No, no, there has not yet been official confirmation of this, but the very word "terrorist attack" is already firmly rooted in the minds of most people - it seems that the entire world community, and the citizens of Russia in the first place, are carefully preparing for this "news" ...
More than two hundred "fragments of biological materials" have already been delivered to the morgues of St. Petersburg, of which the experts "made up" almost one hundred and fifty bodies.
The nature of the damage to the bodies can tell a lot. Experts have conditionally divided the bodies of all passengers into two groups:
The first group included the victims who found themselves in the area of the fall of the main part of the aircraft fuselage. All passengers sitting in the front of the aircraft received blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen and pelvis, multiple fractures of the upper and lower extremities and ruptures of internal organs. Their deaths resulted from acute blood loss, shock and open head injuries.
In the second group, forensic experts carried passengers, whose remains were nearby and among the wreckage of the tail section of the aircraft. The nature of their injuries is markedly different from the first group - most of the victims were diagnosed with explosive injuries with multiple burns of more than 90% of soft tissues.
According to experts, such damage could have occurred after the explosion of fuel tanks or the detonation of an explosive device. True, a fair question arises, where did the fuel tanks come from in the tail section of the aircraft? After all, they are located in the wings of the aircraft and part of the fuselage in the place of their attachment. In the event of a fuel fire, it was the passengers who were in the front and middle parts aircraft cabin ...
Despite the fact that experts from Cairo said that they found no traces of explosives at the crash site of the Russian plane, American experts believe that the most probable cause disaster is an explosive device that was carried on board.
Personally, I completely agree with the conclusions of the Americans. As you perfectly understand, carry a large number of explosives on board aircraft are very difficult even at Cairo airport. Therefore, most likely, a small amount of explosives was carried on board, which could cause catastrophic damage to such a large aircraft in only one place - in the tail section, where all the control lines of the aircraft converge.
There was no reason to detonate a small amount of explosives in the front or middle parts of the fuselage, since even on such high altitude(9 thousand meters) the body of a powerful airbus could withstand the force of the explosion ...
True, there is also information about the discovery of some mysterious objects at the crash site that are not related to it. In my opinion, this is either just a duck, or these objects could have been accidentally at the crash site. The likelihood that the plane was shot down by external influences is extremely low, although it should not be ruled out either - in the world, not only Ukrainian air defense personnel have low qualifications ...
I think that confirmation of the version of the terrorist attack is a matter of the very near future ...
Alexey Mukhin, General Director of the Center for Political Information, on what special carte blanche Russia received after the FSB's findings about the causes of the A321 tragedy
This is not to say that it made it easier ...
It became harder, as the tragedy that happened with the A321 was also superimposed on the events in Paris. It is important that in the world community these terrorist acts are perceived as a single whole - a tragedy that should have serious consequences not only for the special services different countries but also for terrorists.
The emotional impulse of Vladimir Putin in response to the news of the terrorist attack can be considered a "direct and immediate" threat to them. Those who listened carefully to the Russian president should have noted his words about those who are behind terrorist groups, who support them, buy stolen oil and looted historical values who nod in understanding when other "human rights activists" try to justify ISIS recruiters ...
It is also important to understand that the so-called. The "Islamic State" (an organization banned in Russia) is actually neither Islamic, nor is it a state, of course. Morally, this network structure lost the right to be called Islamic when it began to destroy Islamic shrines. Of course, it cannot be considered a state in principle, although some politicians, for example, in Turkey, want this publicly.
A terrorist network structure that has the features of an apocalyptic sect should be considered as such at all international platforms where it is a question of combating the terrorist threat or specialized coalitions are being created. In this regard, it is necessary and appropriate to remind our "Western partners" that countries that have illegal "business" with ISIS should also be viewed as accomplices of terrorists and real consequences should come for them in the form of international isolation and sanctions by the UN Security Council.
In the Western community, and in Asia as well, they are confident that the incident with the A321 will become a turning point in the domestic political atmosphere in the coming period. Yes, it really is - Russia has received the moral right to act even more decisively in Syria and demand decisiveness from the coalition.
In fact, this right has been paid for with the blood of Russian citizens, just as the United States once got carte blanche to fight terrorists around the world after the fall of the Twin Towers. The same right has now appeared in France - it, too, unfortunately, was paid for in blood.
However, some nuances hinder the resolution of the situation with the "nest of terrorism". For example, the British press named the Egyptian preacher, the leader of the Sinai province group Abu Usam al-Masri, who last year agreed to cooperate with ISIS as the likely organizer of the terrorist attack over Sinai.
It was his group that allegedly collected the bomb, which caused the tragedy. So, the problem may be that this group, according to operational data, defends the interests of Qatar, which, in turn, is an ally of the United States and Great Britain. Therefore, the confusion experienced by western countries when Russia presents them with lists of terrorist organizations to be destroyed, it is quite understandable.
The terrorist attacks over the Sinai and in Paris allowed Russia and France, including during the G20, to "put pressure" on the coalitions who have been unsuccessfully fighting ISIS in the Syrian desert for a year now. It is important that this pressure does not stop: neither the United States nor the United Kingdom today has moral and legal grounds to hinder or even more impede the Russian and French counter-terrorist operation in Syria.
It is even possible that it will be continued in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some will also have to sacrifice part of their such lucrative business, finally agreeing to the construction of legal pipeline systems to Europe.
The denial of the version of the terrorist attack on board the Tu-154 in Sochi came even earlier than it was announced - literally in the first hour after the news of the tragedy. Such haste as it shows recent history, usually serves as "evidence to the contrary." It seems so in this case as well. A number of independent experts are considering the version of the terrorist attack on board the Tu-154 military aircraft, which crashed a few minutes after takeoff, as a priority. He took off from the Sochi airport "Adler" and was heading for Syrian Latakia. According to the latest data, there were 93 people in it, including journalists, the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble, and high-ranking servicemen.
The plane was allegedly carrying classified documents. The artists were going to perform in Aleppo, which was occupied by Syrian troops in December, said a member of the band. This contradicts the information in the leading Russian media, according to which the concert was supposed to be held at the Khmeimim airbase.
The newspaper "Kommersant" cites the opinion of the Air Force Major, pilot-instructor Andrey Krasnoperov, who practically has no doubts that the liner exploded in the air. As the main arguments put forward in favor of such an assumption, he names two facts that have been established so far: first, too large a scatter of debris, reaching 15 km; secondly, too abrupt and quick interruption of the flight after the moment of take-off. "It is too suspicious that the plane disappears from the radar screens after taking off in the climb," he said, noting that a sharp drop ... happens when something abnormal happened, something exploded, something fell off. "
This disaster reminded him of the death of the civilian liner A321 in Sharm el-Sheikh, where at first the Russian authorities also refused in every possible way to recognize the version of the terrorist attack and only later were forced to agree that there was an explosion on board. “The situation, perhaps, is similar to the tragedy in Sharm el-Sheikh, there, too, after takeoff, very little time has passed,” the opinion sounded. “The pilot could calmly transmit information, turn on the distress signal, but this did not happen. It means that something was so abnormal, abrupt in the seventh minute of the flight ... I cannot sin on the crew, and the equipment does not break down so abruptly, ”the pilot continued.
The instructor has no doubt that under such conditions, only a deliberately provoked explosion could unexpectedly interrupt the flight of the vessel. “If the plane fell intact, then there would be no scattering of fragments, believe me,” the expert said. - The plane collapsed, just fell apart, which means it exploded, which means that somewhere someone was given a suitcase, given that it was a flight to Syria, and the musicians from the ensemble were flying, they could carry something with these musical instruments, someone could have planted something. Believe me, such scattering of fragments occurs only when an aircraft is destroyed in the air. It just explodes, and that's it. And when the liner just falls, it turns out an oily stain, and then parts float up. The plane, if it falls, dives into the water, simply disappears, it is found after some time. And then they even found a man who had already suffered from the wreckage in the coastal zone. This suggests that the debris fell to the ground in a random fall, which means that it exploded in the air. "
In turn, the publication "Open Russia" quotes the words of aviation expert Vadim Lukashevich (see also), who also drew attention to the large area of dispersion of the elements of the liner. No technical malfunction can lead to the destruction of the aircraft in the air “... It is noted that the wreckage is scattered over an area of one and a half kilometers. And this is a lot, because this may be evidence that the plane began to collapse while still in the air ... And if in the air, then this is a terrorist attack. Because it is impossible for the plane to collapse in the air in the event of a piloting error. This needs to be ripped off, for example, into a tailspin, and it would be very difficult to do. And if it is a technical malfunction, then, all the same, there are no such malfunctions that lead to destruction in the air, ”said the specialist. In an interview with the BBC Russian Service, he confirmed that the version of a terrorist attack should not be ruled out. “... It is impossible to exclude the possibility of an explosion on board ... large area, it will mean that the destruction of the Tu-154 began in the air, ”Lukashevich said, pointing out that this aircraft cannot be considered old and unusable.
In a conversation with Novaya Gazeta, he provided a more extensive explanation of his position, which is largely in line with Krasnoperov's reasoning. “When the Airbus was blown up over Sinai, the whole world knew that it was a terrorist attack,” Lukashevich explained. - All intelligence reported, we alone played the fool for two weeks. It's just that if this is a terrorist attack, you need to understand that this is our answer for Aleppo ... When the plane was blown up over Sinai, everyone understood such a thing - this is Sharm el-Sheikh, a bad security system, radical groups. The current context is the assassination of our ambassador to Turkey by a state security officer. Today we have suffered losses already in the Ministry of Defense ... The most probable are piloting errors and technical malfunctions. But the fact is that in 7 minutes of flight the plane manages to gain a decent altitude. For that height, the wreckage found in completely different places is too much. This suggests that he began to collapse in the air. No technical malfunction can lead to the destruction of the aircraft in the air. An airplane is a fairly reliable piece. If the destruction began to occur in the sky, it means that something extraordinary has already happened there ... Why did the landing gear come off? The landing gear of the aircraft could be torn off if it was landing, if the pilots did not have time to remove it. But, you see, seven minutes is a lot, the pilots could not help but remove the landing gear. If the landing gear was not retracted, they would have reported it. A flock of birds? Then two or three engines should go out at once. But at an altitude of two or three kilometers, they have plenty of time to make a decision. A striking example is “a miracle on the Hudson,” the specialist concluded.
In turn, the previously mentioned instructor pilot Krasnoperov, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta, again emphasized that the disaster reminds him of the tragedy over Sinai Peninsula... “It's the same story: the plane disappears from the radar, then it turns out that, it turns out, its tail is torn off, and after a huge amount of time we are informed about the terrorist attack,” he recalled. “You see, it’s a fraction of a second for the pilot to press the distress signal button… But it’s empty, the connection is cut off.” Further, the scatter of the fragments of the aircraft - 15 km. This means that he fell apart in the air. The plane is strong, even when it gets into the water, its wing may fall off, but it will not fall apart. People simply cannot be scattered over several kilometers (the correspondent's passport was found several kilometers from the chassis). ... He sat down to refuel ... What appeared on the plane after this refueling? It's not the same here as on civilians. After checking the documents, cars drive up and load additional things. It is much easier to carry something. Our people, all relaxed, no one thinks about safety at this moment. "
For his part, military expert Alexander Golts was also wary because "the Russian authorities immediately began to deny the version of the terrorist attack," reports the BBC. At the same time, he admitted that Tu-154 aircraft are obsolete machines. A similar opinion is expressed in an interview with “ Komsomolskaya Pravda»Alexander Romanov, former aircraft commander, flight safety specialist. “Due to the fact that the debris is now scattered at a considerable distance, this suggests that the plane may have already been falling apart in the air,” he said. - And it is possible that it was a terrorist attack (the political situation is now very difficult). There is an opportunity to talk about some sabotage. Everyone, probably, guessed where the plane was flying, and they could have put something in their luggage, somewhere else. That is, it seems to me that it is similar to the Egyptian case ... ”, the specialist noted.
According to him, the key moment of the event is related to the refueling of the aircraft in Sochi. “Most likely, they drove up service department, there was some kind of water delivery, of course, there were refuelers, there were technical services... Because they had to go through all the technical regulations, to do all the technical on the part of the ground services. Therefore, quite a lot of people approached the plane, ”he suggested, explaining that at that moment, probably, a mine was planted in the luggage compartment. At the same time, he explained that under different circumstances the crew would have been able to send a distress signal, which in this case was not done. “In 7 minutes the plane could gain about 3-4 thousand meters, and from there the crew had all the possibilities to transfer, if there was no unexpected, sudden situation when everything happened almost instantly, the crew was deprived of the opportunity to convey about the difficulties that emerged on board. Therefore, most likely, there was some kind of terrorist attack here, ”the expert summed up.
The Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation confirmed that wrecked the Tu-154 plane only recently - in the fall of this year - underwent scheduled maintenance and was operated by an experienced pilot, Interfax reports. For its part, a source in the emergency services also ruled out the version of the pilot's error and called the weather conditions "favorable" in the area of the crash. “The version of the pilots' mistake is also unlikely, because they had a lot of experience in control aircraft of this type and significant flight hours. As for the meteorological conditions in the crash area, they were favorable for the flight, ”the source said. Thus, various officials in the aggregate virtually ruled out the version of a terrorist attack. Nevertheless, the authorities are in no hurry to designate this version even as one of the possible, and instead consider a technical malfunction as the cause of the liner crash.
Nevertheless, the fact that the power structures are working out the version of the terrorist act, reports "Fontanka". According to her, the FSB checks all persons involved in the maintenance of the Tu-154. A source in the Ministry of Defense said that the Tu-154 served as a so-called "postman", transporting a large volume of military papers, among which there could be secret dispatches. It should be noted that among the passengers of the crashed plane - in addition to the musicians - were high-ranking Russian military personnel, including Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov. In total, 8 servicemen died in the crash - one lieutenant general, four colonels, a lieutenant colonel, a major and a captain. It is known that on board the Tu-154 there was a film crew from the Zvezda and NTV channels, reporters from Channel One, as well as a former journalist of REN TV. The head of the Fair Aid charity foundation Elizaveta Glinka, known as Doctor Lisa, who flew to the Khmeimim airbase to take medicines to the Latakia University Hospital, was also killed in the crash.
According to the publication Life, the artists of the Alexandrov Song and Dance Ensemble were forbidden to talk to the press. Life was informed about this by three artists from different groups ensemble. Members of the musical group are informed by phone about the prohibition of interviews without prior approval from the administration. The Russian Defense Ministry's Tu-154 plane disappeared from radar on Sunday morning, two minutes after it took off from Sochi. The liner fell in the Black Sea near the Sochi coast. A criminal case has been initiated into the fall of the Tu-154. A technical malfunction is considered as the main version of the crash. A search and rescue operation is currently underway in the area of the disaster. According to the latest official data from the Russian Ministry of Defense, rescuers found and raised the bodies of 12 dead.
Two planes that crashed last week have been blown up. On Friday, the Russian authorities finally acknowledged this officially. Most probable version terrorist attacks - "Chechen", the alleged perpetrators - two shahids. Although responsibility for the explosions has already been claimed by one of the numerous organizations of the Al-Qaeda network - the Islambuli Brigades.
On the night of August 25, with an interval of half an hour, two Russian airliners, taking off from the Moscow Domodedovo airport, crashed. Tu-154 of Siberia Airlines flying to Sochi fell into Rostov region, and the Tu-134 of the Volga-Aviaexpress airline, en route to Volgograd, collapsed near Tula. At first, airlines and special services announced 89 dead, then another person was added to the list of the dead.
After it became clear on Thursday that the flight recorders (black boxes) on both "Tu" were out of order while still in the air, which can only be explained by the rapid destruction of the aircraft, aviation experts interviewed by Vedomosti said that the airliners had been blown up.
On Friday, the version of the terrorist attack on board the Tu-154 was finally declared official. "When examining the wreckage of the Tu-154, traces of an explosive were found. A preliminary analysis showed that it was hexogen," Sergei Ignatchenko, head of the FSB DSP, told Interfax. On Saturday, he made a similar statement regarding the study of the Tu-134 wreckage.
A source in the FSB explains that under the existing system of screening at airports, an explosive device could enter the plane through the luggage. "It was possible to carry it to hand luggage, because the explosive itself looks like a bar of soap, says the officer. “And in flight, it was enough to stick two wires into it, a battery and a detonator, which no one would pay attention to during inspection.” According to the source, for the plane to fall apart in the air from an explosion, “half a kilogram of modern plastic explosives would be enough,” RDX could be added by terrorists "to enhance the effect of the explosion."
The FSB found women with Chechen surnames on the passenger lists - Nagaeva flew on a Tu-134, and Dzhebirkhanova on a Tu-154. Both bought tickets at the very last moment, the bodies of both were torn to pieces (i.e. the bombs exploded in their immediate vicinity), and, finally, neither of them received any inquiries from relatives. Information about these women is being collected.
Minister Igor Levitin, who heads the commission to investigate the catastrophes, said on Friday that even during the May check at the Domodedovo airport, flaws in the security system were found. An expert familiar with the content of the inspection report told Vedomosti that the complaints were caused, among other things, by the poor setting of introscopes and metal detectors, as well as the lack of metal detector frames and introscopes at the entrance to the airport building.
So far, the Prosecutor General's Office is investigating two criminal cases under the article "crime against traffic safety and operation of transport." “On the basis of all the data collected, the prosecutor’s office will decide on the possibility of re-qualifying criminal cases under the article“ terrorism, ”Ignatchenko told Interfax. Representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office do not rule out combining the cases into one.”
An international mark also appeared in the case. Back on Friday, Reuters, citing a little-known Arabic-language website, reported that the Islamist group, the Islambuli Brigades, had claimed responsibility for the explosion of both planes. "Our mujahideen [...] were able to successfully capture two Russian aircraft", - the agency quotes a statement in Arabic. President of the Institute for the Study of Israel and the Middle East Yevgeny Satanovsky says that the" Islambuli Brigades "is a well-known terrorist structure, a" daughter "of Al-Qaeda. But, he says, there are no guarantees that the appeal of this very organization has indeed been posted on the Internet, and that the "Islambuli Brigades" themselves do not bluff, attributing the terrorist attack that has already taken place to themselves, no.
The terrorist organization is named after the Egyptian officer Khaled Islambuli, who organized the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Al-Qaeda's Islambuli Brigades have already claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks, including the attempted assassination of a candidate for prime minister ... Pakistan.
On Saturday, Levitin signed an order obliging airlines to equip aircraft with COSPAS-SARSAT emergency radio beacons. From January 1, the operation of vessels without radio beacons in the Russian sky will be prohibited. According to Levitin's press secretary Svetlana Kryshtanovskaya, emergency radio beacons should make it easier to find the remains of aircraft after a crash. Now only foreign-made aircraft are equipped with such systems. According to Kryshtanovskaya, one set costs $ 40,000. In total, according to the Financial Leasing Company, there are about 1,800 aircraft in operation in Russia. Thus, the new measure will cost the industry approximately $ 70 million.
27.12.2016 19:37
Ukrinform
On board the Tu-154 were not only Russian artists and journalists - part of the list of the dead was initially classified for some reason. Subsequently, a complete list of the dead appeared on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is noteworthy that the day after the disaster, the head of the Rosneft presidential administration, FSB general Oleg Erovinkin (he was called the right hand of Igor Sechin, the second most influential person after Putin), was found dead in Moscow in his own car.
Erovinkin worked as the head of the department for work with classified documents and protection of state secrets of the Office of Information and Documentation Support of the President of the Russian Federation. Since 2008, he headed the secretariat of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Sechin. And in 2012, following Sechin, he went to work at Rosneft. According to the main version, Erovinkin died of heart failure, which may well happen at his age - 61 years old. But it seems that lately there are simply too many cases of mysterious deaths of Russian generals. In early 2016, the InformNapalm international intelligence community recorded that the waves of contract killings and mysterious deaths of Russian generals occurred during the years of the end of military conflicts initiated by the Kremlin in neighboring states. And the next death of a person of such a level as Erovinkin prompts that now in Russia goes a tough fight under the carpet, which moved to the level of physical destruction.
There are a lot of comments on the Tu-154 disaster, but we draw your attention to the record with a real pages ex-head of the security service of the President of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublika "- Colonel Valery Gratov. For such a position - “the head of the security service of the PMR president” - no random people are appointed, there is no doubt that he was related to the FSB and knows the system from the inside. Gratov called the main cause of the crash the explosion of the plane, rejecting versions about technical malfunctions or a piloting error:
“There is another unofficial version from my colleagues. The plane was blown up on purpose! Since the board belonged to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the inspection is more loyal "for our own", it was not difficult to carry the bomb on board. The terrorist attack was sanctioned from above, therefore, even without black boxes, the media immediately began to disperse statements that the crash was due to a technical malfunction or pilot error.
The order probably came from the Presidential Administration (perhaps the President himself was not informed about this, # Surkov is known for his pranks and manipulations in terms of draining), the executors, most likely, were # Kadyrov's people. It is difficult to judge whether it was a suicide bomber, or whether the bomb was carried and left on board.
A split is brewing among the siloviki, since not everyone is ready to walk over the corpses of their citizens and follow unquestioningly instructions to eliminate compatriots for the sake of media pictures or political intrigues. This has gone too far. If earlier I believed that the explosions in Buinaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999 were conspiracy theories, now it has become clear that not everything can be attributed to terrorists and terror is state-owned. "
Why Gratov is not afraid to make such a comment is hard to say. Perhaps he and his post are also a fragment of some big plan, about which nothing is known yet ...
Therefore, Ukrinform has collected observations that indicate why the fall of the Tu-154 should be considered a terrorist attack:
1. Russian "competent authorities" insist too much on the opposite - that this is not a terrorist attack
“We proceed from the assumption that the reasons for this disaster could be either the technical condition or piloting errors,” said Russian Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov. This is also emphasized by the FSB, who allegedly found the only witness. According to a witness - an officer of the coast guard of the border troops of the FSB, who allegedly watched the disaster from a boat - the airliner crashed during a possible attempt to land on the water. The terrorist attack as a version can be kept silent for several obvious reasons. And reluctance to stir up public panic is far from being the main one among them. Maybe they are still "upstairs", in one of the "Kremlin towers", are still confused and do not know how to answer, how to proceed further? By the way, you probably noticed how confused Putin looked when, a few hours after the disaster, he expressed sympathy, standing next to the President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev ...
2. The witness and the surveillance camera diverged 100%
The position of the airliner in space seemed strange to the witness, even for landing: supposedly the Tu-154 was going at low speed with an unnaturally raised nose. As a result, the plane touched the surface of the sea with its tail, which fell off on impact, crashed into the waves and quickly sank. How he could discern such details in the dark and from a distance of several kilometers is incomprehensible. At the same time, no one comments on the video from the same Sochi beach, where in the dark, unexpectedly, there is a flash over the sea. If this is a fake (and this should not be ruled out), then tell me about it.
Aircraft commander Roman Volkov (right) This was reported by "Vesti.ru".
At the helm of the plane was Roman Volkov, who was called a first-class pilot with rich experience by the ministry. “The commander of the crew, Major Roman Volkov, was perfectly prepared. This type of aircraft has flown over 1900 hours. Therefore, the conditions for the performance of this flight and the readiness of the crew met all the requirements that our laws impose on the performance of the flight mission, ”explained Viktor Bondarev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces. What "crew mistakes" could have been on an aircraft that has been widely operated for more than 40 years, in ideal weather conditions? It's hard to believe it: the probability is one millionth.
4. Scattering of the wreckage of the aircraft
It was about 15 km. The passport of one of the passengers was found altogether on the shore. Candidate of Technical Sciences Vadim Lukashevich noted in a commentary to Novaya Gazeta that the version of a terrorist act cannot be ruled out: “No technical malfunction can lead to the destruction of an aircraft in the air. An airplane is a pretty reliable thing. If the destruction began to occur in the sky, it means that something extraordinary has already happened there. "
It is noteworthy that the front landing gear of the aircraft was torn off. Vadim Lukashevich: “The landing gear of the plane could be torn off if it was landing, if the pilots did not manage to remove it. But, you see, seven minutes after takeoff is a lot, the pilots could not help but remove the landing gear. If the landing gear was not retracted, they would have reported it. "
5. Communication with the crew was cut off unexpectedly abruptly
And at that time, there were no reports of malfunctions on board from the pilots. Andrey Krasnoperov, Major of the Russian Air Force, in a comment to the same Novaya Gazeta, remarked: “You see, it’s a fraction of a second for a pilot to press the distress button. Any malfunction, anything, the first duty of the pilot is to press the button, report to the ground. But it’s empty here, the connection is broken ”.
What could be the reason for such a set of unanswered questions? Apart from an unexpected explosion on board, it is difficult to imagine anything else.
6. Technical failure is very unlikely
The last technical inspection of this aircraft was carried out quite recently - in September 2016. This Tu-154 was produced in 1983 at the Kuibyshev plant (now Aviakor). Last time it was overhauled in December 2014. During a major overhaul, the aircraft is completely disassembled, bare metal and wings remain, then all of it is examined by ultrasound to look for microcracks; all devices are checked, what is needed - repaired or replaced. After that, the plane is reassembled and it turns out almost like a factory. Aviation expert Bohdan Dolince said in a comment to Ukrinform: “The Tu-154 has been actively operated since the 70s and a number of airlines are still using them, although they are trying to abandon them. It cannot be called a modern aircraft, but provided that all technical procedures and regulations were followed, problems should not have arisen. "
Julia Gorban, Kiev.
First photo: press service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry / TASS
