Splashdown on the Neva Bashny.Net

In September 1963 in Leningrad rumors about a unique state of emergency. Silver passenger liner, making a dozen laps over the city, suddenly fell and sat right on the waters of the Neva. After a while, the people of Leningrad saw that the plane was towed through the water somewhere to the mouth of the Neva. I think that this filming naughty comedy like "Striped flight" or test of machinery. But later they began to say that the plane - regular, there were passengers, and for the salvation of their hero-commander was awarded the Order of the Red Star. So what happened? Passenger "board", "Tu-124" under the command of Victor Jakovljevic Mostovoy, assigned to the Tallinn Squadron and was walking from Tallinn to Moscow on August 21, 1963, was approaching Leningrad. Suddenly, the crew radioed that devoured one of the "legs" of the chassis and the normal stopover impossible ...

5 ph + text





Initially, the deputy chief of the Leningrad Administration of Civil Aviation Vladimir Sirotin wanted to send the aircraft back to Tallinn - black, they say, there. But then, given the characteristics of the Tallinn airport, we decided to land it on the emergency lane dirt outside the city on the proven technology - "on the belly."

Winged fire engines, "first aid". And that landing is not threatened by explosion, the captain of the ship was given command of "spent fuel". The plane was circling over the city until the tanks will not be nearly empty. Then Mostovoy had to land.

At that time the aircraft was allowed to fly over Leningrad at an altitude of about 400 meters (but after this incident determined the border detour outside the city), and the silver bird, without causing much excitement, a long time circling in the sky. Then came the next. "Board" panic reported that fuel produced ... completely, and a minimum of fuel for approach no. This meant that the crew carried away prohlopali fuel consumption and the car is now might collapse at home ... Fortunately, the bottom was the Neva. And the "Tu-124" Bolsheokhtinsky sat between Finland and bridges.

The captain of the boat that was sailing along the Neva River, just reflexes, propped one wing of the Tu-124 and began to push the car to the bank. Passengers and crew came down. Interestingly, the General Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet of the USSR once regarded the "feat" Mostovoi like carelessness. And Tallinn Squadron then deducted this pilot. But by a strange logic (it was rescued foreigners uproar about the feat), captain award. Soon the bridge came to Leningrad to study at the Academy of Civil Aviation. He behaved arrogantly, picked up "twos" and was expelled. None of it was not sorry ...



The situation with the award has helped us to clarify a former employee of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party, who asked not to say his name. "First of all, on the heels, we immediately reported to the Central Committee of the heroism of the pilot street. Secondly, Tupolev enthusiastically responded to the high buoyancy Soviet jet machine, allowing people to be saved. Thirdly, the newspaper managed to trumpet about the heroism of the crew. Since then, a judge or a reward? Dali pilot Order ».

But the plane was taken to the pontoons in the estuary of the Gulf of Finland, followed him to lose.
Later, new details have been clarified accident that in November 1998, published by the newspaper "Petrovsky Courier».

Then the "Tu-124" was a "crude" unfinished machine, freshly baked brainchild Tupolev Design Bureau. If you try to sit up in Tallinn, he lost a ball screw (it then picked up on the runway), and a car with faulty gear sent to Leningrad - riding "on its belly" for a primer in "Pulkovo". In flight, the pilots tried to "knock out" jammed landing gear and even cut through the bottom of the fuselage. But nothing worked! The Flight of the airport "Pulkovo" Georgy Narbut the day the crew gave the command to act on instructions - burn fuel to reserve one ton. But the trouble is that the fuel gauge on the board could not objectively indicate how much fuel is left! A landing in violation of the instructions with a margin of at least 1,200, 1,300 kilograms "gorjuchki" threatened with demotion pilots.



"Landed at the airport," - commanded Narbut. But the mechanic said the captain Victor Mostovoy, "Vic, in the tanks have a reserve stock of my excess tonne." "I go for another round," - said the commander on the ground. But the flight "at random" almost turned into a disaster. One by one stalled two engines - the fuel was not just on the "headquarters of the revolution" - Smolny. "Get in the water!" - Shouted Mostovoy co-pilot, a former gidroletchik.



The commander ordered the crew to go to the salon and the "distracting conversations" passengers, and he began to plan in the air as much as possible on the hard drive. I could not be wrong! The crew flew four meters under construction on the bridge of Alexander Nevsky (with forests in horror rained workers), saw the outlines of Finland Railway Bridge and cringed in fear: Vrezh! But the car's tail touched the Neva, then flopped belly, ducked slightly and froze ... a few hundred meters from the bridge abutments. Said 27-year-old Victor Mostovoy grayer over the second.

But the danger is gone. Proporoty fuselage began to draw water, and the depth of the Neva here - 13 meters. Fortunately, the Neva was buksirchik built in 1898 with a team of four people and quietly pulled floatable raft. They saw the aircraft. Someone shouted defiantly: "During the second Chkalov turned up!" But the captain Yuri Porshina assessed by a serious situation, he ordered the tow rope to lose and leave the raft. The captain failed to lift the car and shouted to the pilots: "As you catch?" After some discussion, the cab smashed hood and hooked a cable at the helm of the pilots. The plane pulled up to the dock at the factory "Northern news", where along the coast were rafts. Wing aircraft, bent on impact with the water, gently laid on rafts, forming a kind of ladder. Passengers - Forty-four people, including two children - began to emerge through the top hatch, holding things. They were calm.

Hundreds of people on the shore, the workers of neighboring factories ran out of communicating and shouted "Hurrah!" Came the crew. He was applauded. Rushed helicopter from Pulkovo some strict boss ordered the pilots to sit together with the flight instruments. The bridge, a beautiful and well-built man, behaved quietly emphasized. The helicopter flew away. Because the crew was a young man, steward, guarding the luggage. Then the bus arrived "PAZ" and took the passengers to the airport, from where they were sent to Tallinn.

I came steamer with overflow, began to pump water out of the plane. But it was useless, the water was coming out of the holes. And the "Tu-124" sank in the morning. The next day brought a plane pontoons and a tug was sent to the territory of the present "Lenexpo" Skipper to the canal where the military unit was based. After the Commission made a decision: to write off the car due to breakdowns. From her cabin disconnected and sent as a trainer in the Tambov region in Kirsanovsky flying school. Beautiful armchairs sold to everyone at the price of a bottle of vodka. The fuselage was lying on the bank for a long time, then it was cut into scrap metal ...

Victor Mostovoy awarded the Order of the Red Star and its crew - medals. According to some reports, after a failed bridge study at the Academy of Civil Aviation Squadron moved to Krasnodar. Captain tug Porshina awarded the Certificate of Merit for hours.



Source: