When the Soviet Navy Lost 16 Admirals in a Single Accident: The Tu-104 Crash at Pushkin

February 7, 1981. The Tupolev Tu-104 of the 25th Naval Aviation Division of the Soviet Pacific Fleet lined up on the main runway of the Pushkin military airfield and prepared for takeoff. It was a normal winter day with a slight crosswind and a little snow, but nothing bad enough to cancel the flight. As soon as permission to take off was granted, the plane began to fly and soon rose into the air. But just 8 seconds after the plane took off, the Tu-104 suddenly

crash

ed into the ground 1,500 meters from the end of the runway. The massive explosion that followed left no survivors among those on board the plane.

For the Soviet Tupolev Tu-104 aircraft, the disaster at the Pushkin airfield was the last

accident

in their history, after which they were permanently withdrawn from service. But the main reason why the tragedy at the Pushkin airfield went down in history was not because it had ended the career of the first Soviet commercial airliner, but because this

single

accident

had almost completely decapitated the Soviet Pacific Fleet. That day, in just a few seconds, the Soviet Navy

lost

16

admirals

and generals, including the commander of the Pacific Fleet himself. Whether you like it or not, people who serve in the military are not exactly the same.

At least not in the way we have become accustomed to in civil organizations. In essence, the Armed Forces, regardless of the country, are a strong hierarchical system and a person's value within the system is reflected in his or her military rank. Sure, there will always be some exceptions, but as a general rule, higher-ranking officers possess higher-level skills and experience, making them more valuable compared to lower-ranking military officers. Thus, for the Armed Forces, the loss of high-ranking officers is always an exceptional event since the effect of such a loss will always have a negative, if not devastating, effect.

But it is one thing

when

commanders are

lost

due to enemy actions, such as the death of Isoroku Yamomoto as a result of the US Army Air Force's exceptional operation, and quite another

when

the enemy has no nothing to do with him. And it may make a little difference if the reason was due to bad weather, human error, or a freak accident. Such as the death of Romanian Major General Alexandru Ioanitiu, who was walking around the airfield waiting for his plane to be ready and, while he was lost in thought, accidentally stepped on the plane's rotating propeller.

But arguably nothing can compare to the accident that occurred in the Soviet Union in 1981, when a

single

plane

crash

killed 44 Navy servicemen, including the commander of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, Admiral Emil Spiridonov. The terrible accident itself was already a huge blow to the Soviet Navy, but discovering the reasons that caused it simply doubled the impact of the tragedy itself. On February 1, 1981, high-ranking officers of the main Soviet fleets arrived in Leningrad for an annual general meeting. Throughout the following week, fleet commanders reported on the current status and readiness of their fleets to fight the evil capitalist bloodsuckers.

Based on the reports, Soviet Fleet Admiral Sergei Gorshkov noted that among all Soviet fleets the highest level of skill and competence was demonstrated by the command of the Pacific Fleet. As this was one of the most important and powerful fleets of the Soviet Navy, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Spiridonov, and his officers received Admiral Gorshkov's personal thanks for such outstanding service. Being recognized by the commander-in-chief himself was a great honor, so the officers of the Pacific Fleet, despite the upcoming long flight to Vladivostok, in the far east of the Soviet Union, were in high spirits.

Although Pushkin was a military airfield, on February 7 the airport's departure area was a bit crowded: Navy

admirals

, army generals, and several Communist Party officials were still there enthusiastically discussing the results of the General Assembly at the who participated. A special outdoor area, free of snow, had even been prepared for them so that they could better observe the departing planes. According to eyewitnesses, everything that day seemed quite normal. Except perhaps the takeoff roll of the Pacific Fleet's Tu-104, which seemed to last a little longer than usual, but the plane eventually took off. But as they later recalled, the plane, instead of slowly decreasing in size as it normally would as it moved away from the airfield, suddenly hung ominously in the blue sky like a huge cross.

And then, rolling to the right, he crashed to the ground. A huge explosion in the sky followed: the plane's fuel tanks were fully loaded for the long flight and 30 tons of jet fuel, after exploding, burned fiercely for another hour. The crowd in the departure area rushed through the deep snow to the crash site, but the strong flames did not allow them to approach the wreckage and help the passengers and crew in any way. Only one person was found in the snow after being thrown out of the cabin through the plane's nose glass. Unfortunately, the severity of his injuries left him no chance of survival and he died on the way to the hospital.

All 50 people on board died in the plane crash, including 12 colonels and first-rank captains, as well as 16 admirals and generals, including the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Emil Spiridonov. At first it was simply impossible to believe what had happened. To better understand the scope of the tragedy, during all the years of World War II, the USSR lost only 4 admirals. 6 years of war and 4 admirals. And here, in the blink of an eye, 16. In a single moment, the Soviet Navy lost almost the entire command of the Pacific Fleet. It was an incredible loss for the Soviet Navy and the first reaction at Headquarters was: it's a war!

The Soviets decided that the plane was destroyed as a result of the enemy's special operation to kill all commanding officers so that the Pacific Fleet could not stop the powerful attack that was obviously coming soon. Then, the next moment all Soviet military units in the Pacific were put on high alert, ready to engage the enemy. But time passed and the enemy did not arrive. While the Pacific Fleet awaited combat and the soldiers of the Pushkin airfield guard searched the nearby forests and fields for top-secret documents that could have flown from the crash site, the command of the Soviet Navy realized more and more clearly that the possibility of the enemy taking the explosives to the heavily guarded military airfield, where each soldier went through a thorough verification process, was extremely low.

The conclusion was then reached that if the plane crash was not due to external actions, it was from within and then due to internal sabotage. One of our people caused the accident. Someone who would benefit from the death of the commander of the Pacific Fleet. To take his place, for example. But who? All of Admiral Spiridonov's aides died with him in the plane crash. Or did they? Checking the passenger list, it was suddenly discovered that Vice Admiral Rudolf Golosov, Chief of the General Staff of the Pacific Fleet and the first candidate to replace Admiral Spiridonov, was not on board the crashed plane.

It turned out that at the last moment Rudolf Golosov refused to fly with Admiral Spiridonov and the rest of the officers. Was it because Golosov knew the plane would crash? And where is he? Admiral Golosov did not board the plane, but he could not be found at Pushkin airport. For a moment it seemed that the investigators had detected a promising trail. Although Vice Admiral Golosov did not travel on the plane to Vladivostok, it quickly became clear that he had nothing to do with the accident. The fact is that Rudolf Golosov, before being transferred to the Pacific Fleet, served for some time under the command of the Northern Fleet, and his daughter still lived there with her family.

Taking advantage of the fact that he was attending the meeting in Leningrad, the vice admiral asked his commander, Admiral Spiridonov, for permission long before the trip to visit his daughter during the weekend after the meeting and then return to Vladivostok on the commercial flight. Admiral Spiridonov responded that everything would depend on the results of the General Assembly and that he would then give his decision. As the meeting was a great success, Spiridonov allowed Golosov to visit his daughter, but their last conversation took place just a couple of hours before the disaster and that is why Vice Admiral Golosov was still on the passenger list.

On the morning of February 7, Golosov flew to Murmansk together with the command of the Northern Fleet, not even realizing that this had saved his life. As he later recalled in his book, while traveling four hours to the small town to meet his daughter, a police car caught up with him and asked him to immediately return to the Northern Fleet headquarters. Golosov spoke with Admiral Gorshkov by phone and was greatly surprised when he learned that all of his comrades had died in the plane crash. The surprise was no less when his friend, who worked in counterintelligence, later told him privately that for some time Golosov had been seriously considered a suspect in the death of the Pacific Fleet command.

But if the enemy had nothing to do with the accident and was not sabotaged, what was it then: a plane malfunction? Human error? But that would be impossible since Soviet pilots do not make mistakes and Soviet planes are the most reliable in the world. At least officially. But the data from the plane's black box seemed to flatly ignore the wishes of Soviet propaganda. From the point of view of safety and reliability, the Tupolev Tu-104, which the Pacific Fleet command used to fly, was certainly not the best option, to put it mildly. Very softly. Developed in record time, the first Soviet airliner, the Tupolev Tu-104, was, of course, an enormous technological achievement for the Soviet Union.

But the rush to development, driven more by political than rational decisions, meant the plane had a long list of defects. Of course, when building something that is the first of its kind, mistakes are almost inevitable. That's just a normal part of technological progress. But the problem was that, being fully aware of all the defects of the Tu-104 and the terrible accident rate of the plane, in fact the worst among all Soviet commercial airliners that ever existed, the Soviet government stubbornly refused to withdraw the service plane. Although production of the aircraft was canceled in 1960, the Tupolev Tu-104 continued to fly for more than 20 years, periodically increasing the number of fatalities.

The final straw for civil aviation was the plane disaster in March 1979, when another Tu-104 crashed not far from Moscow and the plane was withdrawn from service. But not completely. The Soviet Army decided to keep its Tu-104s. But the point is that the military Tu-104s used in the early 1980s, from a technological perspective, differed little or nothing from those of the late 1950s, when those aircraft were built and put into service. Poor radio and navigation equipment, multiple technological flaws and heavy controls, the Tupolev Tu-104 has always been a difficult aircraft to fly, the safety of which largely depended not on the performance of the aircraft itself, but on the skills and experience of any crew in particular. .

Returning to the Pushkin disaster, perhaps at that time it was difficult to find a better option for the old Tu-104 than that of Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Inyushin: more than 8,000 flight hours in total, almost 6,000 of which were in the Tupolev Tu -104. The experienced pilot Anatoly Inyushin was for several years the captain of the plane that commanded the Soviet Pacific Fleet. So, was Pushkin's accident his fault? The problem is that, like most accidents that occurred in the Soviet Union, whether civil or military, the Pushkin disaster was immediately classified. Only the general conclusion of the investigation carried out by the Ministry of Defense, published almost two years after the accident, was more or less official.

One of the official conclusions was that the plane took off at a speed 40 km/h lower than the speed required for takeoff. But is it possible that Inyushin, who had 17 years of flight experience on the Tu-104, would have made such a stupid mistake? Also, why didn't the co-pilot or anyone else in the cockpit notice and avoid the fatal mistake? According to flight regulations, during the takeoff run, the Tu-104 pilot must reach a speed of at least 220 km/h and then slowly raise the nose of the plane by 6 degrees. After completing the initial nose gear step, the Tu-104 would take off on its own and continue climbinggradually.

But according to Admiral Golosov, something strange happened during the takeoff of the Tu-104 in Pushkin. In his book, Golosov claims that the commander of the Soviet naval aviation, General Mironenko, showed him the data from the plane's black box after the investigation was completed. In fact, the flight recorder had recorded that the plane took off at a speed of 185 km/h instead of the required 220. But what is interesting is that the plane's angle of attack was much greater than the required 6 degrees and, even more importantly, the flight recorder did not record any pressure in the yokes when the Tu-104 took off.

In simple words, according to Golosov, it was not the pilot who lifted the plane into the air. But if it wasn't Inyushuin, who? Or what? When trying to understand the reasons behind almost any event that occurred in the Soviet Union, it is always important to understand the, let's call them, peculiarities of life in the USSR. The Soviet Union was in every way a rather unusual country. Thus, for most people who were lucky enough to be born outside the USSR, some events might not make any sense. In fact, one could say that "meaninglessness" would be one of the main peculiarities of the Soviet Union.

Of course, from a scientific and technological perspective, the USSR was in fact one of the most powerful countries in the world. Make no mistake, the Soviet Union's list of technological achievements is impressive compared to any of the countries that existed at the time. But when coming to a conclusion about the greatness of the USSR, it is very common for people to forget or simply not be aware of the price that ordinary Soviet citizens had to pay for such greatness. The impressive list of technological achievements of the "largest country in the world", as most Russians still think, would make a completely different impression if, for example, other less impressive achievements were added that most of you will not even think about. , since they have been taken for granted.

Like, for example, the year 1969 when the Soviet Union opened the first toilet paper factory. Thus, "the largest country in the world" has already built and tested a nuclear bomb, launched "Sputnik", completed the first manned trip to outer space, built the first supersonic aircraft, but still could not produce toilet paper. And 1969 was not the year the toilet paper problem was solved, but simply the year a single factory opened in a country with a population of 130 million people. To be fair, the availability of toilet paper in the Soviet Union has always been a problem until the last day of the USSR's existence, making it another item in the long list of so-called "deficit goods." A word familiar to all Soviet citizens, regardless of age or place of birth.

A catastrophically inefficient Soviet economy led to a situation where most consumer goods were nonexistent or of poor quality. And even those most of the time would be difficult or even impossible to buy. This applies to almost everything, whether it's a car, a television, furniture, shoes, or even food. Of course, for high-ranking members of the Communist Party, this problem did not exist, since they received the deficit goods from special warehouses, which ordinary citizens were not allowed to enter. The Soviet people joked that the USSR was the only country. in the world where we are all equal. It's just that some people are more equal than others.

The situation with the availability of consumer goods in stores was somewhat better in large cities such as Moscow, Leningrad or kyiv, but in the remaining 90% of the country the situation was simply terrible. When trying to get some deficit products, it was very common for Soviet people to have to take a train and travel to, say, Moscow to make their purchases. Even in Soviet times there was a popular riddle: "What is long, green and smells like sausage?" The answer is "a passenger train." The fact is that travelers returning from Moscow with bags full of various foodstuffs, most often various sausages, provided cars with very peculiar and distinctive smells.

That's why these trains were often called "sausage trains." And I am not referring to the suburbs of Moscow but to cities that are more than 1,000 kilometers away, such as Kursk or Samara. So you understand, in terms of population, those are cities comparable to Miami or Manchester. So, returning to the Pushkin airfield in 1981, one could say that the military Tu-104 with naval officers, which flew from the far east of the Soviet Union to Leningrad, was in a way a "sausage plane." While working on the version of the pilot error that possibly caused the Tu-104 crash, it was suddenly discovered that Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Inyushin, the pilot of the admiral's plane, long before the Pushkin disaster, had sent a complaint to the department Soviet Navy politician reporting that his plane was constantly flying overloaded while transporting furniture, refrigerators, washing machines, dishes and even spare parts for the admiral's "Moskvich." But Inyushin's complaint went unanswered.

No one dared to question Admiral Spiridonov. These events, as well as the testimonies of some eyewitnesses in Pushkin, indicated more and more clearly the cause of the disaster, which many had thought about from the beginning, but did not dare to express it. The fact is that the officers of the Pacific Fleet decided to make the most of their work trip to the so-called "second capital" of the Soviet Union. Of course, this trip for them was not the first, but this time, for unknown reasons, the shopping trip completely got out of control. As General Victor Sokerin recalled, after the accident... the disorder when loading the plane was pure chaos.

A group of admirals giving orders to load their multiple purchases, the aircrew trying to get the loading process in order, but the admirals rudely telling the pilots that they are just "drivers" here and that they should know their place. The co-pilot and captain argued again, after which several admirals "fired," "demoted," retired, and verbally humiliated the pilots. Who is the co-pilot of the Soviet admiral: nothing, just an insect, even the captain of the plane, although he is a lieutenant colonel. Furthermore, commanders rarely flew home sober after meetings. ". The admirals packed into the plane everything that they could find and buy in Leningrad: from furniture, televisions, ceiling lamps, porcelain to ordinary oranges.

According to some, as a result, the plane became very overloaded. But to make matters worse, Due to the disorder during loading, the cargo was placed on the plane unevenly, overloading the rear of the plane, which in turn shifted the center of gravity rearward. It is impossible to know why the captain of the plane agreed to take off in. such conditions. As General Sokerin once said: "It is difficult to say what would have happened to Anatoly Inyushin and his crew if he had refused to fly. I suppose that, in the best case, all the crew members would retire directly on the plane." And it is difficult to disagree with him.

High-ranking officers in the Soviet army and

navy

had a power so big in fact that it could ruin someone's career or even their life in an instant. General Sokerin believed that the pilot, knowing about the overweight, probably expected to be able to keep the plane on the takeoff roll in a three-point position up to 300. the required takeoff off speed or even a little more, after which he would carefully lift the nose of the plane and with a small angle of attack and a speed higher than the required one, he could slowly lift the plane into the air. 10.% margin in the possible displacement of the center of gravity of the Tu-104 before the critical levels at which the plane becomes uncontrollable According to General Sokerin, it is difficult, but from time to time they had to carry out a takeoff. of this type when your Tu-.

They were overweight 16 bombers, which were quite similar to the Tu-104. And he believes Inyushin hoped to "trick" the poorly loaded cargo using said takeoff technique. But there was something else. Just before the flight, Admiral Spiridonov obtained two huge rolls of printing paper for the Pacific Fleet newspaper. Each roll weighed approximately 500 kilograms. It is believed that these rolls, when loaded on board, were not properly secured and during acceleration on the takeoff roll, suddenly rolled backwards into the cargo compartment, shifting the aircraft's center of gravity further aft towards the level. critical danger. As a result of this rapid change, the plane raised its nose, which in turn created enough lift on the wing for the plane to take off.

But due to insufficient speed and high angle of attack, the plane stalled and a few seconds later fell to the ground. Unfortunately, pilots can't do anything in such a situation. As Admiral Golosov wrote in his book: " The officers climbed into the cars and rushed to the scene of the accident. Alas! The heat of the burning fuel did not allow them to get closer. Bright orange flames quickly devoured the remains of people. Only the oranges remained alive, emerging from the burning debris, bright orange like small fragments of the burning flame. As a result of the plane crash, all 50 people on board died, 44 of them were

navy

soldiers and 6 civilians.

Among them was Admiral Spiridonov's wife and some other people whom Admiral Spiridonov allowed to fly on his plane. This was a flagrant violation of the Defense Minister's order that strictly prohibited civilians from flying on military flights. apparently Admiral Spiridonov decided again that the rules are not for admirals. Shortly after the accident, the main Soviet military newspaper "Red Star" published a small note in the corner of the third page, saying that a group of admirals, officers and Other Soviet servicemen of the Pacific Fleet died in the plane crash. . The Ministry of Defense and the Political Department of the Soviet Army and Navy expressed their condolences to the families of the deceased.

The note also lists the names of three admirals who died in the accident. And that's it. Nothing more than that. The Soviet Union did not even notice the loss of 50 people. Like most accidents that occurred in the USSR, the Pushkin disaster was immediately classified and remains so to this day. Most of those killed in the accident were quietly buried in a mass grave in Leningrad, where a small monument was later erected. Interestingly, widows of naval officers did not receive official notification of their husbands' deaths until 1997, six years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And a year later, in 1998, to the inscription on the monument that said "to the military of the Pacific Fleet" was added: "who died in service on February 7, 1981." Of course, no one would like the inscription on the monument to say: "To the servicemen who died while shopping." But the problem is that this approach and complete secrecy significantly reduce the chances of learning from mistakes, which does not in any way help to avoid similar accidents in the future.

With the total secrecy prevailing in the USSR and later in the Russian Federation, it is difficult to say how many similar accidents have occurred since then. Unfortunately, we only know those that were impossible to hide. For example, the crash of the Antonov An-12 military aircraft in 1996, in which 17 people died, including the commander of the Leningrad Military District, General Sergey Seleznyov. The cause of the disaster was that the general forced the crew to take off in the overloaded plane in adverse weather conditions. The plane transported, in addition to the military cargo, various construction materials for General Seleznev's house, as well as his personal vehicle.

It is well known that gaining enormous power can blind and change people. Unfortunately, in the case of the USSR and modern Russia, this problem very often reaches the point that those in power reject not only the basic rules of human ethics, but even the laws of physics. And the worst thing is that most of the time the final bill for such negligence is not only paid by themselves but also shared with innocent people. And that's the story! If you like aviation and stories like this, hit the like button to support new episodes on this channel. A special thank you to everyone who supports Paper Skies on Patreon.

That is all for now. Thanks for watching and see you in the next video. Bye bye.