precedent for the whole world and for Ukraine itself in particular, says the petition of those who lost their relatives over the Black Sea 15 years ago.

Just a few hours after the disaster, a representative of the US administration confidently declared that the passenger plane had been destroyed by shots from outside - or rather, shot down by an air defense missile. As reported by CNN, "there is convincing evidence that the Tu-154 was hit by a missile from the Ukrainian S-200 anti-aircraft missile system launched during a military exercise." And since Kiev is not accustomed to argue with Washington's opinion, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine soon officially confirmed the fact of firing practice at the range of the 31st research center of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation at the range near Cape Opuk.

There, in the presence of military attachés from seven foreign countries at once, the S-200, S-300, S-125 anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as the Buk and Kub complexes were tested. In addition, the most combat-ready Ukrainian warships Sagaidachny and Lutsk, which were fired from the Osa anti-aircraft missile system, took part in the exercises. All launches were carried out on the Tu-143 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, known under the code name “Flight” target, towards which 23 combat missiles of various types were fired in the normal mode. Moreover, in addition to the Ukrainian military, Russian military specialists serving the range took part in the shooting - because then, fifteen years ago, this peaceful cooperation between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine was the most common thing. Especially on the territory of Crimea, where joint exercises were a fairly widespread practice. The investigation into the causes of the tragedy took just a few days. Already on October 9, after examining the holes in the fuselage of the downed plane, it became clear that it was hit by an S-200 surface-to-air missile. On October 12, the press secretary of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Konstantin Khivrenko, commenting on the preliminary results of the investigation of the incident, publicly admitted that the cause of the death of the Tu-154 could have been a Ukrainian missile.

USA sees everything

Unlike the story that happened in 2014, in 2001 the United States did not seek to classify the data it had about the disaster.

Thanks to the leakage of this information to the media, a few hours later, the US television company reported sensational information: the Russian airliner, apparently, was shot down by a missile of the Ukrainian S-200 air defense system launched during military exercises.

Initially, the Russian side, relying on information received from Kiev, denied such a possibility.

“Firstly, all the necessary services in Ukraine were notified in advance. Secondly, according to tactical and technical data, the weapons that were used at that time could not reach the air corridors in which our aircraft was located ... In any case, there is no reason not to trust the Ukrainian side, "the president said on the day of the disaster. Russian Vladimir Putin.

However, already on October 5, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Kinakh said that the version of a missile hitting the plane "has a right to exist."

Israeli experts worked together with Russian specialists. Particular attention was drawn to the data recorded by the tape recorder of the Strela automated air traffic control center.

At 13:45, the tape recorder recorded a signal corresponding to the crew's exit to external communication, accompanied by an emotional cry. Over the next seconds, the external communication button was pressed several more times, due to which noise and screams on board were recorded. It was also possible to make out the phrase “Where did you get ?!”, which one of the pilots shouted.

Unlike the investigation into the death of flight MH-17 over Donbass, the investigation into the case of the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea did not need to show "cartoons" and dubious photos from the Internet as evidence. According to experts, the collected data was enough to win the case against Ukraine in the international court.

MODERN PARALLELS: "TU" AND "BOEING"

“When our plane was shot down, from the very beginning it was clear whose work it was,” says Boris Kalinovsky, his father died in Tu-154. - The American State Department announced in the very first hours that it had noticed how exactly the Ukrainian missile collided with the liner. That is, the technique allows you to see what happened in the air. We have long proved the guilt of the Ukrainian army in the courts of Kiev. But all they got was money, $ 200,000 per sacrifice. And then the Ukrainian side positioned it not as compensation, but as humanitarian aid. We had in our hands the opinion of experts, the conclusions of the IAC, but suddenly Kiev presented the conclusions of its Ukrainian institute of forensic examinations, which no one had ever heard of before, and it was said there that the military were innocent. Of course, it was a falsification. But the case was lost. For some reason, Siberia Airlines did not appeal the decision to the European Court - they say that it was pressured by officials, because at that time Russia and Ukraine had complicated relations related to the oil and gas situation.

The relatives of the victims admit that the story of the Tu-154 is partly reminiscent of the 2014 plane crash with the Malaysian Boeing in the Donetsk region.

- The situation was repeated almost one-on-one, - Kalinovsky believes. - In 2001, in order to save money, the Ukrainian authorities made a very small restriction zone around the exercises - a radius of 70 kilometers, while they used S-200 missiles, which have a range of up to 300 kilometers! That is, in an amicable way, they needed to close the international air route during the exercise, but then Ukraine would have to compensate the airlines for all the costs associated with flying around this zone. The same thing happened with Boeing. Instead of closing the air corridor over the battlefield, Ukraine decided to save money. There may have been other reasons as well. I will say this: what happened now and then is not an accident. Experts can see this with the naked eye. Both then and now it was not just a mistake of anti-aircraft gunners. In 2001, everything was set up - even then there were intentions to exacerbate relations between Russia and Ukraine.

MISSING PARTS

It was not possible to prove the guilt of Ukraine in court also because ... the most important material evidence disappeared. The S-200 missile hits the target, exploding near it, thousands of steel balls destroy everything in its path. They were stuffed with fragments of the Russian "carcass". There was little left to do - to send the bullets for examination.
- There were a lot of muddy, incomprehensible things in the investigation. For example, the loss of one of the main material evidence. I have never told reporters about this before, but the head of the investigation department of the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, Valery Zhuravel, once admitted to me that the steel balls simply disappeared on the way to Ukraine. The one who transported them almost died himself, having got into a car accident, which, as you understand, could have set up. Zhuravel was then a member of the commission to investigate the disaster, I don't know how much you can believe his words. But if these balls were sent for examination, then it would be immediately clear from which rocket and who fired. But it seems that the last clue denouncing the Ukrainian military was deliberately destroyed.

VERBATIM

"Komsomolskaya Pravda" publishes an excerpt from the order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation of December 4, 2001 No. NA-424-r "On the emergency with the Tu-154M RA-85693 aircraft."
At 9 hours 45 minutes UTC, the tape recorder of the "Strela" SKTS AUVD recorded a sound signal corresponding to the crew's exit to external communication, accompanied by an emotional cry. Later, within 45 seconds, several more signals were recorded from the crew members pressing the on-board KB-radio station button, followed by noises and shouts of the crew members (including the phrase "... where did (oh) ..."), indicating a sudden emergency ship. Almost simultaneously with the first pressing on the radar screen of the "Strela" air traffic control center, the dispatcher noted the disappearance of the plane's mark.

At 9:46 UTC, the crew of the An-24 aircraft of the Armenian airline contacted the dispatcher, reporting that they had observed an explosion in the air and, presumably, the plane crashed. The crew of the Tu-154M RA-85693 did not respond to repeated calls from the ATC authorities and the crew of the An-24 aircraft. The accident with the Tu-154M RA-85693 aircraft occurred as a result of the destruction of the aircraft by the 5B14SH warhead of the 5V28 missile of the S-200V anti-aircraft complex, which was launched during the exercises of the Ukrainian air defense forces from a position located near the city of Feodosia on the Crimean peninsula. When damaged, the aircraft structure received significant damage, which caused depressurization of the passenger compartment and ignition of fuel and other combustible substances of the aircraft. The plane collided with water, collapsed and sank at a depth of 2000 meters. As a result of the accident, all passengers and crew members on board the aircraft were killed.

Relatives of those killed in the plane crash believe that Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners specially shot down the Tu-154 in order to quarrel the two countries

Compensations have been paid, but the perpetrators have not been named. Fifteen years later, the relatives of those who ended up on board the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk plane did not get punishment for the Ukrainian military. The petition "Create an international tribunal to investigate the Tu-154 plane crash" has been hanging on the Internet for over a year, but has collected only a hundred and a half signatures. It seems that the story of the plane shot down over the Black Sea itself drowned in the news chaos of daily emergency situations. But not for the relatives of 66 passengers and 12 crew members.

"It's Putin's fault"

The tactics of the Ukrainian side are as follows - since the main part of the aircraft remained at the bottom of the Black Sea, then the fact of the destruction of the aircraft by the Ukrainian air defense missile cannot be considered proven. And it's too late to make claims to Ukraine at the state level - the issue was resolved "amicably" back in 2003.

Such interstate agreements did not suit many relatives of the victims. Some considered the compensation insufficient, while others generally believed that it was not about money, but about punishing those responsible.

Especially for such persistent, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine ordered an examination in 2008, which declared the conclusions of the IAC untenable. According to Ukrainian experts, the S-200 complex could not shoot down the Tu-154. Experts did not rule out that the source of the plane's destruction could be located both outside and inside the liner, in particular, an explosive device placed “between the ceiling of the inside of the plane” and its outer shell.

On the basis of this conclusion, in 2011, the Kyiv Economic Court rejected a $ 15 million claim filed by Siberia Airlines against the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine.

But that's not all. In the early 2010s, “investigations” appeared in the Ukrainian media, the authors of which argued that an air defense error had taken place, but the culprit was not Ukrainian, but Russian military.

This version became especially active after February 2014, and especially after the death of the Boeing over the Donbas.

According to this version, the Tu-154 was allegedly shot down by the S-300 complex belonging to the Russian army. After that, according to the supporters of this theory, Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly agreed with the head of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma that the Ukrainian side would "take the blame" for certain financial preferences.

The adherents of this version rely on the decision of the Ukrainian courts, which is based on the conclusions of Ukrainian experts.

All this could have been avoided if Russia in the early 2000s had not harbored illusions about the preservation of good-neighborly relations with Ukraine, for the sake of which, in fact, the agreement "On the settlement of claims" was concluded in 2003. But what's done is done.

MEMORY

In Novosibirsk on October 4, mourning ceremonies were held to mark the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the TU-154M of the "S7" airline (in 2001 - "Siberia"), which operated flight number 1812 "Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk". As a REGNUM correspondent was told by one of the relatives of the deceased passengers, the chairman of the "Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Perished Passengers of Flight No. 1812" Boris Kalinovsky, the day of the anniversary was traditionally celebrated at the Zaeltsovsky cemetery in Novosibirsk.

There is a memorial in the form of the tail of an aircraft and a stele with the names of the dead passengers. Boris Kalinovsky said that relatives of the victims of the disaster and representatives of the Jewish agency "Sokhnut" in Novosibirsk gathered at the cemetery. Some of the relatives are in Sochi these days, at the site of the plane crash.

sources

Against the backdrop of an endless and fruitless investigation into the crash of the Malaysian Boeing, the death of a Russian Tu-154 aircraft over the Black Sea in 2001 by a Ukrainian missile, notes Alexander Khrolenko.

15 years ago, on October 4, 2001, after being hit by an anti-aircraft missile, a Ukrainian air defense system fell into the Black Sea, 185 km south-west of Sochi, a Tu-154 passenger plane en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk. All 66 passengers and 12 crew members on board (27 Russian citizens and 51 Israeli citizens) were killed.

Foreign news agencies immediately linked the Siberia airliner crash with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States. The version of the explosion was also checked for technical reasons. A few hours later the situation was clarified by American intelligence specialists. According to the CBS television company, one of the satellites of the US Department of Defense recorded the launch of a rocket from the territory of Crimea at about the same time as the Tu-154 fell into the Black Sea.

At the same time, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Kuzmuk said that on October 4, the air defense exercises did not take place. And the Ukrainian president (and commander-in-chief) Leonid Kuchma frivolously added that there are tragedies of a larger scale.

Perhaps, in the case of the Malaysian Boeing in Ukraine, images of US Department of Defense reconnaissance satellites could help, but the Americans have their own interest in the burning Donbass.

The crash of flight MH-17 in the Donetsk region made us remember the tragedy of 2001, when a Siberia Airlines plane exploded over the Black Sea. The Russian side blamed the Ukrainian missile forces for both disasters. Their involvement in the fall of the Malaysian Boeing has already been denied by the preliminary conclusions of the international commission. But the investigation into the Tu-154 crash has received much less attention, and even in Ukraine its key findings are virtually unknown.

15 years ago, on October 4, 2001, a Siberia Airlines liner crashed over the Black Sea, performing flight SBI-1812 on the Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk route. 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 the exercise. Ukraine paid the relatives of the deceased passengers, but refused to admit its guilt in the accident.

A year ago, in November 2015, relatives of passengers on flight SBI-1812 turned to the President and the Prosecutor General of Russia with a request to reopen the investigation into the crash. The authors of the letter compared the 2001 plane crash with the crash of the Malaysian Boeing in 2014 and called Ukraine's statements of innocence in both accidents "hypocritical and deceitful."

Bird In Flight has collected the most important of the little-known details of the Tu-154 crash.

1. The plane exploded in the zone of responsibility of Russia

Joint exercises on firing from ground-based and shipborne anti-aircraft missile systems were held at the training range of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation at Cape Opuk in Crimea. A total of 23 missiles were fired. The Ukrainian authorities have closed the shooting sector for flights within their jurisdiction. The Siberia Airlines plane exploded and fell in the area of \u200b\u200bresponsibility of the Russian North Caucasus Air Traffic Control Center, which did not ban passenger flights in the area.

2. Tu-154 did not give a mandatory signal of identification of nationality "I am mine"

According to the rules, the crew of flight SBI-1812 was supposed 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 gave the signal "I am mine", it would be recorded 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 fall 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 exercise: "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 the hit by the Ukrainian missile 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 - 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. Warhead weight - 220 kg. Contains 90 kg of explosive and 37,000 steel balls.

On October 4, the Kyodo Tsushin news agency, the CBS and CNN television companies, citing sources in the US government, announced that there was evidence of the Tu-154 being hit by a surface-to-air missile. After that, the Ukrainian authorities recognized the conduct of air defense exercises on the day of the disaster, and the version of the terrorist attack faded into the background.

The US authorities have never officially disclosed 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 aircraft. This prompted the Ukrainian authorities to accept responsibility for the incident. Examination questioned the weight of evidence

In the fragments of Tu-154 raised from the sea, five balls and 460 holes were found, the size of which approximately corresponds to the diameter (9-12 mm) of the striking elements of the warhead of the missile launched 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 rocket is loaded with steel balls; they are used in bearings and are sold freely;
• traces of TNT alone were found on the balls, although the explosive of the missile warhead is 20% of it, and 80% of RDX;
• the fragments of the aircraft have circular holes smaller in diameter than the shrapnel of the missile;
• in the ceiling elements, among others, there are holes formed by a ball hit from inside the cabin, from bottom to top.

People at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport react to a message about the crash of the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk flight. Most of the 64 passengers were Israeli citizens. Photo: Ariel Schalit / AFP / East News

6. Not found: missile fragments, aircraft outer skin, black boxes

During the search in the Black Sea, no fragments of an 11-meter rocket were found, although a significant part of it was made of floating materials.

None of the 404 airplane fragments raised belong to the outer skin. The echo sounder failed to find the fuselage at the bottom. Therefore, it is impossible to determine exactly whether the steel balls have flown into the interior from the outside.

7. The Russian radar complex in Gelendzhik, 30 seconds before the explosion, recorded an unknown object at a distance of 50 kilometers from the Tu-154. If it was a Ukrainian missile, it could not reach the plane

At a distance of more than 150-200 kilometers from the launch site, 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, a segment of 50 kilometers, it would have flown in at least 50 seconds.

8. The version about aiming the missile at the radiation of mobile phones of Tu-154 passengers remained unverified

According to a participant in the investigation, Lieutenant General Valery Kaminsky (in 2001 - Chief of the General 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 needs 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 test the version: to launch the Tu-154 with the included gadgets on board along the route of the SBI-1812 flight and track it with air defense means. However, Russia flatly refused the experiment.

9. The point of detonation of the missile determined by the Interstate Aviation Committee - behind, on 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 5V28 missile with a lead to the point of the intended meeting in the direction of the target. Therefore, the detonation occurs in the area of \u200b\u200bthe nose of the aircraft.

The Buk air defense missile system is guided by the same principle. The Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines in 2014 was struck 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 October 4, 2011 disaster. Photo: Menahem Kahana / AFP / East News

Agreement to Settlement of Claims Arising from the Air Crash of 4 October 2001

Government of Ukraine and Government of the State of Israel<...> Noting that Ukraine recognizes the Air Catastrophe as a terrible human tragedy and expressed deep regret at the loss of life; Noting that Ukraine has not recognized any legal obligation or liability in connection with the Air Disaster; Having reached agreement on the financial and legal terms of the settlement, have agreed as follows ...

10. The guilt of Ukraine has not been proven, recognized and is not confirmed by payments to the families of the deceased 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 to investigate the disaster, headed by the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo, but continued to call the disaster a consequence of "a fatal coincidence."

$ 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 over the crash, finding no evidence that the Tu-154 was shot down by a Ukrainian missile.

In 2008, the Pechersky District Court of Kiev denied compensation for moral damage to the head of the "Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Dead" Boris Kalinovsky and the Belonogov family, who refused to receive $ 200,000. They did not appeal.

In 2011, after seven years of consideration, the claim for damages was denied to Siberia Airlines. 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 use this opportunity.

Against the backdrop of an endless and fruitless investigation into the crash of the Malaysian Boeing, the death of a Russian Tu-154 aircraft over the Black Sea in 2001 by a Ukrainian missile, notes Alexander Khrolenko.

15 years ago, on October 4, 2001, after being hit by an anti-aircraft missile, a Ukrainian air defense system fell into the Black Sea, 185 km south-west of Sochi, a Tu-154 passenger plane en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk. All 66 passengers and 12 crew members on board (27 Russian citizens and 51 Israeli citizens) were killed.

Foreign news agencies immediately linked the Siberia airliner crash with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States. The version of the explosion was also checked for technical reasons. A few hours later the situation was clarified by American intelligence specialists. According to the CBS television company, one of the satellites of the US Department of Defense recorded the launch of a rocket from the territory of Crimea at about the same time as the Tu-154 fell into the Black Sea.

At the same time, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Kuzmuk said that on October 4, the air defense exercises did not take place. And the Ukrainian president (and commander-in-chief) Leonid Kuchma frivolously added that there are tragedies of a larger scale.

Perhaps, in the case of the Malaysian Boeing in Ukraine, images of US Department of Defense reconnaissance satellites could help, but the Americans have their own interest in the burning Donbass.

We are not the first and not the last, it is not necessary to make a tragedy out of this. Errors are everywhere, and not only on this scale, but on a much larger, planetary scale.
president of Ukraine Kuchma

AT that day, a Russian Tu-154 plane was shot down by a Ukrainian missile.
A passenger plane Tu-154M of Siberia Airlines operated a flight on the Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk route. All 78 people on board (66 passengers and 12 crew members) were killed. The flight went smoothly until 13:45 Moscow time. At that moment, the Tu-154 disappeared from the radar screens. The plane was at an altitude of 11,000 meters, about 200 kilometers southwest of Sochi ...

Almost immediately, the dispatchers received a message from the An-24 airline Armavia located in the same area (who were born in a shirt). The pilot reported that he observed a bright flash at a higher echelon ...

Rescue ships came to the place of the alleged crash of the plane in the Black Sea, as well as planes of the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Border Service.

Wreckage of Tu-154 and bodies of dead people were found on the surface of the water. At the same time, most of the aircraft structures, as well as the remains of the dead, went to the bottom. In the place where the Russian plane fell, the depth of the Black Sea exceeds 2000 meters, and the bottom is heavily silted.

According to the conclusion of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), the Tu-154 was mistakenly shot down by a Ukrainian missile launched during an exercise in Crimea. As in the case of the downed Boeing in the Donbass, the sky over the dangerous area was not closed. Ukraine has not officially recognized until now that she shot down the plane, despite the decision of the commission.

A few hours later, the US television company reported sensational information: the Russian airliner was shot down by a missile from the Ukrainian air defense system S-200, launched during military exercises.

Initially, the Russian side, relying on information received from Kiev, denied such a possibility, believing that there was a terrorist attack on board.

Then the Black Box was raised. At 13:45, the tape recorder recorded a signal corresponding to the crew's exit to external communication, accompanied by an emotional cry. Over the next seconds, the external communication button was pressed several more times, due to which noise and screams on board were recorded. It was also possible to make out the phrase "Where did you get to ?!"

On October 9, a representative of the commission for the investigation of the disaster said: an analysis of holes in the fuselage showed that the aircraft could have been hit by an S-200 surface-to-air missile, since the size and shape of the holes are quite consistent with the shrapnel of the high-explosive fragmentation warhead of this particular complex ...

A forensic examination of the bodies raised from the water showed that all the victims died from barotrauma. This meant that the liner collapsed rapidly at high altitude. The presence of carbon monoxide in the blood of the victims indicated that there was a fire on board.

The totality of facts left no doubt - Tu-154 was destroyed by an anti-aircraft missile.

Although the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Oleksandr Kuzmuk, apologized for the incident, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma did not immediately recognize Ukraine's responsibility for the incident. After recognizing Kuzmuk, he dismissed him (probably for what he recognized).

Ukraine claims that it paid compensation to the families of the victims, although they never received anything. Siberia Airlines and their $ 15 million claim were sent in three letters. Ukraine (the decision of the Economic Court of Kiev in 2011) refused to admit its guilt. In Ukraine, there was even an opinion that the plane was shot down by the Russians themselves, and that Kuchma covered Putin for money.

"It is clear that in 2001 the Ukrainian military did not intend to intentionally shoot down a passenger plane. The reasons for the tragedy are the stupidity, negligence and curvature of the military. “When an exercise is held, the military must declare one or another zone closed for flights. It is almost impossible to think that, having received information about the closure of the zone, dispatchers will send a passenger plane there. This is outrageous negligence.

Under stress, the operator of the S-200 missile complex probably did not complete all the procedures to distinguish a training target from a civilian aircraft. And responsibility for the consequences rests entirely with the commander and operator of the air defense missile system. "(C) Managing Director of the magazine" Air Transport Review "Maxim Pyadushkin.

« On any aircraft in the world, if it is not an aerial reconnaissance mission, transponders are continuously operating, which send out aircraft identification signals in all directions. The SAM operators could not fail to receive such a signal, not to count it - their missile would otherwise simply not have seen the target. And the fact that, having received the transponder signal and, accordingly, identifying the object as a civilian liner, the calculation of the air defense missile system entered the coordinates of the aircraft as a target, indicates an extremely low degree of combat training of these military"(C) Director of the" Infomost "company Boris Rybak.

Most of those who lost their relatives and friends on October 4, 2001, cannot come to their graves - the bottom of the Black Sea became the resting place for the passengers and crew of the Tu-154. Alas, the relatives of the victims are unable to "not make a tragedy out of this" ...

Info and photo (C) Internet. The basis: