Landing Tu-124 on the Neva River (August 1963). Emergency landing of the aircraft on water

Landing Tu-124 on the Neva became one of the first cases of successful landing of a passenger aircraft. The crew of the crashed liner at the cost of incredible efforts managed to land a plane in the very center of Leningrad. The catastrophe was avoided, no one was hurt.

Circumstances of the accident

On August 21, 1963, the Tu-124 passenger airliner of Aeroflot was preparing to make a regular regular flight Tallinn-Moscow. The plane was assigned to the Estonian air force. The commander of the ship that day was an experienced pilot Viktor Yakovlevich Mostovoi. The crew consisted of the second pilot of the Chechens and flight mechanic Tsarev.

The liner took off from the airport леulemiste early in the morning, at 8.55, and headed for Moscow's Vnukovo airport. A few minutes later, the pilots found that the front landing gear had jammed and it remained in semi-retracted state. Return to the airport of Tallinn was not possible, since it was enveloped in dense fog. To make an emergency landing in such conditions was extremely dangerous. The crew was ordered to fly to Leningrad and try to land there.

The fact is that an emergency landing of an aircraft with a defective chassis is possible only on a special, plowed soil strip. It allows you to minimize the risk of sparks when landing, which means avoiding a fire or an airplane explosion. Such a strip was in Leningrad. In Pulkovo immediately took all the necessary measures in order to take the emergency board. In a short time, all emergency services of the airfield were brought into full readiness.

Over Leningrad

The liner flew to Leningrad at about 11.00. Specialists Pulkovo asked the plane to fly over the airport to assess the damage from the ground. Visual inspection confirmed that the front landing gear of the chassis is in a semi-retracted state.

The crew was ordered to prepare for an emergency landing. However, before making it, it was necessary to work out extra fuel. The plane began to circle over the city at an altitude of 500 meters.

Meanwhile, the flight mechanic Tsarev with all his might tried to free the jammed chassis. To do this, he had to cut a hole in the floor of the cockpit and using a pole, manually, try to bring the rack into a normal position. All efforts were in vain.

The plane managed to make 8 circles over the city, when at 12.10 it was discovered that the fuel for landing in Pulkovo was already lacking. Suddenly, the left engine stopped. In connection with the complications, the crew was given permission to fly directly over the city center in order to shorten the distance to the airport.

However, at the very moment when the plane was directly over Smolny, the right engine stopped. The liner began to rapidly lose altitude, and all those who were at the time in the center of Leningrad were under threat. In such an emergency situation, the commander, on the advice of the second pilot, Chechenaev, the former pilot of naval aviation, decides to board directly to the Neva.

Emergency landing

Mostovoy ordered the crew to distract passengers, and he, alone, began to plan over the city.

The plane flew the Foundry Bridge at a height of 90 meters and managed to pass Bolsheokhtinsky only 40 meters from the water, miraculously not having hooked its tall farms. Ahead was the Alexander Nevsky Bridge under construction . When the airliner flew over him on a flying flight, workers from the scaffolding in horror jumped into the water.

At the cost of the commander's incredible efforts, the plane managed to successfully bury itself for several dozens of meters to the pillars of the next, Finnish Finish bridge. They say that Mostovoi has turned gray in these few minutes.

Landing Tu-124 on the Neva was completed safely, and the plane stayed afloat, but because of damages received during landing, water entered the fuselage. Accidentally passing by and miraculously avoided a collision with the plane, the old towboat "Burevestnik" managed to pull the sinking liner closer to the shore, to the territory of the plant "Northern Press". Another lucky chance at the shore in this place were wooden rafts. The wing of the plane lay on these rafts and formed a natural ladder, along which all the passengers and crew safely went ashore.

In total, there were 44 passengers in the plane, including two children, and 7 crew members. There was no panic, but when they were ashore, people gradually began to realize that they had recently been on the verge of death. The crew of the plane was immediately sent for questioning to the KGB, and the passengers were taken to Pulkovo, where they returned to Tallinn from the first flight.

Causes of an accident

Landing Tu-124 on the Neva became the first case of successful splashdown of a large passenger aircraft. But what was the cause of the accident, which almost turned into a terrible catastrophe?

Tu-124 by that time was the newest child of KB Tupolev. It was designed and tested in a short time, and therefore had many minor defects. One of them played a fatal role in the fate of the Estonian side. It turned out that during the takeoff in Tallinn, the ball of the front landing gear fell off the plane, it was later found on the runway. Without this small but important detail, the front landing gear of the aircraft could not assume a normal position, and it jammed. As experts say, a landing with such a malfunction threatened to overturn the car. In such a situation, successful landing of the aircraft, perhaps, was the only way to save lives for passengers.

The second reason for the near-tragedy was the malfunction of the fuel gauge, which gave incorrect data on the amount of fuel on board. This widespread defect of many aircraft of that time was well known to all pilots, and many of them asked to fill the plane with a little more fuel than was supposed. However, that day it did not happen. In addition, before the emergency landing it was necessary to develop the maximum amount of fuel, leaving only a very small amount to reach the airport, and here the error in the instrument readings turned out to be fatal.

The fate of the aircraft

After all the people left the side, a special steamer was used to pump the water out of the plane. But still he did not cope with the fast incoming water, and soon the Tu-124 sank. The next day the pontoons were brought under the plane, it was lifted from the bottom and towed along the Neva to the west of the Vasilievsky Island, where at that time the military unit was located. After the inspection, the plane was decommissioned because of the injuries received.

His end was sad. The cabin was cut off and sent as an airplane to the Kirsanov Aviation School, located in the Tambov region. Beautiful soft chairs sold out to everyone at a price equal to the cost of a bottle of vodka. And the remains of the fuselage rusted for a long time on the shore of the Skipper Canal, until they were cut and sold for scrap.

Destiny of the crew

Initially, in the KGB and the General Directorate of Civil Aviation Mostovoy's heroic deed was regarded as slovenliness, pronounced him a severe reprimand and was fired from the squadron. However, due to the noise raised in the foreign press, the authorities changed their anger to mercy. The commander of the ship even wanted to award the Order of the Red Star, but the order was never signed. In the end, Khrushchev decided not to reward, but not to punish the pilot.

The whole crew was soon allowed to fly again. The second pilot of the Chechens after a while himself became a commander. Mostovoy also continued his work, but already as part of the Krasnodar squadron. In the early 90's, he and his family emigrated to Israel, where he was forced to leave flying activities and work for ordinary workers in the factory. He died of cancer in 1997.

Consequences of the accident

Despite the fact that the Tu-124 landing on the Neva was successful, after this incident all airliners were strictly forbidden to fly over the center of Leningrad. This ban is still in force.

The amazing experience of Mostovoy made a strong impression on the pilots of the whole world. Emergency landing of the aircraft on water is now practiced on simulators in many airlines of the world. This is what allowed the American pilot to successfully land his emergency Boeing on the Hudson in 1997. Unfortunately, in our country such training is not conducted.

August 1963 for a long time I remembered many Leningraders, who witnessed a unique landing. Many people saw with their own eyes the silver Tu-124 on the Neva River, and this spectacle certainly remained one of the brightest memories of their life.