How it was №1 20.02.1999 (1999)

Video chronicle: The runway of the airport.

The stewardess in the passenger compartment of the plane.

Passengers of the flight.

Electronic board with the inscription "No smoking!" The program is dedicated to an event that went down in the history of aviation.

The Soviet plane safely made an emergency landing on the water, within the city limits of the multi-million city of Leningrad (now St.

Petersburg).

On August 21, 1963, the TU-124 plane (tail number 4521) was taking off from Tallinn Airport en route to Moscow on flight number 366. There were 44 passengers and one child on board.

Crew (photos): Mostovoy Viktor - commander.

Smirnov Viktor - flight mechanic.

Beremin Ivan - flight radio operator.

Tsarev Viktor - navigator.

Chechenev Vasily - co-pilot.

Aleksandrova Alexandra - flight attendant.

Vasily Chechenev talks about the technical condition of the plane during takeoff from Tallinn.

Immediately after takeoff, the front landing gear jammed and remained in a semi-retracted position.

According to Ivan Mulkidzhanov, it is permissible to fly and land with such a malfunction, since similar precedents had already occurred by that time.

An emergency landing was scheduled in Leningrad at the Shosseynaya airfield (now Pulkovo).

Vladislav Kochetov talks about the airfield's preparedness for emergency landings, about the special measures that were taken by the air traffic control service employees.

Video chronicle: Chronicle of landings of foreign airlines' aircraft without front landing gear.

In accordance with the rules of the flight operation manual, TU-124 aircraft without front landing gear are recommended to land with a fuel volume of no more than 800 kilograms, so the plane did not land immediately.

Interview with Georgy Narbut.

Video chronicle: Flying over the city.

Airport.

Air traffic control service.

Electronic board with flight numbers and destinations.

The TU-124 crew made about 16 circles around the city, using up the required amount of fuel.

The crew members tried to free the front landing gear on their own, but nothing worked.

Alexandra Alexandrova recalls how they had to drag the cargo from the front trunk to the tail section to redistribute their forces.

There were problems with the air supply in the cabin, so they had to work a lot with the passengers.

Interview with a relative of one of the passengers of flight 366, Svetlana Lazurkina.

Vladislav Kochetov tells how he received the last message from the crew that first one, then the other engine failed, and then the connection was lost.

The plane was flying over St.

Isaac's Cathedral at an altitude of 600 meters.

After unsuccessful attempts to restart the engines, according to Vasily Chechenev, he told the crew commander that only the Neva could save them.

The plane turned around and set a course for a sharp descent.

There were 14 seconds before contact with the surface.

The crew miraculously avoided a collision with a bridge and a tugboat carrying a raft traveling along the Neva.

According to Vasily Chechenev, the crew was saved by the fact that the landing gear, which took the initial resistance upon contact with the water, was not retracted, after which the speed of the plane dropped sharply and it, without submerging, began to slide along the surface.

One of the landing gears did not withstand - it flew off and made a hole in the hull.

The plane stopped near the Finland Railway Bridge (less than 200 meters).

Alexandra Alexandrova says that there was no screaming or panic in the passenger cabin.

The plane, which began to flood after stopping, was saved by the tugboat with which they almost collided during landing.

Yuri Porshin, the ship's helmsman, tells how he immediately swam up to the plane.

By that time, the crew had already broken the windshield and received the rope.

The left wing was flooded, so the barge approached the plane without any obstacles, took all the passengers on board, and towed the plane under the bridge.

Since there was a hole, the large plane sank in the Neva at a depth of 5 meters.

Interview with Sergei Vershler, who photographed the plane during its towing along the Neva.

He says that all the photos were confiscated.

Only one frame was saved.

Video chronicle: St.

Petersburg, Neva.

Winter shooting The landing site of the TU-124. The only photo of an airplane being towed along the Neva in 1963. The participants of the program sum up this unprecedented case.

They talk about the technical shortcomings of the TU-124 that were discovered.

Video chronicle: Emergency landings of foreign airlines on water.

The fall of an airplane into water.