Nadya Kurchenko biography. Kurchenko's last flight of hope

In the Soviet Union, the status of a flight attendant was only slightly lower than that of a film actress or pop singer. Young and beautiful girls in an elegant uniform with friendly smiles they seemed like real celestials. Plays were written about them, films were made, songs were dedicated to them. One of these songs, “My Clear Little Star,” was a real hit at dance parties in the seventies. However, not all of the dancers knew that the piercingly sad words and melody of this song are dedicated to the tragic death of the flight attendant, or, in official language, flight attendant Nadezhda Vladimirovna Kurchenko.

Komsomol member, athlete and beauty

Nadya Kurchenko was born on December 29, 1950 in the Altai Territory. Her childhood included dense forests near her native village of Novo-Poltava (Klyuchevsky district), excellent grades at school, a large and friendly company of peers. Later, Nadya’s family moved to the homeland of her mother, Henrietta Semyonovna, in the village of Ponino, Glazovsky district (Udmurtia). It was not easy to establish life in a new place - my father’s alcoholism, two younger sisters and a brother. Nadya had to study at the Glazov boarding school. However, she became one of the best students at school, loved poetry very much and recited it beautifully. Beautiful blue-eyed Nadya was the permanent Snow Maiden at New Year's matinees, and after joining the Komsomol, she became a pioneer leader in the junior classes, organized hikes, and published a wall newspaper. For Hope Komsomol card was not an empty formality, and the concepts of “conscience” and “duty” were not just words.

It is difficult to say why a girl from an Udmurt village decided to throw in her lot with aviation. However, after graduating from school, Nadya went to a distant place Southern City Sukhumi, where she first started working in the airport accounting department, and when she turned 18, she switched to working as a flight attendant. The girl quickly mastered the technical intricacies of her profession and knew how to get along with the most restless passengers. Her school passion for tourism continued in her new place - she became responsible for sports work in the air squadron, organized exciting hikes around the outskirts of Sukhumi, and even passed the standards for the “USSR Tourist” badge. In the very first year of work, the first serious test came - a fire on board the aircraft and the need to land it with one engine. For the flawless performance of their duties in emergency situation Nadezhda Kurchenko was awarded a personalized watch.

Nadezhda had many plans - entering law school, marrying her school friend Vladimir Borisenko. In May 1970, Nadezhda went on vacation to visit her relatives. We agreed that the wedding would take place in November or new year holidays. And on October 15, the girl went on her last flight.

Close with yourself

Flight 244 from Batumi to Krasnodar with a landing in Sukhumi was considered short and uncomplicated, from Batumi to Sukhumi only half an hour of summer. 46 people boarded the AN-24. Among them were a middle-aged man with a fifteen-year-old son - Pranas and Algirdas Brazinskas. Ten minutes after takeoff, Brazinskas Sr., who was sitting next to the service compartment, called Nadezhda Kurchenko and ordered her to take an envelope with a note to the cockpit. The typewritten text contained a demand to change the route and a threat of death in case of disobedience. Seeing the flight attendant's reaction, the man jumped out of his seat and rushed to the cockpit. “You can’t go here, come back!” - Nadezhda shouted, blocking his path. She managed to shout “Attack” and fell - the bandits started shooting. Under the threat of the plane exploding, the wounded pilots had to head to Trabzon airport. The Turkish authorities were lenient towards the hijackers - after serving a short sentence and being released under an amnesty, they moved to the United States, but that’s a completely different story.

Nadezhda Kurchenko was buried in Sukhumi - in the uniform of a flight attendant and with a Komsomol badge; 20 years later, at the request of her mother, the ashes were reburied in Glazov. A tanker, the peak of the Gissar ridge and a planet in the constellation Capricorn were named after Nadezhda. In addition, after the death of flight attendant Kurchenko, the rules for passenger safety during air travel were radically changed and the norms of international laws against air terrorism were tightened.

October 15 will mark 45 years since the death of 19-year-old flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko, who at the cost of her own life tried to prevent the capture of the Soviet passenger plane terrorists. The story of the heroic death of a young girl awaits you further.

This was the first case of a passenger aircraft being hijacked on such a scale (hijacking). With him, in essence, began a long-term series of similar tragedies that splattered the skies of the whole world with the blood of innocent people.
And it all started like this.
The An-24 took off from the Batumi airfield on October 15, 1970 at 12:30 p.m. Heading to Sukhumi. There were 46 passengers and 5 crew members on board the plane. Flight time according to schedule is 25-30 minutes.
But life has ruined both the schedule and the schedule.
At the 4th minute of the flight, the plane sharply deviated from its course. The radio operators asked for the board, but there was no response. Communication with the control tower was interrupted. The plane was leaving towards nearby Turkey.
Military and rescue boats went out to sea. Their captains received orders: to proceed at full speed to the site of a possible disaster.
The board did not respond to any of the requests. A few more minutes - and the An-24 left air space THE USSR. And in the sky above the Turkish coastal airfield of Trabzon, two rockets flashed - red, then green. It was a signal emergency landing. The plane touched the alien's concrete pier air harbor. Telegraph agencies around the world immediately reported: a Soviet passenger plane had been hijacked. The flight attendant was killed and some were wounded. All.

Georgy Chakhrakiya, the crew commander of the An-24, No. 46256, who performed a flight on the Batumi-Sukhumi route on October 15, 1970, recalls - I remember everything. I remember it thoroughly.
Such things are not forgotten, - That day I said to Nadya: “We agreed that in life you would consider us your brothers. So why aren't you being honest with us? I know that soon I will have to go to a wedding...” the pilot recalls with sadness. - The girl raised her blue eyes, smiled and said: “Yes, probably November holidays" I was delighted and, shaking the wings of the plane, shouted at the top of my voice: “Guys! We’re going to a wedding for the holidays!”... And within an hour I knew that there would be no wedding...
Today, 45 years later, I intend to again - at least briefly - outline the events of those days and again talk about Nadya Kurchenko, her courage and her heroism. To talk about the stunning reaction of millions of people of the so-called stagnant time to the sacrifice, courage, courage of man. Tell about this, first of all, to the people of the new generation, the new computer consciousness, tell how it was, because my generation remembers and knows this story, and most importantly - Nadya Kurchenko - and without reminders. And it would be useful for young people to know why many streets, schools, Mountain peaks and even the plane bears her name.
...After takeoff, greetings and instructions to passengers, the flight attendant returned to her work area, a narrow compartment. She opened a bottle of Borjomi and, letting the water shoot out sparkling tiny cannonballs, filled four plastic cups for the crew. Having placed them on the tray, she entered the cabin.
The crew was always glad to have a beautiful, young, extremely friendly girl in the cockpit. She probably felt this attitude towards herself and, of course, she was happy too. Perhaps, even in this dying hour, she thought with warmth and gratitude about each of these guys, who easily accepted her into their professional and friendly circle. They treated her like a little sister, with care and trust.
Of course, Nadya was in a wonderful mood - everyone who saw her in the last minutes of her pure, happy life affirmed.
After giving the crew a drink, she returned to her compartment. At that moment the bell rang: one of the passengers called the flight attendant. She came up. The passenger said:
“Tell the commander urgently,” and handed her an envelope.

At 12.40. Five minutes after takeoff (at an altitude of about 800 meters), a man and a guy sitting in the front seats called the flight attendant and gave her an envelope: “Tell the crew commander!” The envelope contained “Order No. 9” typed on a typewriter:
1. I order you to fly along the specified route.
2. Stop radio communication.
3. For failure to comply with an order - Death.
(Free Europe) P.K.Z.Ts.
General (Krylov)
There was a stamp on the sheet, on which was written in Lithuanian: “... rajono valdybos kooperatyvas” (“cooperative management... of the district”). the man was dressed in the dress uniform of a Soviet officer.
Nadya took the envelope. Their gazes must have met. She was probably surprised by the tone in which these words were spoken. But she didn’t find out anything, but stepped towards the door luggage compartment- Next was the door to the pilot's cabin. Probably, Nadya's feelings were written on her face - most likely. And the sensitivity of the wolf, alas, surpasses any other. And, probably, it was precisely thanks to this sensitivity that the terrorist saw hostility, subconscious suspicion, a shadow of danger in Nadya’s eyes. This was enough for the sick imagination to sound the alarm: failure, verdict, exposure. His self-control failed: he literally ejected from his chair and rushed after Nadya.
She only managed to take a step towards the pilot's cabin when he opened the door to her compartment, which she had just closed.
- You can’t come here! - she screamed.
But he approached like the shadow of an animal. She realized: there was an enemy in front of her. The next second, he also realized: she would ruin all plans.
Nadya screamed again.
And at the same moment, slamming the cabin door, she turned to face the bandit, furious with this course of affairs, and prepared to attack. He, like the crew members, heard her words - without a doubt. What was left to do? Nadya made a decision: not to let the attacker into the cockpit at any cost. Any!
He could have been a maniac and shot the crew. It could have killed the crew and passengers. He could... She didn't know his actions, his intentions. And he knew: by jumping towards her, he tried to knock her off her feet. Pressing her hands against the wall, Nadya held on and continued to resist.
The first bullet hit her in the thigh. She pressed herself even tighter against the pilot's door. The terrorist tried to squeeze her throat. Nadya - knock the weapon out of his right hand. A stray bullet hit the ceiling. Nadya fought back with her feet, hands, even her head.
The crew assessed the situation instantly. The commander abruptly interrupted the right turn in which they were at the moment of the attack, and immediately rolled the roaring car to the left, and then to the right. The next second the plane went steeply upward: the pilots tried to knock down the attacker, believing that he had little experience in this matter, but Nadya would hold on.
The passengers were still wearing seat belts - after all, the display did not go out, the plane was just gaining altitude.
In the cabin, seeing a passenger rushing to the cabin and hearing the first shot, several people instantly unfastened their seat belts and jumped out of their seats. Two of them were closest to the place where the criminal was sitting, and were the first to sense trouble. Galina Kiryak and Aslan Kayshanba, however, did not have time to take a step: they were ahead of them by the one who was sitting next to the one who had fled into the cabin. The young bandit - and he was much younger than the first, for they turned out to be father and son - pulled out a sawn-off shotgun and fired along the cabin. The bullet whistled over the heads of the shocked passengers.
- Don `t move! - he yelled. - Do not move!
The pilots began to throw themselves from one position to another with even greater sharpness. The young man fired again. The bullet pierced the fuselage skin and went straight through. Depressurization aircraft not yet threatening - the height was insignificant.
Opening the cockpit, she shouted to the crew with all her might:
- Attack! He's armed!
The moment after the second shot, the young man opened his gray cloak and people saw grenades - they were tied to his belt.
- This is for you! - he shouted. - If anyone else gets up, we'll blow up the plane!
It was obvious that this was not an empty threat - if they failed, they had nothing to lose.
Meanwhile, despite the evolution of the plane, the elder remained on his feet and with bestial fury tried to tear Nadya away from the door of the pilot's cabin. He needed a commander. He needed a crew. He needed a plane.
Struck by Nadya’s incredible resistance, enraged by his own powerlessness to cope with the wounded, bloodied, fragile girl, he, without aiming, without thinking for a second, fired at point-blank range and, throwing the desperate defender of the crew and passengers into the corner of a narrow passage, burst into the cabin. Behind him is his geek with a sawed-off shotgun.
What followed was a massacre. Their shots were drowned out by their own cries:
- To Turkey! To Turkey! Return to the Soviet shore - we'll blow up the plane!

Bullets were flying from the cabin. One walked through my hair,” says Leningrad resident Vladimir Gavrilovich Merenkov. He and his wife were passengers on the ill-fated flight in 1970. “I saw: the bandits had pistols, a hunting rifle, and the elder had one grenade hanging on his chest. The plane was throwing left and right - the pilots probably hoped that the criminals would not stay on their feet.
The shooting continued in the cockpit. There they would later count 18 holes, and a total of 24 bullets were fired. One of them hit the commander in the spine:
Georgiy Chakhrakiya - My legs have become paralyzed. Through my efforts, I turned around and saw a terrible picture: Nadya lay motionless on the floor in the doorway of our cabin and was bleeding. Nearby lay navigator Fadeev. And a man stood behind us and, shaking a grenade, shouted: “Keep the seashore on the left! Heading south! Don't enter the clouds! Listen, or we’ll blow up the plane!”
The criminal did not stand on ceremony. He tore off the pilots' radio headphones. He trampled on lying bodies. Flight mechanic Hovhannes Babayan was wounded in the chest. The co-pilot Suliko Shavidze was also shot at, but he was lucky - the bullet got stuck in the steel pipe of the seat back. When navigator Valery Fadeev came to his senses (his lungs were shot), the bandit swore and kicked the seriously wounded man.
Vladimir Gavrilovich Merenkov - I told my wife: “We’re flying towards Turkey!” - and I was afraid that when approaching the border we might be shot down. The wife also remarked: “Below us is the sea. You feel good. You can swim, but I can’t!” And I thought: “What a stupid death! I went through the whole war, signed on the Reichstag - and on you!”
The pilots still managed to turn on the SOS signal.
Georgy Chakhrakiya - I told the bandits: “I’m wounded, my legs are paralyzed. I can only control it with my hands. The co-pilot must help me,” and the bandit replied: “Everything happens in war. We might die." The thought even flashed of sending “Annushka” to the rocks - to die ourselves and finish off these bastards. But there are forty-four people in the cabin, including seventeen women and one child.
I told the co-pilot: “If I lose consciousness, fly the ship at the request of the bandits and land it. We must save the plane and passengers! We tried to land on Soviet territory, in Kobuleti, where there was a military airfield. But the hijacker, when he saw where I was driving the car, warned that he would shoot me and blow up the ship. I decided to cross the border. And five minutes later we crossed it at low altitude.
...The airfield in Trabzon was found visually. This was not difficult for the pilots.
Georgiy Chakhrakiya - We made a circle and fired green rockets, signaling to clear the runway. We came in from the mountains and sat down so that if something happened, we would land on the sea. We were immediately surrounded. The co-pilot opened the front doors and the Turks entered. In the cabin the bandits surrendered. All this time, until the locals showed up, we were held at gunpoint...
Coming out of the cabin after the passengers, the senior bandit knocked on the car with his fist: “This plane is now ours!”
The Turks provided medical assistance to all crew members. They immediately offered those who wanted to stay in Turkey, but not one of the 49 Soviet citizens agreed.
The next day, all passengers and the body of Nadya Kurchenko were taken to Soviet Union. A little later they overtook the hijacked An-24.
For courage and heroism, Nadezhda Kurchenko was awarded the Military Order of the Red Banner; a passenger plane, an asteroid, schools, streets, and so on were named after Nadya. But it should be said, apparently, about something else.
The scale of government and public actions related to the unprecedented event was enormous. Members of the State Commission and the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiated with the Turkish authorities for several days in a row without a single break.
It was necessary to: allocate an air corridor for the return of the hijacked plane; air corridor to transport wounded crew members and those passengers who needed urgent treatment from Trabzon hospitals medical care; of course, those who were not physically harmed, but found themselves in a foreign land not of their own free will; an air corridor was required for a special flight from Trabzon to Sukhumi with Nadya’s body. Her mother was already flying to Sukhumi from Udmurtia.

Nadezhda’s mother Henrietta Ivanovna Kurchenko says: “I immediately asked that Nadya be buried here in Udmurtia. But I wasn't allowed. They said that from a political point of view this cannot be done.
And for twenty years I went to Sukhumi every year at the expense of the Ministry civil aviation. In 1989, my grandson and I came for the last time, and then the war began. The Abkhazians fought with the Georgians, and the grave was neglected. We walked to Nadya on foot, there was shooting nearby - all sorts of things happened... And then I impudently wrote a letter addressed to Gorbachev: “If you don’t help transport Nadya, I will go and hang myself at her grave!” A year later, the daughter was reburied in the city cemetery in Glazov. They wanted to bury her separately, on Kalinin Street, and rename the street in honor of Nadya. But I didn't allow it. She died for the people. And I want her to lie with people...

Immediately after the hijacking, TASS reports appeared in the USSR:
“On October 15, a civilian plane air fleet“An-24” made a regular flight from the city of Batumi to Sukhumi. Two armed bandits, using weapons against the plane's crew, forced the plane to change its route and land in Turkey in the city of Trabzon. During the fight with the bandits, the flight attendant of the plane was killed, who tried to block the bandits’ path to the pilot’s cabin. Two pilots were injured. The plane's passengers are unharmed. The Soviet government appealed to the Turkish authorities with a request to extradite the criminal killers to bring them to Soviet court, as well as to return the plane and Soviet citizens who were on board the An-24 plane.
The “shuffle” that appeared the next day, October 17, announced that the plane’s crew and passengers had been returned to their homeland. True, the navigator of the plane, who was seriously wounded in the chest, remained in the Trabzon hospital and underwent surgery. The names of the hijackers are not known: “As for the two criminals who committed an armed attack on the crew of the plane, as a result of which flight attendant N.V. Kurchenko was killed, two crew members and one passenger were injured, the Turkish government stated that they were arrested and the prosecutor’s office was given an order to conduct an urgent investigation into the circumstances of the case.”

The identities of the air pirates became known to the general public only on November 5 after a press conference by the USSR Prosecutor General Rudenko.
Brazinskas Pranas Stasio born in 1924 and Brazinskas Algirdas born in 1955.
Pranas Brazinskas was born in 1924 in the Trakai region of Lithuania.
According to the biography written by Brazinskas in 1949, the “forest brothers” shot through the window and killed the chairman of the council and mortally wounded P. Brazinskas’s father, who happened to be nearby. With the help of local authorities, P. Brazinskas purchased a house in Vievis and in 1952 became the manager of the household goods warehouse of the Vievis cooperative. In 1955, P. Brazinskas was sentenced to 1 year of correctional labor for theft and speculation in building materials. In January 1965, by decision of the Supreme Court, he was again sentenced to 5 years, but was released early in June. After divorcing his first wife, he left for Central Asia.
He was engaged in speculation (in Lithuania he bought car parts, carpets, silk and linen fabrics and sent parcels to Central Asia, for each parcel he had a profit of 400-500 rubles), quickly accumulated money. In 1968, he brought his thirteen-year-old son Algirdas to Kokand, and two years later he left his second wife.
On October 7-13, 1970, having visited Vilnius for the last time, P. Brazinskas and his son took their luggage - it is unknown where they purchased weapons, accumulated dollars (according to the KGB, more than 6,000 dollars) and flew to Transcaucasia.

In October 1970, the USSR demanded that Turkey immediately extradite the criminals, but this demand was not fulfilled. The Turks decided to judge the hijackers themselves. The Trabzon Court of First Instance did not recognize the attack as intentional. In his defense, Pranas stated that they hijacked the plane in the face of death, which allegedly threatened him for participating in the “Lithuanian Resistance.” And they sentenced 45-year-old Pranas Brazinskas to eight years in prison, and his 13-year-old son Algirdas to two. In May 1974, the father came under an amnesty law and Brazinskas Sr.’s prison sentence was replaced with house arrest. That same year, father and son allegedly escaped from house arrest and contacted the American Embassy in Turkey with a request to grant them political asylum in the United States. Having received a refusal, the Brazinskas again surrendered into the hands of the Turkish police, where they were kept for another couple of weeks and... finally released. They then flew to Canada via Italy and Venezuela. During a stopover in New York, the Brazinskas got off the plane and were “detained” by the US Migration and Naturalization Service. They were never granted the status of political refugees, but first they were given residence permits, and in 1983 they were both given American passports. Algirdas officially became Albert-Victor White, and Pranas became Frank White.
Henrietta Ivanovna Kurchenko - In seeking the extradition of the Brazinskas, I even went to a meeting with Reagan at the American embassy. They told me that they were looking for my father because he was living in the United States illegally. And the son received American citizenship. And he cannot be punished. Nadya was killed in 1970, and the law on the extradition of bandits, wherever they were, allegedly came out in 1974. And there will be no return...
The Brazinskas settled in the town of Santa Monica in California, where they worked as ordinary painters. In America, the Lithuanian community had a wary attitude towards the Brazinskas, they were openly afraid of them. An attempt to organize a fundraiser for our own aid fund failed. In the USA, the Brazinskas wrote a book about their “exploits”, in which they tried to justify the seizure and hijacking of the plane as “the struggle for the liberation of Lithuania from Soviet occupation.” To clear himself, P. Brazinskas stated that he hit the flight attendant by accident, in a “shootout with the crew.” Even later, A. Brazinskas claimed that the flight attendant died during a “shootout with KGB agents.” However, support for the Brazinskas by Lithuanian organizations gradually faded away, everyone forgot about them. Real life in the US was very different from what they expected. The criminals lived a miserable life; in his old age, Brazinskas Sr. became irritable and unbearable.
In early February 2002, the 911 service in the Californian city of Santa Monica received a call. The caller immediately hung up. Police located the address where the call was coming from and arrived at the 900 block of 21st Street. 46-year-old Albert Victor White opened the door for the police and led the officers to the cold corpse of his 77-year-old father. On whose head forensic experts later counted eight blows from a dumbbell. Murders are rare in Santa Monica—it was the city's first violent death that year.
Jack ALEX. Brazinskas Jr.'s lawyer
- I am Lithuanian myself, and his wife Virginia hired me to defend Albert Victor White. There is quite a large Lithuanian diaspora here in California, and don't think that we Lithuanians are in any way supportive of the 1970 plane hijacking
- Pranas was a scary person; sometimes, in fits of rage, he would chase the neighbor kids with a weapon.
- Algirdas is a normal and sensible person. At the time of his capture, he was only 15 years old, and he hardly knew what he was doing. He spent his entire life in the shadow of his father's dubious charisma, and now, through his own fault, he will rot in prison
- It was necessary self-defense. The father pointed a gun at him, threatening to shoot his son if he left him. But Algirdas knocked the weapon away from him and hit the old man on the head several times.
- The jury considered that, having knocked out the pistol, Algirdas might not have killed the old man, since he was very weak. Another thing that played against Algirdas was the fact that he called the police only a day after the incident - all this time he was next to the corpse.
- Algirdas was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 20 years in prison under the article “premeditated murder of the second degree”
- I know this doesn’t sound like a lawyer, but let me express my condolences to Algirdas. The last time I saw him, he was terribly depressed. The father terrorized his son as best he could, and when the tyrant finally passed away, Algirdas, a man in the prime of his life, would rot in prison for many more years. Apparently this is fate...

Nadezhda Vladimirovna Kurchenko (1950-1970)
Born on December 29, 1950 in the village of Novo-Poltava, Klyuchevsky district Altai Territory. She graduated from a boarding school in the village of Ponino, Glazov district of the Ukrainian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Since December 1968, she has been a flight attendant of the Sukhumi air squadron. She died on October 15, 1970, while trying to prevent terrorists from hijacking a plane. In 1970 she was buried in the center of Sukhumi. 20 years later, her grave was moved to the Glazov city cemetery. Awarded (posthumously) the Order of the Red Banner. The name of Nadezhda Kurchenko was given to one of the peaks of the Gissar ridge, a tanker of the Russian fleet and a small planet.

How 45 years ago 19-year-old flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko stood in the way of armed bandits

Then, in October 1970, the very attempt at armed seizure civil aircraft looked like an unprecedented crime. Then terrorists of all stripes will start hunting for airliners around the world. It is worth rummaging through the memory - and immediately the hijacking of a Tu-154 flight to Pakistan by prisoners in a Yakut prison will appear, the hijacking of an Aeroflot flight in the Minvody by Shamil Basayev, the attack by terrorists on the World War II shopping center in New York and dozens more cases. And the first victim of air piracy was our flight attendant Nadya Kurchenko. The tragedy that shook the USSR became the reason for tightening control over safety on board civil courts. The fragile girl gave her life to save many others.

So, on October 15, 1970, a passenger An-24 took off from Batumi on the route Simferopol - Odessa. The plane had not yet gained altitude when two passengers, father and son Brazinskasa, called the flight attendant and, threatening with a sawed-off shotgun, conveyed a demand to the crew: to set a course for Turkey. Nadya managed to sound the alarm, block the bandits’ path to the pilot’s cabin, and was shot at point-blank range. The Brazinskas fired non-stop - both in the cockpit and in the cabin. Then there will be 18 bullet holes in the skin of the An-24! Navigator Valery Fadeev and flight mechanic Oganes Babayan were seriously injured. Pilot Giorgi Chakhrakiya's spine was shattered by a bullet, and he landed the plane in Turkish Trabzon with his legs almost giving out. Planted...

Turkish authorities returned the passengers and the plane, but refused to hand over the hijackers. Pranas and Algirdas Brazinskas, after serving a short time in a Turkish prison, were released under an amnesty and moved to the United States. There they received new names, residence permits and a house in California. But it’s not for nothing that they say that God marks the rogue: in a quarrel, the younger Brazinskas killed his father, for which he received 16 years in prison.

The bestial nature of Nadya Kurchenko’s killers was fully revealed, but America was not even embarrassed. But the US authorities at one time ignored both the demands of the Soviet side to extradite the criminals and the letters of the crew members who remained disabled. Mother dead flight attendant Henrietta Ivanovna Kurchenko secured a meeting with President Reagan at the American Embassy. After which the US State Department announced that “US concerns about international terrorism do not apply to the case of the Brazinskas.” And then-Secretary of State Cyrus Vance declared the killers human rights activists.

Everything is stricter, and stricter, and stricter...

After the hijacking of the Batumi plane, the USSR took measures to improve security on board civilian aircraft. aircraft. For everyone passenger planes The doors to the crew cabins were strengthened and peepholes were installed. They started selling air tickets only using passports, and random luggage inspections were introduced at airports. Flights with routes near the state border were accompanied by police officers in plain clothes. The Soviet Union became the 120th member of ICAO and ratified the Hague Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft.

But on April 23, 1973, a new incident followed - this time with a Tu-104 en route from Leningrad to Moscow. The hijacker demanded to fly to Stockholm, and when trying to land at a Soviet airport, he activated explosive device. The hijacker and crew commander were killed, and the passengers were rescued from the burning plane.

After that incident, mandatory screening of passengers was introduced in civil aviation, and metal detectors appeared at airports. The hijacking of an aircraft began to be classified as an independent type of crime, for which they received 15 years in prison and even death penalty. To combat terrorism, on July 29, 1974, by order of KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov, a special unit was created - Group “A”.

And in the 1980-1990s, there was a new surge in air piracy in our country. We have even become a leader among European powers in this type of crime. And every time the flight attendants were the first to encounter the hijackers. Irina Viktorova is one of them.

“At Aeroflot, everyone knew the name Nadya Kurchenko, but I couldn’t imagine that something like that could happen to me,” Irina, who was a flight attendant at the Tbilisi air squad at that time, tells me. — In November 1983, our Tu-134 was en route to Batumi. On approach to Kutaisi we encountered a thunderstorm front, the commander decided to return. When I went out to inform the passengers about this, I saw a terrible picture. There was a guy with a grenade standing in the aisle. Another shot a pistol at the man sitting in front... As it later became known, seven hijackers from the Georgian “golden youth” registered in the deputy hall, bypassing the search. The bandits beat me up. They grabbed the flight attendant Valya and dragged her to the cockpit. The pilots saw her face through the peephole and opened the door. Navigator Vladimir Gasoyan opened fire to kill, and indiscriminate firing began. In this hell, fragile Valya pulled the wounded bandit away from the door and helped the pilots lock themselves in the cockpit. The crew miraculously managed to land the plane.

At the trial, the surviving hijackers were asked: “You are the children of wealthy parents—would you take tour packages and stay abroad.” The answer caused a shock: “And we wanted to fly away like the Brazinskas - with noise and shooting! Then we wouldn’t have been extradited...”

Nerves burn at work like this

But on March 18, 2005, Aeroflot flight attendant Anya Filatova was, one might say, lucky - like all 214 passengers flying on the Sydney-Tokyo-Moscow flight.

“We had already landed 15 kilometers from Sheremetyevo, and then the call light came on. I approached the passenger, the guy invited me to sit next to him. He shows there are explosives on his belt. Requires landing in Grozny. She reported to the commander, and she continued the conversation with the hijacker. Then I couldn’t remember what we talked about, how he reacted - such was the nervous tension. Fortunately, all ground and special services worked efficiently - the hijacker was neutralized. It turned out that he had a dummy bomb on his belt. But we seriously used up our nerves. That story came back to haunt me: a nervous breakdown, a hospital bed. I still sometimes dream about the eyes of that passenger...”

Instructions are instructions, but no one canceled courage

Today, much has been done in civil aviation to ensure that the tragedy of 45 years ago does not happen again. The pilot's cabin is securely reinforced, the door is always locked. Even a flight attendant can enter the cabin only after first contacting the crew. Well, what if a criminal managed to get on board and decide to hijack it? The official memo obliges the flight attendant to take additional measures to prevent the possible penetration of offenders into the pilot's cabin. To begin with, inform the commander of the situation in the cabin via intercom and attempt to convince the offenders that the crew is forced to fulfill their demands, so there is no need to enter there. Agree to hand over the note to the aircraft commander only if the offenders are in their places. In a detailed list of further necessary actions, in addition to instructions to distract and deter offenders from violence, they remind of the inevitability of criminal liability for this.

The instructions say nothing about personal courage. Apparently because our flight attendants take this quality for granted.

P.S. In Sukhumi they wanted to put that same An-24 on a pedestal in the park named after Nadezhda Kurchenko. But a difficult fate awaited that car. Aircraft No. 46586, having undergone major restoration at the Kiev Aircraft Repair Plant, later ended up in Soviet Uzbekistan. There he worked honestly on local tracks until 1997, after which he was cut up for scrap metal.

Exactly 45 years ago, our fellow countrywoman, flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko, set off on her last flight. In a battle with terrorists, she died while protecting the crew and passengers of the plane.

Forty-five years ago, on October 15, 1970, terrorists hijacked a passenger plane for the first time in the world. It happened in the Soviet Union in the sky above Black Sea coast Caucasus. The fragile one tried to shield the pilots from the angry armed bandit. young flight attendant- Nadezhda Kurchenko, a native of the Altai Territory. Amitel news agency suggests recalling the chronicle of these tragic events.

View from the ground

The An-24 took off from the Batumi airfield on October 15, 1970 at 12:30 p.m. Heading to Sukhumi. There were 46 passengers and five crew members on board the plane. The scheduled flight time is 25-30 minutes. But life has ruined both the schedule and the schedule.

Nine minutes into the flight, the plane veered sharply off course. The radio operators asked for the board, but there was no response. Communication with the control tower was interrupted. The plane was leaving towards nearby Turkey. Military and rescue boats went out to sea. Their captains received orders: to proceed at full speed to the site of a possible disaster.

The board did not respond to any of the requests. A few more minutes and the An-24 left USSR airspace. And in the sky above the Turkish coastal airfield of Trabzon, two rockets flashed - red, then green. It was an emergency landing signal. The plane touched the concrete pier of a foreign air harbor. Telegraph agencies around the world immediately reported: a Soviet passenger plane had been hijacked. The flight attendant was killed and some were wounded. All.

View from childhood

In the Soviet Union, the status of a flight attendant was only slightly lower than that of a film actress or pop singer. Plays were written about them, films were made, songs were dedicated to them. Nadya Kurchenko was born on December 29, 1950 in the Altai Territory.

Her childhood included dense forests near her native village of Novo-Poltava (Klyuchevsky district), excellent grades at school, a large and friendly company of peers. Later, Nadya’s family moved to the homeland of her mother, Henrietta Semyonovna, in the village of Ponino, Glazovsky district (Udmurtia).

After graduating from school, Nadya went to the distant southern city of Sukhumi, where she first began working in the airport accounting department, and when she turned 18, she began working as a flight attendant.

In the very first year of work, the first serious test came - a fire on board the aircraft and the need to land it with one engine. For the impeccable performance of her duties in an emergency, Nadezhda Kurchenko was awarded a personalized watch.

Nadezhda had many plans: entering law school, marrying her school friend Vladimir Borisenko. In May 1970, Nadezhda went on vacation to visit her relatives. We agreed that the wedding would take place on the November or New Year holidays. And on October 15, the girl went on her last flight.

View from an airplane

Ten minutes after takeoff, Brazinskas Sr., who was sitting next to the service compartment, called Nadezhda Kurchenko and ordered her to take an envelope with a note to the cockpit. The typewritten text contained a demand to change the route and a threat of death in case of disobedience. The geek with a weapon headed towards the cockpit, but a fragile flight attendant stood in his way.

Then the carnage began on the plane. The first bullet hit Nadya in the thigh. She pressed herself even tighter against the pilot's door. The terrorist tried to squeeze her throat. Nadya - knock the weapon out of his right hand. A stray bullet hit the ceiling.

Nadya fought back with her feet, hands, even her head. Struck by Nadya’s incredible resistance, enraged by his own powerlessness to cope with the wounded, bloodied, fragile girl, he, without aiming, without thinking for a second, fired at point-blank range and, throwing the desperate defender of the crew and passengers into the corner of a narrow passage, burst into the cabin.

The carnage continued among the pilots. Navigator Valery Fadeev and flight mechanic Hovhannes Babayan were wounded, and pilot Georgy Chakhrakiya had his spine shattered by a bullet. The wounded pilots landed the plane in nearby Turkish Trabzon. Later, investigators counted 42 bullets fired.

The Turkish authorities were lenient towards the hijackers - after serving a short sentence and being released under an amnesty, they moved to the United States, but that’s a completely different story.

Afterword

Nadezhda Kurchenko was buried in Sukhumi in the uniform of a flight attendant and with a Komsomol badge; 20 years later, at the request of her mother, the ashes were reburied in Glazov. A tanker, the peak of the Gissar ridge and a planet in the constellation Capricorn were named after Nadezhda. In addition, after the death of flight attendant Kurchenko, the rules for passenger safety during air travel were radically changed and the norms of international laws against air terrorism were tightened.

It seems that the sky itself decided to put an end to the celestial tragedy. At the beginning of 2002, news agency reports flashed a message that in Santa Monica, California, 46-year-old Albert Victor White killed his father with a baseball bat. Albert turned out to be the former Algirdas, the murdered one was the ex-Pranas. Now Brazinskas Sr. is in the grave, the younger one is in prison.