Sinai disaster. The A321 disaster: a black day in the history of Russia. "The last wish is to find the guilty"
The death of the A-321 aircraft, which was operating flight 9268 from Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh to Pulkovo with 217 passengers and seven crew members on board, became the largest aviation disaster in the history of Russia and the USSR. In the Soviet Union, the worst air accident occurred in the Uchkuduk region on July 10, 1985. Then, as a result of the fall of the Tu-154, flying from Karshi to Leningrad, 191 passengers and nine crew members were killed.
The death of flight 9268 of the Kogalymavia (Metrojet) company from the very beginning was accompanied not only by unverified information, but also by outright stuffing. In the first hours after the tragedy, Arab news agencies reported, referring to some rescuers operating at the crash site, that the A-321 fell apart when it fell into two large parts and moans and requests for help were even heard from the tail. A little later, some representatives of the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on board the Russian aircraft. This statement was immediately picked up by foreign and some of the domestic media.
On the fateful day, the Airbus A-321 took off from the Egyptian airport at 6 hours 51 minutes Moscow time (3.51 GMT), but already at 7.14 (4.14) it did not get in touch with Larnaca airport, and a few seconds earlier the flight disappeared from radar screens.
As a result of the search and rescue operations that have begun, it has been established that the wreckage of the aircraft, scattered over an area of 16 to 20 square kilometers, has characteristic signs that the Airbus collapsed while still in the air. Recall that the wreckage of the Malaysian "Boeing-777", which followed the flight MH-17 and died over the south-east of Ukraine, was blown over an area of more than 50 square kilometers. Already on November 1, the Federal Air Transport Agency and the Interstate Aviation Committee confirmed that the destruction of the A-321 occurred in the air.
At this moment, despite the fact that the flight recorders, also known as “black boxes”, have not only been found by rescuers, but are already being deciphered, data on the flight parameters of the A-321 Kogalymavia is available only from the FlightRadar24 Internet service.
At 7.12 (4.12) the aircraft was at an altitude of 10,200 meters (33,500 feet), continuing to climb in order to reach the flight level to Pulkovo airport. The flight speed was approximately 750 kilometers per hour (just over 400 knots), and the vertical speed was unchanged. But exactly at 7.13 (4.13) the flight speed dropped to 170 kilometers per hour (a little over 20 knots) and, according to the calculations of the resource aviation-safety.net (the diagram was obtained as a result of processing FR24 data), the vertical speed began to equal 6000 feet per minute or 30.48 meters per second (a negative reading means the aircraft is descending). It was no longer a decline or a dive, but actually a fall. At this point, the A-321, having lost 5,000 feet, was at an altitude of about 8,600 meters (28,375 feet).
And then the strange begins. In a matter of seconds (from 07.13.00 to 07.13.22), the vertical speed of the liner rose to 4,000 feet per minute (20.3 m / s), then it dropped again to 6,000, but then rose sharply to 4,000 feet per minute. The plane went up. But not having had time to gain the lost hundreds of meters, the liner again began to fall at a vertical speed of 6500 feet per minute (33 m / s). And again the fall was replaced by a sharp climb. From 13/07/15 to 13/07/19 the vertical speed increased to 9000 feet per minute (45 m/s). The Airbus went into a sharp climb, which at 07.13.22 again ended in a fall, during which, most likely, the plane began to crumble.
To summarize, in fact, for 22 seconds the plane tried to stop the fall and go into climb, while breaking down each time. But then its vertical speed grew to such an extent that the car reached maximum angles of attack and, accordingly, prohibitive overloads. Further - the fall and destruction of the A-321.
Note that the given vertical speed indicators were obtained from the processing of data from the FlightRadar24 service and in reality could be lower.
The media circulated a message that the crew of the aircraft allegedly turned to air traffic controllers for help. According to some reports, he reported a certain malfunction, according to others, he requested permission to land. But both Egyptian and Russian authorities deny that such a conversation took place.
In the first hours after the tragedy, evidence appeared that the dead A-321 had problems with the engines, which the pilots repeatedly reported to their management. True, already on the evening of October 31, representatives of the carrier announced that there were no appeals, the airliner passed all routine maintenance in a timely manner.
The columnist for the Military Industrial Courier managed to communicate with employees and personnel of companies operating similar passenger liners, as well as representatives of Russian government agencies responsible for control in the aviation sector.
Most of the interlocutors unequivocally stated that they would not draw conclusions at least until the moment when the transcripts of the flight recorders were announced, but agreed to provide clarifications on the facts already available.
But a mechanical failure of the rudders or stabilizer could only lead to the plane crashing. Kit
According to aviation-safety.net, although there was a drastic reduction in speed, it is unlikely that one of the IAE V2500's engines had a problem or failed. In this case, the aircraft could not climb several times before crashing. According to one of the representatives of the airline - the operator of the A-321, this at least indicates that not only the power plants retained traction, but also the propulsion automatics worked.
We can say that for 22 seconds the liner's autopilot tried to fend off what, according to one of the interlocutors, "it was almost impossible to fend off." But then, instead of stabilizing the liner, the automation, unable to cope, turned the plane into a sharp climb, which led to prohibitive overloads, reaching critical angles of attack, stalling (possibly a spin) and destruction of the structure.
The causes of the impact that led to the death of the Airbus can be both mechanical problems with the elevators or stabilizer, and the failure of the automation itself, it is also EDSU (electronic remote control system). It is possible that the pilots, faced with a malfunction in the control system, tried to hold the plane on their own, parrying the impact.
height in this case is unrealistic. And even a partial failure of the control system causes the occurrence of so-called self-oscillations, which are very similar to the above data on vertical speed.
True, almost all respondents questioned the option of EDSU failure, pointing out that this had not happened during the operation of the A-321, and the Airbus control system itself was very reliable and its most important elements were duplicated.
Representatives of the industry were rather skeptical about the possible defeat of the aircraft from anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as undermining the device placed on board by terrorists. A missile hit, as the example of the Malaysian Boeing 777 showed, would lead to instant destruction of the structure and the fall of the remains of the aircraft over a sufficiently large area, the same can be said about the use of IEDs.
The tragedy of Flight 9268 is still awaiting investigation. Until the data of the flight recorders are published, the wreckage is being collected. The laying out of the remains of the A-321 is ahead, but now not only experts of varying degrees of awareness, but even various officials are paying attention that the crashed airliner survived four owners and the car is already 18 years old - this does not belong in the fleets of Russian carriers, it is necessary to raise the domestic aviation industry .
A-321 is the largest aircraft of the A-320 family, which is considered the record holder in terms of the number of aircraft produced and operated. "Three hundred and twenty-first" is capable of carrying from 170 to 220 passengers over a distance of up to 5,600 kilometers. At the same time, the Superjet takes from 98 to 108 passengers with a range of just over three thousand kilometers (or 4500 in the Long Range version). Theoretically close performance to put into operation in 1994 "three hundred and twenty-first" should be the newest Russian MS-21, the first flight of which has not yet taken place. Tu-204/214, which are also capable of carrying over 200 passengers over a distance of six to seven thousand kilometers (depending on the model), are operated by only a few airlines (the largest fleet is in the Rossiya and Red Wings SLOs - 12 and 8 aircraft respectively).
Alas, one thing is already clear: the tragedy of flight 9268 will be used for all sorts of high-profile statements for a long time to come, and the rise of the domestic aviation industry requires painstaking, hard work.
On the morning of October 31, a Russian airliner Airbus-321 of the Kogalymavia airline crashed over the north of the Sinai Peninsula, carrying seven crew members and 217 passengers, including 17 children. In the first minutes, information about the crash was extremely contradictory. There were even reports that the plane was intact.
Apparently, therefore, at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, when a SP correspondent called about the arrival time of flight 7K 9268 from Sharm El Sheikh, a polite female voice affably answered: “According to preliminary information, this flight is somewhat delayed.” After that, short beeps were heard in the handset. The clock was 11:27.
By this time it became clear that the plane, alas, had crashed.
Information about the tragedy with the liner instantly scattered across the Internet. Ten minutes later, the alleged area of the crash of Airbus-321 became known - the central region of Sinai.
We again dialed the number of the Pulkovo help desk. “Do not specify, but is the plane from Sharm El Sheikh much late?”. The voice on the phone, as it seemed, was already less friendly, rather tense, this time said briefly: "Information is being specified." And - again beeps, beeps ...
Soon, information about the arrival of the plane disappeared from the scoreboard ...
The plane, which was flying Flight 9268 from Sharm El Sheikh to St. Petersburg, took off from the Egyptian airfield at 6.21 Moscow time and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes later. To search for the Russian vessel, Egyptian military aircraft were raised into the air on alarm.
At about 11 o'clock Moscow time, the Egyptian authorities confirmed the crash of the Russian airliner. Plane crash site cordoned off, Egyptian Prime Minister Sheriff Ismail convened a crisis committee.
According to the media, citing their sources, after takeoff, the pilot informed the dispatcher on the ground about technical problems, and 18 minutes after the start of the flight, the plane requested an emergency landing in Cairo. Sharm el-Sheikh airport reported that the crew of the liner complained several times over the past week about engine problems. According to media reports, the aircraft was in operation for 18 years. Aircraft of the A320 family have two CFMI CFM56-5B, Pratt & Whitney PW6000A or IAE V2500-A5 engines.
As it became known from reports from the Egyptian authorities, the crashed plane was completely destroyed. It is assumed that everyone on board died. At the same time, the Egyptian security service said that there were no signs that the plane was shot down.
A headquarters has been set up at Pulkovo Airport to help the relatives of the ship's passengers. Two Il-76 aircraft and one Be-200 of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation are ready to fly to Egypt with rescuers on board. Official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova said that employees of the Russian Embassy in Egypt are investigating the details of the tragedy.
The probable cause of the crash of the Russian passenger plane in the Sinai Peninsula was a technical malfunction, said Ayman al-Muqadam heading a committee formed in Egypt to monitor the aftermath of the disaster.
According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, the expert noted that he believes that there were "technical problems."
Read all the news about the crash of the Russian plane in Egypt
Exactly two years ago, on October 31, 2015, the most massive air crash in terms of the number of deaths occurred in the entire history of Russia. On this day, the Airbus A321-231 airliner of the Russian airline took off from the Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh and headed for St. Petersburg. The crew of the liner operated a charter flight and drove Russian tourists home after the rest.
The plane climbed steadily along the Gulf of Aqaba and was soon to cross the Sinai Peninsula to enter European airspace. However, at the 23rd minute of the flight, the connection of ground services with the aircraft was interrupted. It soon became clear that the Airbus A321-231 crashed to the ground in the central part of the Sinai Peninsula and completely collapsed. The wreckage of the aircraft was scattered over 13 km. All 224 people on board the aircraft were killed.
At the time of the death of the airliner, there were seven crew members, as well as 217 passengers. Of these, four were Ukrainians, one Belarusian, and the rest were Russian citizens. Among them was the deputy head of Pskov and a deputy of the local legislative assembly. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the oldest passenger was 77 years old, and
the smallest victim of the tragedy was 10-month-old.
Shortly before the tragic incident, her mother Tatyana published a photo of the child on the page on the social network VKontakte. The picture shows the girl standing on the window sill of the airport window with her back to the viewer. She looks at the planes on the ground. Under the picture she signed: "The most important passenger."
This photograph was later replicated by many Russian and world media and became a symbol of the Sinai catastrophe. Diana's mother and father also died in the crash of the liner.
Condolences to the victims were expressed by the Russian president, as well as the leaders of many countries in Europe and the world. The day after the crash of the liner, mourning was declared in Russia. However, the French published three cartoons on the topic of the disaster, which caused a negative reaction from the Russian Federation and. In response, the French Foreign Ministry said that "journalists in France freely express their opinion", while "it does not always coincide with the official position of the French authorities."
"There were no questions about the car"
Shortly after the incident, various versions of what had happened began to be put forward. Almost immediately, the hypothesis was dismissed, according to which the plane crashed due to pilot error. The crashed Airbus was flown by experienced pilots, and the crew commander, 48-year-old Valery Nemov, flew over 12,000 hours, of which more than 3,860 were on the Airbus A321.
However, the details of the operation of the aircraft soon became known, and it turned out that it was far from new.
It was released in the spring of 1997 and made its first flight on May 9th. After that, the aircraft was handed over to the American company International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), which by May 27 leased it to the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines (MEA), which had it for six years. On June 2, 2003, already under the tail number TC-OAE, the liner was leased to the Turkish airline Onur Air. This structure later sub-leased the liner to Saudi Saudi Arabian Airlines, and from July 30 to September 29, 2010 - to the Syrian Cham Wings Airlines. By the spring of 2012, the TC-OAE board returned to ILFC, and by March 30, 2012, it was leased to the Russian Kogalymavia.
On April 30 of the same 2012, the Dutch airline AerCap bought it from ILFC, which re-delivered this airliner to the Russian Kogalymavia. The Russian airline, in turn, has been operating under the Metrojet trademark since May 1, 2012.
During the long service of the aircraft, an unpleasant incident from the point of view of safety occurred to him. On November 16, 2001, he was on passenger flight ME 306 on the route Beirut - Cairo, and when landing at the airport in the Egyptian capital, the pilots raised his nose too high, as a result of which the tail dropped so low that it hit the ground. None of the 88 people on board the aircraft (81 passengers and 7 crew members) were injured then, and the liner itself returned to passenger routes after undergoing repairs. This information was confirmed by the representatives of Kogalymavia, assuring that the aircraft passed all the necessary checks and technical tests on time.
On the eve of departure, the ill-fated flight underwent maintenance, and the receiving crew had no questions about the car.
Interrupted message
An investigation into the causes of the tragedy was immediately launched by several large structures of the countries of the world, since Egypt is a very popular tourist destination among citizens of many states. The investigation began to be conducted by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, Russia, the French Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau, the German Federal Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau, the Irish Accident Investigation Division, and the US National Transportation Safety Board.
At the same time, according to the norms of international law, the Egyptian investigators carried out the general leadership, since the incident occurred in the airspace of this country. Already on the first of November, the "black boxes" found earlier from the deceased liner were deciphered. In the meantime, he opened criminal cases under articles 263 and 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of the rules for the safety of traffic and operation of railway, air, sea and inland water transport and the subway” and “Production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products, performance of work or provision services that do not meet security requirements”).
The United Kingdom and German airlines also interrupted flights with the Egyptian state, while France, the Netherlands and Belgium warned their citizens about the undesirability of flying to Sharm el-Sheikh. In addition, she announced the cancellation of night flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.
Customers not installed
Meanwhile, the victims of the disaster filed a class-action lawsuit against the tour operator, the Kogalymavia airline and insurance companies for a total amount of about €1.4 billion. This is the first example of a class-action lawsuit for such a serious amount in Russian history.
And although the involvement of Kogalymavia employees in the incident over Sinai is not confirmed by the facts, in the spring of 2016 she banned domestic and international flights of this airline.
According to the most frequently voiced version, the Sinai division of the terrorist "" is behind the attack (both organizations are banned in Russia). Its members claimed responsibility for this crime shortly after the incident.
However, there are other points of view. A number of experts believe that the pro-Catarian organization Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (a cell of IS banned in Russia) could be behind the attack. The United States also announced its trace in the tragedy.
Be that as it may, after the death of the plane, Russian aviation began to intensify its air strikes on the objects of various Islamist organizations in Syria. For the first time, Russian strategic aviation was involved in raids on IS targets and other extremists.
However, the names of the specific perpetrators of the attack have not yet been established.
And on October 28, 2017, a monument to the victims of the disaster was unveiled at the Serafimovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg. In addition, among the people of St. Petersburg there is an idea to erect a monument to 10-month-old Darina Gromova, who has already promised to make a well-known sculptor free of charge.
On October 31, 2015, a Russian civilian plane crashed over the Sinai Peninsula, flying from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. As a result, 224 people were killed: seven crew members and 217 passengers. The FSB qualified the incident as a terrorist attack.
This moment divided the lives of thousands of people into "before" and "after" the tragedy. On the one hand, this applies to relatives and friends who flew on that "flight to infinity", who will never be able to forget their loss. On the other hand, the Egyptians, who directly linked their own future with the joy, calmness and good disposition of people who came to visit them from Russia.
Candles in the sand
In the Christian Cathedral of All Saints-Celestials, which is located in the old part of Sharm el-Sheikh, several hundred people gathered for a memorial prayer for the victims of that tragedy. In front of the entrance to the temple, a stand was set up with two flags - Egyptian and Russian - and the names of all the dead who were on board the liner. According to the tradition of Egyptian Coptic Christians, a box with white sand was placed nearby, in which everyone could put a candle, light it, pray and remember the dead.
The service was calm and without unnecessary pathos, prayers were read in Coptic, Russian and English. Representatives of the Church, Governor of South Sinai Province Khaled Fuda, and head of the consular department of the Russian diplomatic mission in Egypt Yusup Abakarov spoke. It was he who, in one sentence, was able to express the feelings and thoughts of all the people who were in the temple. "They live with us as long as we remember them," the Russian diplomat said.
The Governor of South Sinai, for his part, expressed condolences to the relatives of all the victims and invited them to come to Sharm el-Sheikh. "We look to the future with faith and hope and are ready to receive guests from Russia any day," the head of the local administration said.
farewell, not parting
And before the prayer service in the temple, and during the entire service, one woman attracted attention, who was the first to put a candle at the entrance to the cathedral, was among the first to enter the temple, and during the prayer service, together with the clergy, sat on a raised platform at the altar. She tried to hold back her tears from time to time, but to no avail, and held a photograph of a smiling girl in front of her. This woman is Svetlana Pavlovna Volyanskaya, and in the photograph, which she did not let go of, is her daughter Katya, who died on October 31, 2015 in the sky over Sinai.
Her second daughter, Daria, who has been living in Sharm el-Sheikh for six years, was next to her. At first, they flatly refused to communicate with journalists, but after the service they agreed to talk with a TASS correspondent. “Our Katya was a resuscitator, and in Sharm el-Sheikh she had a fiancé,” Daria said. “He himself escorted her to the airport on that ill-fated flight.” According to her, Katya arrived for only a few days, spent four days in the city and did not at all intend to return to Russia on that particular plane, but could well have stayed a little longer. My sister still cannot calmly remember that time, her speech is interrupted, she steps aside. “Forgive me, but even now we still can’t talk about it calmly,” the girl says, as if justifying herself.
After the service, the mother and sister of the deceased Catherine were invited to a meeting in his small office next to the temple by the bishop of South Sinai and the primate of the cathedral, Father Apollo. The bishop's office itself is a small hall in which there are two low tables, with a dozen armchairs for guests, icons everywhere on the walls, made in the traditional patriarchal, truly Coptic style of writing. There, Svetlana Pavlovna said that her dead daughter "already studied Arabic, which she comprehended with pleasure."
Svetlana Pavlovna asked the Coptic priest to convince the governor of South Sinai to erect a separate monument to those who died in the plane crash over the peninsula. "There are already two monuments in St. Petersburg, and there should be," the Russian woman is convinced.
So far, this question is open for the reason that the local authorities have not yet decided on the final choice of a place for a memorial sign. From all the relatives of the passengers of the crashed plane, she also asked to find out if there is still a cross on the site of the crash of the liner, which was installed by Russian rescuers two years ago. "If not, then it is on the site of the death of our loved ones that we must try to restore this cross," said one of the mothers of the victims of the Sinai tragedy.
Wrong city
In Sharm el-Sheikh, where before the tragic event of October 31, 2015, the overwhelming majority of foreign guests were Russian citizens and British subjects, from that moment a period began, to put it mildly, not the most successful. "The state of tourism in the city, frankly, is extremely tense," Ali Marek, head of one of the leading Egyptian tour operators, shared his opinion in an interview with a TASS correspondent. "We are now trying to close the gaps by inviting tourists from neighboring Arab countries to Sinai. Slowly, but still, groups from Jordan, Lebanon come, and Iraqis are gradually appearing," says Marek.
However, according to him, the main emphasis is now being placed on the markets of the states of the post-Soviet space. According to the head of the travel agency, "they have practically the same mentality as the Russians, with whom in Egypt they know how and how to work." The number of direct flights from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, even the Baltic states is increasing. But, Ali admits, it is extremely difficult to make up for the absence of Russians in the Sinai, and mainly in Sharm el-Sheikh.
The manager of a small middle-class hotel, Kerim al-Kalbi, described the situation as follows: "Now the ratio of Egyptians to foreigners living in several buildings is three to one. Among the foreign guests are Ukrainians, Belarusians and a handful of Belgians." There are no Russians at all, although, as the manager noted, "management used to count on tourists from Russian cities." "Of course, the Egyptians fill the hotels almost completely on holidays, but this is only a few days a year. And what do we do in the remaining 350 days?" asks Kerim al-Kalbi. Moreover, he explains that only about a third of the rooms are currently occupied, and the rest "in connection with such an opportunity" are either being repaired or updated. "And this is the situation in all the hotels of the city, and the situation is worse in the middle class hotels, which are designed for guests with an average level of income."
Indeed, it is enough to drive through Sharm el-Sheikh in the evening to notice either "semi-darkened" hotel buildings, or completely closed "for renovation" complexes, especially on the so-called second line. Only international hotel giants that are ready to bear losses in order to maintain their reputation and maintain the prestige of the hotel chain logo located around the world can withstand the current period of recession.
Catastrophic, without hiding their feelings and emotions, is called the situation after the tragedy with the Russian liner, the owners of small shops and shops scattered in various quarters of the resort town. Once the area of the largest concentration of such outlets and at the same time Russian citizens - the old market in the center of Sharm el-Sheikh - now looks, if not deserted, then at least not the "noisy oriental bazaar" that it was quite recently.
Ahmed, the owner of a souvenir shop located opposite the new mosque - the pride of the local authorities, believes that "without the Russians, Sharm el-Sheikh is not the same city." "I'm shocked! After October 2015, it became almost pointless to do business here: individual groups from the countries of the former USSR are not at all like numerous Russians," Ahmed is sure. He believes that "they have less money than the guests from Russia" and "they are very tight-fisted."
However, the governor of South Sinai, Khaled Fuda, speaking about the consequences of the 2015 disaster for tourism, noted that the provincial authorities are trying to keep this industry “at the level”. But he still expressed hope for "the speedy return of the Russian guests to Egypt, in particular, to the south of the Sinai Peninsula." And the TASS correspondent's question about the main problem preventing the return of tourists from Russia to Egypt, he nevertheless redirected "to a higher level."
October 2015 tragedy
The explosion of the Airbus A321-231 airliner of the Russian airline Kogalymavia over the Sinai Peninsula was simultaneously the largest air crash in the history of Egypt and the Airbus A320 family, the largest air crash of 2015, as well as the most massive death of Russian citizens in an air crash in the history of world aviation. Among the dead were residents of 13 regions of the Russian Federation, of which 147 people from St. Petersburg, 44 people from the Leningrad region.
The FSB qualified the incident as a terrorist attack. The International Technical Commission came to the conclusion about the explosive decompression of the liner during the flight: the zone of the beginning of the destruction of the aircraft in the air was determined, the fact of the impact of high-energy elements on the aircraft skin in the "inside-out" direction and explosive decompression in flight was established. Work to establish the causes of the crash in Egypt has not been completed so far.
According to the main version, the Sinai division of the Islamic State terrorist organization Vilayat Sinai (both organizations are banned in Russia) is behind the attack. Its members claimed responsibility for this crime shortly after the incident. Other experts believe that the pro-Katarian organization Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (a cell of ISIS banned in Russia) could have been behind the attack - the CIA announced its trace in the tragedy. The names of the specific perpetrators of the attack are still unknown.
Alexander Elistratov
