The largest air crashes in the USSR: history, description, statistics and list. A woman who survived a plane crash in the USSR

Air accidents happen relatively infrequently, but each of them excites society in a special way. This is not surprising, because in them instantly dozens and hundreds of people die. In this regard, the Soviet Union was no exception. Let us consider the largest air crashes in the USSR, learn their details and statistics of the victims.

List of Disasters

How many plane crashes were in the USSR? If we take into account even the smallest ones that do without victims, then their number will be very large, and it is unlikely that it can be calculated at all. We will dwell on the most famous and major crashes. The list of air crashes in the USSR is as follows:

• The disaster at Tiflis (1925);
• Crash at the Central Aerodrome of Moscow (1935);
• The death of the Air Force command in Sverdlovsk (1950);
• Plane crash in Vurnar district (1958);
• The catastrophe near Krasnoyarsk (1962);
• The catastrophe in Sverdlovsk (1967);
• The collision of aircraft over the Kaluga Region (1969);
• The catastrophe in Svetlogorsk (1972);
• Crash in the Kharkiv region (1972);
• Plane crash near Nersky Lake (1972);
• The catastrophe near Leningrad (1974);
• The death of the Pakhtakor team (1979);
• A clash over Zavitinsky (1981);
• A catastrophe at the Omsk airport (1984);
• Plane crash above Lvov (1985);
• The disaster near Uchkuduk (1985);
• A catastrophe at the Kurumoch airport (1986);
• Crash in the Irkutsk region (1989).

This list includes not only the biggest wreck in terms of the number of victims, but also the most resonant ones. Of course, the number of air crashes in the USSR was much greater, but we will be able to detail only the above-mentioned tragedies.

The First Catastrophe

The largest catastrophe in the USSR opens the collapse of the passenger aircraft Junkers F 13, which happened near Tiflis in Georgia in 1925. It is from him that one can start counting aviation tragedies in the Soviet state.

This flight followed from the capital of Georgia to Sukhum. On board the aircraft were two crew members and three passengers flying on an assignment. 15 minutes after take-off Junkers F13 suddenly caught fire. Two of the passengers made a desperate leap, but crashed to death. The remaining passengers were killed by an explosion that occurred when the plane collided with the ground.

The reliable cause of the fire could not be established, but, according to one version, it happened because one of the passengers threw a burning match on the floor.

Of course, the scale of this event in terms of the number of victims is much inferior to the catastrophes that we will talk about in the future, but nevertheless it is precisely this aviation crash that can be called the first in the USSR.

A catastrophe at the Moscow airport

The largest air crashes in the USSR continue the tragedy that occurred in May 1935 in the area of Moscow's airfield, which was in the village of Sokol. It was then that the pilot Nikolai Balagin, flying his fighter, crashed into the ANT-20 airliner Maxim Gorky. In addition to himself, 11 people died from the crew of the passenger plane and 38 passengers. Although there are also alternative data that the passengers were 50. Thus, the total number of victims ranged from 49 to 62 people.

The verdict of the investigation was unambiguous - the pilot's mistake.

The death of the Air Force team

Discussing air crashes in Russia and the USSR, one can not help recalling the death of the players of the Air Force hockey club in early January 1950, flying from Moscow to Chelyabinsk for a meeting with the local team. The flight took place in rather severe meteorological conditions, which was one of the reasons for the tragedy. Another reason was the problems in the organization of the dispatching service, first of all letting in "their" planes, and the Li-2, which was flying the Air Force command, was in the air for a long time, waiting for permission to land.

Thus, the statistics of air crashes in the USSR was replenished with nineteen more victims, of which 8 were crew members and 11 were team players.

The wreck in Vurnar district

Like other major air crashes in Russia and the USSR, the tragedy in Vurnar district will remain for a long time in the memory of people, especially the relatives of the dead. It happened near the village Bulatovo Chuvashka ASSR in October 1958.

The Tu-104A plane transported a delegation of Chinese party leaders from Omsk to Moscow, but at the point of arrival due to poor meteorological conditions the crew of the airliner was denied boarding. A similar situation was repeated in Gorky. Therefore, the crew decided to fly to Sverdlovsk. But this decision provided for a drastic change of course. When this complicated maneuver was carried out, the aircraft got into the strongest airflow, which caused it to go into a dive, which caused a collision with the earth's surface.

As a result of the crash, 9 crew members and 71 passengers were killed.

The tragedy near Krasnoyarsk

Of course, all the plane crashes in Russia and the USSR are a huge disaster, but among the others there is a tragedy near Krasnoyarsk in June 1962. It differed from the others in that it was not the pilot's or controller's fault, not the aircraft's malfunction, and not the meteorological conditions, but the missile's antiaircraft missile that was the cause.

It is noteworthy that the cause of the crash of the Tu-104 aircraft, which flew from Irkutsk to Omsk, remained a mystery. Only when inspecting the parts of the airliner at the site of the crash was it possible to detect damage to the fuselage shell. And the hole was on the outside. Only later it became clear that military exercises were near , and due to poor meteorological conditions, one of the anti-aircraft missiles lost its original purpose and retargeted to the Tu-104.

The result of this tragedy was the death of eight crew members and 76 passengers. By the number of victims there was not until such a major air crash in the USSR.

Air crash in Sverdlovsk

Another tragic record was made in 1967 near Sverdlovsk, where the passenger airliner Il-18 crashed. In this crash killed 99 passengers and 8 people from the crew. And again, all the plane crashes in the USSR that happened before, could not be compared in terms of the number of victims with this one.

The cause of the tragedy was not established reliably. The plane crashed into the ground at high speed, and as a result it crashed into many fragments. However, there were advanced versions of the technical malfunction of the device.

Catastrophe over the Kaluga Region

Of course, mentioning the biggest air crashes in Russia and the USSR, one can not fail to pay attention to the collapse of Yukhnov in 1969. After all, this was the largest catastrophe in the Soviet Union in terms of the number of casualties among those that happened as a result of a collision between two aircraft. In addition, it was the largest wreck in the territory of the Kaluga region.

The catastrophe was caused by the collision of the Il-14M airliner and the An-12BP military transport aircraft. The result of this tragic event was the death of 24 people on board a passenger and 96 people aboard a military aircraft. Including 5 crew members of both air vehicles were killed.

The cause of the accident was the violation by both crews of the parameters of a given altitude.

Tragedy in Svetlogorsk

Among the other aviation disasters that occurred in the Soviet Union, it should be noted the tragedy of 1972 in the city of Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region. It was then that the An-24T military transport aircraft, having made a scheduled flight, crashed. The tragedy of this event is that when the plane fell, it fell on the kindergarten. As a result, not only all 8 crew members were killed, but also three employees of the pre-school and 24 children. The total number of victims of the tragedy was 34 people.

Although the authorities tried to hide this tragic incident, but, nevertheless, an event of this scale could not but become public. The investigation was conducted in strict secrecy, and its results were announced only in 2010, that is, after the collapse of the USSR. According to the conclusion, the reason for the tragedy was the unsatisfactory preparation of the pilots. But no criminal case in connection with this event was ever open, although several dozen high-ranking military servicemen were removed from their posts.

Given that the cause of the tragedy was a military aircraft, this event can be recorded in military aircraft crashes in the USSR.

Accident in the Kharkov region

Another major catastrophe occurred in 1972 in the Kharkov region near the village of Russian Lozovaya. It was there that the An-10 passenger plane crashed on the Moscow-Kharkov route. The consequences of this crash were rather tragic - 122 people were killed, of which - 7 crew members.

The investigation found that the cause of the disaster were technical flaws in the structure of the aircraft. Therefore, the An-10 airliners were soon decommissioned.

Air crash near Moscow

Another major catastrophe, which occurred in the same 1972, was the crash of an IL-62 aircraft that flew from Paris to Moscow, near Nersky Lake at the approach to landing at the final point of its flight. The result of this tragedy was the death of 164 passengers and 10 crew members. At that time it was the largest air crash that happened in Russia. At the moment, according to the death toll, she was able to surpass only the tragedy in Omsk in 1984.

The investigation did not reveal the exact causes of the disaster, but one of the main versions is considered to be the incorrect installation of the altimeter.

The wreck near Leningrad

The statistics of air crashes in the USSR and Russia would be incomplete without mentioning the crash of the Il-18V airliner near Leningrad in 1974. By the way, it became the largest aviation disaster that occurred in the vicinity of this second largest city of the Soviet Union.

The plane was traveling on the flight Leningrad - Zaporozhye, and only departed from its point of departure, as he caught fire on the engine. The crew tried to return the airliner to the airport, but during the landing the fire only increased, the pilots lost control of the control, and the plane crashed. The cause of the accident was a fault in the engine. At the same time, the professionalism of the crew's pilots was noted, which acted in accordance with the instructions and did everything possible to prevent the tragedy.

As a result of this disaster, 102 passengers and 7 crew members were killed. The total number of victims was 109 people.

The death of the football team Pakhtakor

Any air crash causes a significant response, but it especially disturbs the public when famous people, artists, sportsmen die in it. This happened in 1979, when as a result of the collision of two Tu-134 planes over Dneprodzerzhinsk, almost all the members of the football team of the USSR Supreme League Pakhtakor from Tashkent were killed. But even without this, there was not a single plane crash in the USSR, so large in terms of the number of victims. As a result of this tragedy, a total of 178 people lost their lives from both aircraft, 17 of them were Pakhtakor team and 13 crew members of airliners. None of the crashes in the history of the Soviet Union before knew so many victims. In addition, this catastrophe still occupies the second place in the world in terms of the number of deaths as a result of the collision of two airliners.

According to the conclusions of the official investigation, the reason for such a large-scale tragedy was the dispatcher's mistake.

Survived

Of course, the collision of two aircraft over Zavitinsky in 1981 was unlikely to fall into the list: "The largest air crashes of the USSR." It is remarkably different. It is with this event that the only woman who survived a plane crash in the USSR is connected. It was she who made this tragedy famous throughout the world.

Larisa Savitskaya, that is the so-called survivor in a plane crash in the USSR, returned with her husband from a wedding trip to her native Blagoveshchensk by an An-24 plane. The tragedy occurred at an altitude of over 5000 meters, when the airliner collided with a Tu-16 military aircraft. Then, the official cause of the disaster will be the inconsistency between civilian and military dispatch services.

During the collision of aircraft Savitskaya slept, and she awoke from a strong shock and a burn from frost due to depressurization of the hull. Part of the plane where the woman who survived the air crash in the USSR was, fell into a birch landing, which in some way softened the fall. In addition, she was lucky that she was in the tail of the plane, least affected by the crash.

Nevertheless, due to the fall, Larisa Savitskaya received a severe concussion, lost almost all her teeth, suffered several spinal injuries, and fractures of limbs and ribs, but still she remained alive and could even move about. But since the place of the fall of this part of the aircraft was quite far from the settlements, Larisa rescuers found only two days later.

Thus, she is the only survivor in a plane crash. In the USSR, information about this clash for a long time was hiding. Larisa Savitskaya became famous all over the world only in 2000, when all the details of the incident were revealed.

There was only one case like this. In 1972, a man escaped from a height of more than 10,000 meters, after an airplane exploded. This person was Yugoslav Vesna Vulovich - a flight attendant who survived the plane crash. The USSR did not know such precedents before the case with Savitskaya, who fell from a height exceeding 5000 meters. This woman became the only one of 38 people who were on board both aircraft, which was able to survive in the crash over Zavitinsky.

Tragedy in Omsk

The tragedy that occurred at the Omsk airport in 1984 has a number of details that distinguish it from among similar incidents. The fact that it occurred not in the air, but on the ground, is a distinguishing feature of this air crash. In the USSR, this happened infrequently. In addition, the number of victims of this tragedy is the largest of those that occurred in Russia.

As a result of the collision of the Tu-154 airliner, landing, with snow-removing vehicles, 169 passengers and 4 crew members were killed. One passenger and five crew members managed to survive.

Catastrophe near Lviv

Listing the largest air crashes of the USSR, we should mention the tragedy that happened in 1985 in the Lviv region, in Ukraine. After the catastrophes near Kharkov and Dneprodzerzhinsk this was the largest wreck in the number of casualties that occurred on the territory of this Soviet republic.

The cause of the catastrophe was the clash of the An-26 military transport aircraft and the Tu-134A airliner, which flew from Tallinn to Chisinau with a landing in Lviv. As a result of the incident that happened in the immediate vicinity of the town of Zolochiv, Lviv region, 79 civil aircraft and 9 military passengers were killed, as well as six crew members from each aircraft. There were no survivors, and the total number of victims was 94 people.

As a result of the investigation it was found that the cause of the crash was the error of the dispatchers.

The tragedy near Uchkuduk

As you can see, major air crashes in Russia and the USSR happened quite often, but the most significant of them is the crash near Uchkuduk on the territory of the Uzbek SSR. This happened in 1985, at the last stage of the existence of the country of the Soviets. No catastrophe in the Soviet Union had such a large number of dead people. The total number of casualties totaled 200 people, of which 191 passengers and 9 crew members.

The reason for the tragedy was that during the flight from Karshi to Leningrad, the crew of the Tu-154 airliner lost control, resulting in the plane falling into a tailspin and fell. According to the official version of the investigation, the main part of the blame for the incident lies on the pilots who deviated from the standards, gaining the maximum height, and then could not manage the control in an abnormal situation.

The wreck in Kuibyshev

Another major catastrophe at the end of the Soviet Union was the crash of the Tu-134 aircraft at the airport of Kuibyshev-Kurumoch. The tragedy of this event is aggravated by the fact that it was due to the pilot's disdain for his duties. He argued with the crew that he could land the airliner blindly. This attempt was extremely unsuccessful. The criminal negligence of commander Alexander Klyuyev killed 70 people. Only 24 of the 94 crew members and passengers survived.

The pilot himself survived and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. But later this term was revised and replaced by six years imprisonment.

Catastrophe in the Irkutsk Region

The last major air catastrophe that occurred on the territory of the USSR can be considered a tragedy that occurred in 1989 in the Irkutsk region. Then there was a collision of a passenger aircraft Yak-40, flying from Irkutsk to Zheleznogorsk, with a military Mi-8 helicopter. As a result of the crash, 33 people were killed on board the aircraft, and 7 soldiers flew by helicopter.

The investigation showed that the cause of the disaster, as has been the case more than once, was the inconsistency of the actions of civil and military air traffic controllers.

This was the last major air crash in the country, which by that time was already suffering the largest geopolitical catastrophe.

Conclusion

Of course, all air crashes in Russia and the USSR are tragic in their own way, but we tried to focus on the most ambitious or resonant ones. But, of course, this list of eighteen tragedies does not pretend to be completely objective, and every reader can add to it the plane crash that occurred in the Soviet Union, the scale of which considers it worthy of it.

At the same time, one should not forget: despite the fact that at the moment there is no such state as the USSR, aviation crashes continue to take away the lives of our compatriots. The memory of each such tragedy, regardless of its scale, must always live in the hearts of the people.