The bodies of those 154 dead were wearing life jackets. What conditions do you have to work under?
A storm has begun. Armchair experts on the Internet claim that after a storm it will only be easier for divers to work - the water itself will wash many things ashore. Those professionals who are now examining the sunken TU-154 think differently. Bad weather, on the contrary, will confuse all the cards. The head of the search and rescue unit of the southern regional search and rescue team of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Vyacheslav Ivashchenko, told Komsomolskaya Pravda about how the search for the crashed plane is going on.
- Under what conditions do you have to work?
Almost ideal. The plane lies on a large underwater field. The depth is approximately the same everywhere - about 25 meters. That is, you can search during the day without special lighting; natural conditions are enough. The bottom is solid sandstone. There is almost no silt or dirt.
- And what can you find?
Large parts of the aircraft, small ones, some personal items. If we manage to find electronic devices - phones, tablets - they are immediately taken upstairs. Then they are sent for examination. Yesterday we lifted an aircraft engine weighing three tons from the bottom. There are also fragments of bodies (according to data, as of 18:40 on December 28, the remains of 16 people were found - Author)
Divers working underwater at the Tu-154 crash site.
- Are there any whole bodies?
Alas. This happens when you hit the water hard. The dead are literally torn apart. I saw something similar during the Armenian Airlines Airbus crash 10 years ago. Also near Adler. The injuries are similar.
(Recall that information appeared in the media that the bodies of the dead were found without clothes. Now it is clear why. By the way, the data that the passengers were wearing life jackets was also not confirmed.)
- How do you look for fragments at the bottom?
An anchor is lowered from a ship to the surface. I tie myself to it with a rope and begin to swim slowly in a circle. Then the rope lengthens, and I swim in a larger circle. The bottom is searched using such divergent trajectories. Small objects are tied with a rope and lifted by partners in the boat on the surface. Large aircraft parts are pulled out using a crane. I indicate the coordinates, a ship or barge with a lift floats on the surface. Then the find is tied with slings and lifted.
- What is more: personal belongings or aircraft parts?
90% - fuselage elements. Passengers' belongings are rarely found.
- They say the storm will help you.
No. The storm will shake everything at the bottom. Something may shift to already tested areas. In addition, now everything is clearly visible under water. And after the storm, the clouds will rise and work will become much more difficult.
- Is it psychologically difficult to swim underwater and find remains?
You need to set yourself up correctly. I focus on the idea that there is difficult but important work to be done. Return their loved ones to the relatives. Only I can do this. There will be no others. This kind of motivation helps.
- Are there any tricks to relax after work and reboot?
I return to my family, play with the children, and just try not to think about what lies at the bottom. Again, I remind myself that I don’t have an ordinary profession where anything can happen.
Vyacheslav Ivashchenko said that the divers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations work hard all day long. They go out to sea in the morning, when it begins to get light, and return to shore only in the evening when the sun sets. But even so, each submariner manages to work no more than two hours. The rest of the time is spent on diving and ascent, preparing equipment and refilling oxygen cylinders.
PHOTO REPORT
Rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations lift the wreckage of a Tu-154 from the bottom of the Black Sea
HELP "KP"
45 ships are participating in the search operation, 15 deep-sea vehicles, 192 divers, 12 aircraft and five helicopters. A self-propelled crane arrived in the area of the plane crash to lift large debris.
About one and a half thousand fragments of the aircraft were discovered. On this moment managed to bring one third to the surface. Another 12 large pieces of debris were discovered. One of them is two by three meters, the second is about five meters long, the third is more than 60 meters long.
MEANWHILE
The main phase of the search for the wreckage of the crashed Tu-154 has ended
“The active phase of the search operation in the Black Sea has been completed,” the source said. The search group recovered almost all the fragments of the Tu-154 from the bottom of the sea. The group of ships that took part in the operation left the Black Sea
BY THE WAY
Rescuers from the Tu-154 crash site: The dead have the same injuries as the victims of the 2006 disaster
Since the day of the Tu-154 crash, rescuers have been working non-stop at the crash site in the Black Sea. They are raising from the bottom the bodies of the dead and the wreckage of the plane, on board at the time of the crash there were 92 people - crew members, artists of the ensemble named after. Alexandrova, journalists and Dr. Lisa.
Our photojournalist Vladimir Velengurin observes with his own eyes how divers work and how the search operation is progressing
ALL PHOTOS
The Ministry of Defense clarified the number of people on board the Tu-154 that crashed into the Black Sea: 84 passengers and 8 crew members flew to the Khmeimim base on this flight, a total of 92 people ( LIST passengers). The wreckage of the plane was found off the coast at a depth of up to 110 m. On board were musicians of the Alexandrov ensemble and journalists. Three television channels reported that they sent film crews to Syria on this flight: Channel One, NTV and Zvezda. Among the dead is a doctor Elizaveta Glinka, which was transporting medicines to Syria.
14:03. Putin promises a thorough investigation into the causes of the disaster and assistance to the relatives of the victims. The President will hold a meeting in St. Petersburg with the leader of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.
14:00. In Moscow, flowers are brought to the building of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble named after Alexandrov, as well as from the building where the Fair Aid Foundation of Elizaveta Glinka was located.
11:33. A representative of the ensemble told Meduza that the concert in Syria was supposed to take place in Aleppo.
11:31. Military expert Alexander Golts told Open Russia that it is pointless to talk about the cause of the disaster until the “black boxes” are found: “But, of course, it is very alarming that the Russian authorities immediately began to deny the version of the terrorist attack.”
11:23. Drones joined the search operation, the Ministry of Defense reported. Four ships and five helicopters are participating in it, said official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense Igor Konashenkov on the Rossiya-24 channel.
11:20. The head of the Human Rights Council, Mikhail Fedotov, confirmed the death of Elizaveta Glinka: according to him, she was transporting medicines to the university hospital in Latakia. “We hoped for a miracle until the last moment,” he told Interfax. An obituary was published on the HRC website, but it went down.
11:13. At the Chkalovsky airport in Adler, the FSB is checking those involved in the flight, Fontanka claims. According to the St. Petersburg publication, “they are working on a terrorist attack.”
11:08. Up to seven bodies were found at the crash site, an Interfax source said.
11:05. The TASS Investigative Committee reported that a group of experienced investigators was sent to the crash site. On behalf of the head of the department, Alexander Bastrykin, the case was transferred to the Central Office of the Investigative Committee.
11:02. An Interfax source reported that the plane was in good working order and passed all scheduled checks. The interlocutor said that although the aircraft was produced 33 years ago, it was operated in a gentle manner: “On average, the aircraft flew 27 hours per month.”
10:59. The Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that six vessels are operating in the area of the wreck, and three more are being deployed. The wreckage was found 6 km from coastline, the depth here is from 80 to 110 meters.
10:41. The Ministry of Defense published a list of passengers. There are 64 employees of the Alexandrov Ensemble, 9 media employees, 8 crew members, 8 military personnel, two federal civil servants, one employee of the Fair Aid organization - Elizaveta Glinka.
10:37. An operational headquarters has been created in Sochi, where they promise to help the relatives of the victims, TASS reports. The Moscow City Hall also intends to provide support. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote about this on his Twitter.
10:35. Elizaveta Glinka was not on board, an Interfax source said. At the same time, the agency reports that she was on the passenger list.
10:33. NTV sound engineer Evgeniy Tolstov before takeoff from airport near Moscow Chkalovsky posted on Facebook
Rescuers are constantly working at the site of his fall in the Black Sea. They are raising from the bottom the bodies of the dead and the wreckage of the plane, on board at the time of the crash there were 92 people - crew members, artists of the ensemble named after. Alexandrova, journalists and Dr. Lisa.
Our photojournalist Vladimir Velengurin observes with his own eyes how the divers work and how the search operation is progressing.
In the first days there was information that some passengers managed to put on life jackets. That is, they were preparing for the fall. But not a single victim whose body was lifted was wearing a life jacket, reports Vladimir Velingurin from the search site.
Also among the employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations there are experienced rescuers who worked on the crash of the plane of the Armenian airline Armavia in 2006. That disaster occurred approximately in the same place when the airliner was landing.
Those killed in that accident and this one have very similar injuries, rescuers tell our correspondent. - The bodies were badly damaged, which can only be from a powerful blow to the water. There are very few complete bodies, mostly fragments. There are also no traces of fire on the bodies, meaning there was most likely no explosion.
Dozens of divers and an inhabited underwater bathyscaphe of the Russian Geographical Society are working at the crash site around the clock.
Here on December 27, during the morning formation, the head of the combined detachment of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Agafonov, congratulated all employees on their professional holiday.
But we’ll celebrate later, but now there’s hard work ahead,” said Alexander Agafonov.
READ ALSO
The last words of the crew of the crashed Tu-154: “Flaps, s...ka! Commander, we are falling!
The main flight recorder (also called the “black box”) of the Tu-154 Ministry of Defense aircraft that crashed near Sochi on Sunday was discovered by the Falcon remote-controlled underwater vehicle on December 27. An underwater robot found it 1,600 meters from the shore at a depth of 17 meters. ()
MEANWHILE
An eyewitness to the Tu-154 crash: The plane began to descend quickly and strangely, as if it was landing on water
An employee of the coast guard of the FSB border troops witnessed the crash of a Tu-154 plane in the Black Sea. At the time of the tragedy, he was on a boat at sea in the waters of Sochi and saw how the board, instead of gaining altitude, began to quickly descend towards the surface of the sea, as if it was about to land on it
EXPERT OPINIONS
Expert on the last words of the Tu-154 crew: “It turns out that this disaster occurred due to equipment failure”
Andrey Litvinov, 1st class pilot, A-320 commander:
Or this is a violation of the plane’s alignment, and one of the crew members shouts: “flaps.” What does he mean? Maybe: there is no need to retract the flaps, since the nose of the plane lifts up, and in this case it is necessary not only not to retract them, but, on the contrary, to extend them further in order to increase the lifting force. Or another version: the crew began to retract the flaps, but they were not retracted synchronously
An expert talks about the last words of the Tu-154 crew: “Perhaps the flaps have nothing to do with it, but the problem is in the fuel system”
Former commander of front-line aviation of the Russian Air Force, Colonel General Nikolai Antoshkin:
Something has broken there. Maybe it jammed, maybe it didn’t work. Even if the flaps are extended on one wing, but not on the other, this is not such a terrible problem for the aircraft
PHOTO REPORT
Rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations lift the wreckage of a Tu-154 from the bottom of the Black Sea
It also became known that several passengers who were on the crashed liner were wearing life jackets. RIA Novosti reports this with reference to a source familiar with the progress of the search and rescue services operation. “People in vests were preparing to evacuate,” said the agency’s unnamed interlocutor. The Russian Ministry of Defense denied this message and called it “shameful insinuations.”
ON THIS TOPIC
Nevertheless, information about the passengers of the ill-fated flight who managed to put on life jackets may speak in favor of one of the main versions being considered by the investigation. Most likely, immediately after takeoff from the ground, an emergency situation related to a technical malfunction of the aircraft began to develop instantly and suddenly for everyone. From the official version announced by the authorities, it follows that the airliner disappeared from radar screens two minutes after takeoff. Only a well-trained person can take the vest out from under the chair, unfold it, put it on and fasten it in such a short time. In addition, according to those who have flown on similar aircraft of the Ministry of Defense, before the flight they do not instruct passengers on life-saving equipment due to the fact that the flights are not served by flight attendants.
If we assume that everyone who was on board at the time of the disaster has flown on airplanes more than once and knows how to use a life jacket, then from whom did they receive information that they urgently need to put them on? During daylight hours during takeoff, passengers sitting near the windows may see that the plane begins to roll or sharply lose altitude. But the Tu-154 took off from Sochi airport in complete darkness.
The signal to use the vests, of course, could have been given by the aircraft commander, but for several minutes from takeoff to climb, the engines operate at maximum takeoff mode, and the noise from them will simply prevent you from clearly hearing any commands over the loudspeaker. In addition, this version is destroyed by the same official information that the plane crew did not report anything to the ground services about the emergency on board. And the captain of the ship had to first notify the dispatcher about the incident, and then give the command to the passengers to put on vests.
Participants in numerous aviation forums on the Internet also dismiss the version of life jackets on Tu-154 passengers as fantastic.
On Monday, search and rescue operations continued off the Black Sea coast, where the Ministry of Defense Tu-154 plane crashed. About four thousand people are involved in the operation. The airliner crashed on December 25 near Sochi. There were 92 people on board - eight crew members and 84 passengers.
