Ever since the invention of the airplane by the Wright brothers, people have loved watching pilots perform stunts in the sky. But, unfortunately, such tricks do not always end successfully and are sometimes unsafe for spectators. Here are just some of the photos of plane crashes at air shows over the past twenty-plus years.
(Total 33 photos)
1. Two Zelazny aerobatic team aircraft collided during an airshow in Radom, Poland, September 1, 2007. Both pilots were killed, but spectators on the ground were unharmed. (AP Photo/ Darek Redos/FILE)
2. Three aircraft of the Italian aerobatic team at the Ramstein airfield on August 28, 1988. One plane exploded and fell into the crowd, killing 70 people and injuring another 400. Ten years later, survivors of the disaster decided for the first time to seek compensation for moral damages. (AP Photo/Charles Daughty)
A World War II Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress stands among the trees after a failed takeoff from the runway at the West Mayfield Air Show, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1987. As a result of the crash, 11 people were injured, 3 were seriously injured. Nobody died. (AP Photo/Paul Hawthorne)
4. A burning plane on the ground after a collision between three Italian planes at the air show at Ramstein airfield on August 28, 1988. On April 14, 2001, former German Interior Minister and lawyer for 82 survivors of that tragedy, Gerhart Baum, confirmed that he would take up legal action against the US Department of Defense, as experts believe that the necessary security measures were not taken at the airfield. (AP Photo/fls)
5. A huge cloud of fire and spectators running in panic on the runway of the Ramstein airbase. (AP-PHOTO/PE/ARD-TV)
6. A burning Italian plane flies towards the crowd during the air show at the Ramstein base. (AP Photo/Georg Riedel)
7. Boaters look at the crashed plane of the Canadian aerobatic team "Canadian Snowbirds" on Lake Ontario in Toronto, September 4, 1989, after an air show mishap. The pilot of the plane died. The accident occurred while an aerobatic team of 9 people was performing an acrobatic stunt. (AP Photo/John Moorecraft)
8. French gendarmes near the wreckage of a MiG-29 fighter that crashed during a presentation at the Paris Air Show on June 9, 1989. The pilot was injured but not killed. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz)
9. A Colorado pilot was killed when a single-engine plane crashed at an air show at Santa Fe Airport. The pilot was Richard Bobbitt, who failed to make a turn while performing a vertical stunt. Witnesses said Bobbitt took off straight up, turning off the engine, only to turn it back on as the plane fell. But the engine did not start. Bobbitt performed second during the one-day show, which was promptly canceled. (The Pennsylvania State University)
10. A crashed Pitts biplane on the ground near the local airport 100 km west of Vienna on August 10, 1996. As a result, a 53-year-old pilot and part-time hotel owner died. Air show spectators saw a plane fall 50 meters after a spinning stunt went wrong. (AP Photo/Paul Plutsch)
11. Coast Guard next to the wreckage of a Pitt biplane that had just been pulled from the Ohio River on August 6, 1996. Rescuers had to cut off the left side to get to the body of pilot Clarence Spiel, who did not even have time to unfasten himself. Spiel fell at an air show held during the Three Rivers Regatta. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
12. Part of an F-117A fighter jet crashes at an air show in Middle River, Maryland, September 14, 1997. The fighter then crashed into two houses, causing them to burst into flames and causing minor injuries to several people on the ground. The pilot managed to escape. (AP Photo/Charles S. Collier)
13. Two biplanes collided in mid-air at an airshow in Kissimmee, Florida, on April 19, 1998. Pilots James Lovelace and Randall Drake of the Red Baron Flying Group were killed. (AP Photo/Sean Kelly)
14. An F4U Corsair fighter jet collided with an F8F Bearcat and caught fire on the runway on the second day of the Oshkosh Air Show, Wisconsin, USA, July 29, 1999. One person was hospitalized, the pilot was able to get out on his own. (AP Photo/The Oshkosh Northwestern, Mark Andrews)
15. A British Royal Army bomber crashes into Lake Ontario at the Canadian National Air Show. The four-engine plane was gliding low over the lake and was just turning when the accident happened. The crew of seven people died. (AP Photo/City TV)
16. A Su-27 fighter jet fell on a crowd of spectators at the air show in Lvov on July 27, 2002. Residents of this western Ukrainian city spent two days in mourning after a fighter jet crashed at an air show, killing 83 people and injuring 116 others. It became one of the worst accidents in the history of air shows. (AP Photo/Oleksi Shinkarenko)
17. A cloud of flame at the airfield after the crash of a Su-27 plane in Lviv on July 27, 2002. The Su-27 was performing an aerobatic stunt when it suddenly touched the ground and skidded along the ground, right into a crowd of spectators, and then exploded. The crew of two survived. (AP Photo/Yuri Rura)
18. Captain Christopher Stricklin ejects from the plane seconds before it hits the ground on September 14, 2003 at the Idaho Airshow. Uninjured, Stricklin ejected, steering the plane away from the 60,000 spectators and making sure he could save the plane. It was the second crash since the Air Force began flying F-16 Falcons for demonstration flights in 1982. No harm done. The Air Force blamed the cause of the accident on pilot error. (AP Photo/Bennie J. Davis III/U.S. Air Force)
19. A Thunderbird fighter jet crashes to the ground during a performance at an air show on September 14, 2003 in Idaho. Pilot Chris Stricklin, 31, steered the plane away from the crowd and the $23 million fighter jet exploded in front of a crowd of 85,000. (AP Photo/ABC-TV via APTN)
20. Two aircraft of the Masters of Disaster aerobatic team collided in mid-air in front of a third aircraft at the Moose Jaw Air Show, USA, July 10, 2005. Two planes collided in mid-air at the annual show. Spectators claim the planes were performing a stunt and caught their wings. (AP Photo/Moose Jaw Times Herald, Adam Dombowsky)
21. A cloud of flames and debris from one of two planes that collided in mid-air at the Moose Jaw Air Show on July 10, 2005. (AP Photo/CP, Moose Jaw Times Herald, Adam Dombowsky)
22. Flames and smoke behind the trees after a plane crashed on the opening day of the week-long air show in Titusville, Florida, March 16, 2007. As a result, several spectators died. Pilot Krugman-Cadi also died. (AP Photo/Phyllis Lilienthal)
23. Blue Angels plane burns in Beaufort, South Carolina, April 21, 2007. The plane crashed during an air show directly onto houses and trailers. The pilot died. (AP Photo/Fred Yelinek)
24. Soldiers stand in front of the wreckage of a Su-27 fighter from the elite Russian Knights aerobatic team that crashed near the village of Denezhnikovo, near Zhukovsky, north of Moscow on August 16, 2009. Two Russian fighter jets collided during a rehearsal for the Moscow Air Show. As a result of the accident, the pilot died, and one of the planes fell on country houses. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
25. A Super Decathlon plane flies too low before crashing to the ground during the air show in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, September 24, 2010. The plane crashed and exploded during an air show attended by hundreds of schoolchildren. The pilot, the only crew member, was urgently hospitalized in serious condition. No one on the ground was hurt. (AP Photo/Fauzan Budiman)
26. A plane crashes at an air show in Bandung, West Java, September 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Fauzan Budiman)
27. A CF-18 fighter jet explodes during training at the airport in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, July 23, 2010. The pilot, Capt. Brian Beuse, ejected before impact with the ground. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Lethbridge Herald, Ian Martens)
28. Captain Brian Beuse successfully ejects from his fighter during an unsuccessful training session before the air show in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Lethbridge Herald, Ian Martens, File)
29. Pilot Brian Beuse successfully ejects during a plane crash in Alberta, Canada. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Lethbridge Herald, Ian Martens, File)
30. A single-engine T-28 of the six-plane Trojan Horsemen Demonstration Flight Team explodes during an air show display in Martinsburg, Wyoming. One spectator was killed in two accidents in two days at two different air shows. (AP Photo/Journal Newspaper, Ron Agnir)
31. A P-51 Mustang overturns before crashing at an air show in Reno, Nevada, September 16, 2011. The plane fell into the spectator seats. (AP Photo/Grass Valley Union, Tim O'Brien)
32. A P-51 Mustang plane crashes at the Reno Air Show. The World War II plane, piloted by 75-year-old Jimmy Leeward, crashed to the ground during the popular annual air show. (AP Photo/Garrett Woodman)
33. A P-51 Mustang plane crashes on the edge of the spectator stands at the Reno Air Show. (AP Photo/Ward Howes)
Tragedy
The disaster occurred at 12:45 local time. Su-27, piloted Vladimir Toponory And Yuri Egorova performed an aerobatics maneuver called an oblique loop with a turn. The pilots did not have enough altitude to bring the plane out of the descent; it touched a tree, then hit the concrete with its wing and slid for some time along the ground through the airfield filled with spectators. After that, he touched someone standing at the airfield and began to somersault. An explosion occurred at the crash site and a strong fire broke out. The pilots after the plane hit the ground for the first time and managed to leave it before it collapsed and caught fire. Both pilots were saved.
Fire crews and ambulance crews were immediately rushed to the crash site. In total, about 20 ambulances were at the scene of the tragedy. The injured, including the surviving Su-27 pilots, were sent to five hospitals in Lvov.
Investigation and aftermath
In the first hours, several versions of the reasons for what happened were put forward, including:
- pilot error;
- aircraft engine failure;
- an error in organizing flights, an error in organizing the accommodation of spectators at the airfield;
- too much fuel poured into the aircraft.
In the evening, the President of Ukraine arrived at the scene of the disaster: "Terrible tragedy. No words can describe it. And in a nightmare".
A decree was signed on the dismissal of Colonel General Viktor Strelnikov as Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Air Force. The Prosecutor General's Office arrested Viktor Strelnikov and three other high-ranking Ukrainian military officers.
Data obtained in the first stages of the investigation into the causes of the Su-27 plane crash indicate that the causes of the tragedy were serious miscalculations in the organization of preparation and execution of flights in the Air Force and, in particular, in the organization of demonstration events in Lvov. July 28, 2002, press service of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine
On the same day, Ukrainian Defense Minister Vladimir Shkidchenko submitted his resignation.
Su-27 flight recorders were found at the crash site and were sent for decryption.
On September 6, 2002, the results of an investigation by a commission of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine were published. The main reasons for the tragedy were identified as “deviation of the crew from the pilot task and an error in piloting the Su-27.” The commission's materials were submitted to the trial, which ended on July 24, 2005.
Su-27 flight recorder recording
12.43.31. Signal from the on-board warning device (for 5.5 seconds) indicating a descent along the route to the altitude specified by the radio altimeter. 12.43.33. Egorov: “You and I have a large remainder. Do you understand?” 12.43.37. Egorov: “6 tons. Do you understand?” 12.43.43. Toponar: "Where are the spectators...?" 12.43.48 Egorov: “I don’t know where they are...”. 12.43.49 Toponar: “Ah, there, I see it.” Egorov: "...No on the right side!" 12.43.54. Toponar (to the ground): “I’m performing aerobatics to the left.” Egorov: “Well, let’s go?” 12.43.58. (Command from the ground) Yatsyuk: “Left, left.” 12.44.14. Egorov: “Turn on.” 12.44.34. Egorov: "Let's go." 12.44.36. Signal about descent to a dangerous altitude. 12.44.39. Egorov: "Barrel". 12.44.44. Egorov: “Enough - corner.” 12.44.51. Voice informant: "Aircraft 42, maximum speed." 12.44.58. Egorov: “Turn.” Voice informant: "Board 42, maximum angle of attack, maximum overload." 12.45.01. (command from the ground) Yatsyuk: “Turn.” 12.45.02. Egorov: “Turn it out...” 12.45.05. (command from the ground) Yatsyuk: “Take it out.” 12.45.07. (command from the ground) Tretyakov: “Take it out, add speed.” 12.45.10. (command from the ground) Yatsyuk: "Fast and Furious." Voice informant: “Limit angle of attack, maximum overload.” 12.45.11. (command from the ground) Tretyakov: “Add momentum.” 12.45.18. Stop the tape recorder.Court sentence
- Vladimir Toponar, who flew the Su-27 aircraft, was sentenced to 14 years in prison and a fine of 7.2 million hryvnia (about 1 million 300 thousand dollars).
- Yuri Egorov, co-pilot, was sentenced to 8 years in prison and a fine of 2.458 million hryvnia (about 450 thousand dollars).
- Anatoly Tretyakov, commander of the 14th Air Corps, was sentenced to 6 years in prison and paid 700 thousand hryvnia (about 130 thousand dollars).
- Yuri Yatsyuk, deputy flight director, was sentenced to 6 years in prison and paid 700 thousand hryvnia (about 130 thousand dollars).
- Anatoly Lukinykh, head of the flight safety service of the 14th Air Corps, was sentenced to 4 years of suspended imprisonment and payment of 200 thousand hryvnia (about 35 thousand dollars).
- Oleg Dyubetsky, responsible for crew training, was acquitted due to the lack of corpus delicti.
None of the accused admitted their guilt in the tragedy.
Criminal cases against four generals, including the ex-commander of the Ukrainian Air Force General Strelnikov, were separated by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine into separate proceedings.
The tragedy in Sknilov became the bloodiest in the history of the air show and put an end to such events in Ukraine
Exactly 16 years have passed since the largest disaster in the history of world air shows. The pilots found guilty of causing the deaths of 77 people have served their sentences, but many questions remain unanswered.
Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy
On July 27, 2002, the weather was excellent in Lviv, and more than 10 thousand city residents and children arrived at the local airfield in Sknilov to become spectators at the grandiose air show. On this day, the 14th Aviation Corps of the Ukrainian Air Force celebrated its 60th anniversary, whose command decided to please the townspeople with an unforgettable performance with the participation of a large number of aircraft.
The highlight of the program was to be the flight of the ultra-modern Su-27 fighter, the control of which was entrusted to the most experienced pilots To Vladimir Toponar And Yuri Egorov.
At that time, Vladimir Toponar already had about 27 years of flying experience and for the last six years was a member of the elite aerobatic team “Ukrainian Falcons”, which repeatedly took the main prizes of international air shows. Yuri Egorov had less flying experience, but was also considered a very experienced and professional pilot.
The sun was shining hotly over the airfield, and spectators scattered throughout the air show area, watching the flights of light aircraft and helicopters.
Last flight
At approximately 13:00 local time, a Su-27 took off, and the audience greeted its flight with applause. Of course, the pilots began to perform aerobatic maneuvers one after another!
At the same time, they were at extremely low altitudes and directly above the heads of the spectators. Many could even see the details of the fuselage of a jet fighter and told the children about the principles of its flight!
But four minutes later the incredible happened. The plane began to sharply descend and fall directly onto the observation field. He touched one of the trees standing nearby, caught the wing of an Il-76 standing on the runway and crashed straight into the crowd of spectators, tearing them apart.
The explosion of fuel tanks completed the tragedy. Those who did not die under the wreckage of the fighter were burned alive. The doctors on duty at the airfield could not provide assistance to all the victims, so all available ambulance teams from Lvov were sent to Sknilov.
In total, the plane crash killed 77 people, including 28 children, and several hundred spectators received burns and injuries of varying severity.
It is worth noting that at the moment when the Su-27 began to ram the spectators, the pilots managed to eject and were practically unharmed. Some spectators tried to carry out lynching on them right at the airfield, but the military did not allow this.
Switch pilots are to blame
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine conducted an emergency investigation and named the culprits of the tragedy as pilots who deviated from the flight mission and made mistakes in piloting the Su-27.
The mistakes of the air show organizers were also pointed out. According to experts, they, in violation of safety regulations, allowed flights at ultra-low altitudes directly above the observation field, which housed tens of thousands of spectators.
In addition, the commission's conclusion stated that, due to fuel savings, the organizers did not conduct mandatory training flights the day before the air show, during which the flight capabilities of the aircraft could be tested.
The Ukrainian court agreed with the conclusions of the expert commission, finding Vladimir Toponar (sentenced to 14 years in prison) and Yuri Egorov (8 years) guilty of the death of people.
How many curses they had to hear at the trial from the relatives of the victims! But the pilots never admitted their own guilt, stating that the cause of the crash lay in malfunctions of both engines, the power of which at ultra-low altitudes dropped to catastrophic levels.
Or maybe the organizers?
According to a lieutenant colonel who was part of the investigation team Gennady Zhukov, at the time of the plane crash the plane was moving at a speed of 360-360 km/h. Although testers showed 430 km/h. In addition, in conditions of rarefied air due to high temperature, when exiting a dive, the lifting force of the wing sharply decreases, which the organizers and pilots clearly did not take into account.
Perhaps this was the main cause of the tragedy, but during the trial, Vladimir Toponar unexpectedly announced that there was... a UFO in the flight zone.
This statement infuriated the command of the Ukrainian Air Force and the judges considering the criminal case. Toponar received the maximum possible prison term. But the four generals who were responsible for organizing the air show were acquitted.
Later, the deputy commander of the 14th Air Corps was sentenced to 6 years in prison Anatoly Tretyakov and deputy flight manager Yuri Yatsyuk(and for some reason the bosses had nothing to do with it!), and the head of the flight safety service of the 14th air corps Anatoly Lukinykh received a 4-year suspended sentence (a generally incomprehensible court decision).
Independent Ukrainian and international journalists have repeatedly pointed out the inadequacy of the court's decision, which imposed selective punishments. Many were interested in how it could be that direct leaders were acquitted by the court, and their deputies were convicted? But these questions remained unanswered.
Saving on sacrifices
Yuri Egorov served 2.5 years in prison, and Vladimir Toponar spent 8 years in prison. Today, both receive a military pension, from which they pay a fine imposed by the court (perhaps, at the time of writing, they have already paid - author)
The acquitted generals are also doing quite well. In contrast to the victims of the Skniliv tragedy, who received minimal assistance from the state for the treatment and burial of loved ones. Most of them believe that the investigation into the causes of the plane crash was deliberately fabricated in order to free the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense from the need to pay victims material and moral damage.
The European Court of Human Rights today has several dozen lawsuits from people affected by this tragedy. But no one is in a hurry to consider them.
That day in Lviv and its environs there was excellent summer weather. On this day, about ten thousand people went to the air show in honor of the 60th anniversary of the 14th Aviation Corps of the Ukrainian Air Force, which took place at the Lviv airport in Sknilov.
Spectators looked at the aircraft with admiration and greeted the flights of the ace pilots with applause. About an hour local time, a Su-27 took off under the control of Vladimir Toponar And Yuri Egorova.
The pilots began the demonstration program, but after about four minutes something went wrong. The Su-27 descended to a very low altitude, touched a tree, hit the runway with its wing, touched a standing Il-76 and crashed into a crowd of spectators. A large amount of fuel remained in the tanks, which caused an explosion and a severe fire.
Everything happened in a matter of moments. Those who stood in the distance did not even understand what had happened at first. But for 77 people these moments were the last in their lives. Among the dead were 28 children. The number of victims was in the hundreds.
Who is guilty?
The Sknilovsky disaster remains the bloodiest air accident in the entire history of air shows. From that moment on, a categorical ban was imposed on holding such events in Ukraine.
Over the past 15 years, a lot has happened in Ukraine that, in terms of the scale of grief and horror, has eclipsed the disaster near Lvov. But for people who have lost loved ones, for those who have lost their health, this does not make it any easier.
For a decade and a half, there has been debate about who is actually to blame for what happened?
The court identified the Su-27 pilots as the main culprits, who survived the crash and were practically unharmed. At the moment when the combat vehicle began its deadly dance in the crowd of spectators, they managed to eject.
The pilots were hated - the fact that they did not die, unlike those who came to see their skills, in the eyes of many also became a crime.
The official conclusion of the Ministry of Defense commission was that the main cause of the disaster was “the deviation of the crew from the flight mission and errors in piloting the Su-27.”
Scapegoat survivor
The organizers also pointed out the shortcomings of the organizers - the placement of the flight zone too close to the location of the spectators, insufficient control over the implementation of the flight program.
The recording of the pilots' conversations shows that at some point they lost orientation in space and did not see where the spectators were. However, neither the pilots themselves nor the flight director stopped the program.
The day before, the show participants had to conduct training flights to record terrain landmarks. But due to fuel economy, the training was cancelled.
The main scapegoat was the commander of the Su-27, Vladimir Toponar. At the trial, which ended in 2015, he received 14 years in prison. The rather strange testimony given at the trial did not play into his favor - for example, that ... a UFO appeared in the flight zone. The second pilot, Yuri Egorov, who made less excuses, was given 8 years, and he was released after two and a half years. Unlike Toponar, who spent 11 years in prison.
“Until the last moment I hoped that the fighter could still be lifted”
In 2013, in an interview with the publication Fakty, Vladimir Toponar spoke about the reasons for what happened: “What happened is the fault of the organizers. Airplanes must not fly over spectators. During the show, I had to perform several aerobatic maneuvers, and only a few minutes were allotted for them. At half roll, I noticed that the thrust of both engines had decreased and the speed had dropped. But the cause of the malfunction remains unclear! Meanwhile, on the ground they confidently ordered to continue the flight. During the execution of the last figure - an oblique loop with a turn - the plane became uncontrollable. At the trial they said that the pilot made a mistake due to inexperience. Yes, I have 27 years of aviation experience, more than two thousand hours of flight time, I was part of the Ukrainian Falcons group. I performed such elements dozens of times. The moment the Su-27 hit the ground with its wing, I realized that in a few seconds I would die. However, until the last moment I hoped that the fighter could still be lifted and returned to the sky - and I made every effort to achieve this.”
Indeed, Vladimir Toponar’s qualifications were not in doubt - he had been flying as a member of the Ukrainian Falcons aerobatic team for six years by the time of the tragedy.
The generals were removed but acquitted
Some experts also spoke about problems with engine thrust. In 2016 reserve lieutenant colonel Gennady Zhukov, who was part of the team of investigators, stated that water got into the air system of the SU-27 and damaged the instruments, which gave the pilots incorrect data. “They started the last figure at a speed of 430 - they saw it, the tester recorded it, the commission saw it. But in reality, the speed in them was 360, and maybe less,” the Ukrainian portal TSN quoted Zhukov as saying in 2016.
But the official version of the 2002 disaster is still the “human factor.”
In addition to the pilots, three more military men were convicted for the tragedy in Sknilov - Deputy Commander of the 14th Air Corps Anatoly Tretyakov And Deputy Flight Director Yuriy Yatsyuk received 6 years in prison, Head of the Flight Safety Service of the 14th Air Corps Anatoly Lukinykh— 4 years probation.
Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Air Force Viktor Strelnikov was dismissed. He and four other generals were also put on trial but found not guilty.
The victims are still suing for compensation
Vladimir Toponar, who was released, is still paying the 150,000 hryvnia fine imposed by the court from his modest military pension. And the victims of the disaster are flocking to the courts, trying to get compensation from the Ukrainian authorities. What was paid was not enough for many even to undergo initial treatment, while dozens of victims needed long-term rehabilitation. The European Court now has more than 30 lawsuits from Ukrainians who suffered in Sknyliv. However, the consideration of these cases is proceeding with difficulty - the ECHR gives priority to political cases and LGBT issues, and judges simply do not get around to the victims of the disaster.
The level of Ukrainian Air Force pilots has dropped significantly over the past 15 years. Today it is only enough to bomb unarmed people in Donbass. However, even there, as soon as the militia began to repel aviation, the activity of the Air Force was curtailed.
By the way, according to Ukrainian media, the son of Vladimir Toponar serves in the so-called “ATO zone” as a helicopter pilot.
On July 27, 2002, at an air show near Lvov, a Su-27UB combat fighter crashed into spectators. 83 people were killed (19 of them children), 116 people were injured. The pilots managed to eject.
Saturday morning, July 27, 2002: the Sknilov army airfield, near Lvov, is crowded. Everyone is looking forward to the start of the holiday dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the 14th Air Corps, stationed in the western regions of Ukraine. The children are especially happy: their parents promised them that they would be able to sit on real airplanes.
The An-2 was the first to appear in the sky. Circling over the airport runway, it dropped paratroopers.
Then two sports Yak-52s performed aerobatic maneuvers in front of the podium. But everyone expected the appearance of real combat vehicles - the flights were announced in the program.
And now the announcer reports that the Su-27 fighter-bomber, which took off from its deployment site in the village of Ozerny, Zhitomir region, is already approaching the airfield.
Everyone was waiting for this particular fighter. The eyes of more than seven thousand Lviv residents and visitors turned to the edge of the runway, from where the plane was about to appear. The roar of powerful turbines drowns out the voice of the announcer talking about the technical characteristics of the “cracker” (as pilots and technicians call the machines designed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau). Wing span 14.7 meters, length 21.9 m, height 5.9 m. Take-off weight 22.5-23 tons. Maximum speed at an altitude of 11 km is 2500 km/h. Dynamic flight ceiling is 24 km. The power plant is two AL-31F turbofan engines, each developing thrust with afterburner of more than 12 tons.
Sparkling with its fuselage and wings, the Su-27 at low altitude rushes over the runway in front of the podium, causing an explosion of general delight.
Meanwhile, the noise of the engines turns into a thunderous roar, the Su-27UB fighter, piloted by test pilot 1st class Vladimir Toponar and pilot 1st class Yuri Egorov, lifts its nose upward, rapidly gaining altitude, then falls to the side, performing aerobatics - "barrel". After this, it turns around and goes into a steep dive, again approaching the airfield.
According to eyewitnesses, at some point the fighter suddenly descended sharply; Almost at the very ground, the crew tried to raise it to a safe height, but at the same time the Su-27 touched the wing of an Il-76 standing on the field. The car, having lost control, dove, the pilots ejected, and a moment later the 20-ton fighter crashed to the ground, turning into a fireball and destroying everything in its path. A pillar of flame and black smoke rushed towards the sky. The spectators, among whom were many children, were maimed and killed by fragments of metal, crushed by the blast wave, and burned by the fiery tornado of ignited aviation kerosene.
A witness to the disaster, Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Yaroslav Kolyasa, says:
"Ace pilots!" - a thought flashes through my mind. We flew a couple of meters above the buildings of the Lviv Aircraft Repair Plant! The spectators clapped wildly.
But what is it? The plane continues to descend. I’m not a pilot, but I also understand that it’s time to take the car out of its dive.
The plane shook or struck - I didn’t understand! - the crowns of tall poplars growing along the edge of the territory of the aircraft repair plant were already rushing over the concrete taxiways leading to the entrance of the enterprise, and continued to lose height! The audience - and me too - still thought that this was how it should be, that this was some kind of trick.
And the fighter struck its wing at the Il-76, which stood on the inspection site and was open to everyone. I didn’t hear the sound of an impact, but fragments splashed around. Later I was told that at that moment there were several spectators with children in the Ila cabin - it’s hard to even imagine what they went through.
I see how the canopies of two parachutes flared above the plane, which was already falling into pieces.
And the fighter, having “plowed” the concrete path, jumped out onto a grass field, falling apart and falling apart...
Then - flames, black smoke. Heat blew out at us, like from a blast furnace.
Panic set in and the crowd threw me away from the fire.
Screams over the field. It seems that the firefighters were the first to assess the situation: red cars instantly appeared near the fire, and jets of water hit the flames.
Still not realizing what I was doing, I ran to the place where the fallen plane had plowed through. The thought worked - since the car fell into pieces and everything was on fire, there should be no explosion, the tanks collapsed, the fuel leaked out.
What I saw will probably never be forgotten.
Suddenly I see a man in some unusual clothes walking towards me, staggering. I read on the patch: Yuri Egorov. I don’t immediately realize that this is one of the pilots who piloted the ill-fated fighter. They grab him by the arms so he doesn't fall and take him to the side. Later I learned that both pilots (the second was Vladimir Toponar) suffered serious spinal injuries due to the emergency ejection.
Three ambulances have already arrived at the crash site.
The microphone, standing somewhere near the hosts of the show or on the podium, came to life, I didn’t understand. Dozens of people snatch it from each other, shouting: “Petya!.. Misha!.. Slavik!..” “Mom, dad near the podium, where are you? Come here!.."
...And minutes later, the military and police were already a human chain pushing the rushing crowd away from the site of the fatal fall of the fighter.
In the first minutes after the tragedy, severed heads, arms, and legs lay on the blood-stained airfield. Whole families of people died: a father, mother and two children who came to watch the aviation festival. One of the victims, a 40-year-old man, stood holding the hand of his wife, who in turn was holding her two children. The wreckage of the plane literally swept away the woman and her children, and in the father’s hands only the severed hand of his wife remained. The young guy next to him guessed to lie down and therefore remained alive.
“That day, I, my girlfriend and a friend, went to Sknilov for an air show - after all, it’s a variety, not everyone can go to discos or concerts,” twenty-four-year-old Alexander Savchenko told reporters. - There are a lot of people at the airfield - ten thousand. People are distributed in groups of about a thousand people. And this must happen - the plane fell in our thousand. I was easily injured, I don’t even know how, on my arms and legs. Minor cuts. My friend’s hip joint was crushed and her bone marrow was damaged. Now she is in intensive care; doctors say she has problems with her spine. And my friend was terribly lucky. The man standing in front of him had his head torn off, and Peter tripped over this head and fell... This saved him. Born in a shirt. We were all covered in blood like water - it flowed out of people like fountains. I can’t close my eyes at night - I immediately see this picture. And Peter hasn’t spoken at all since then...”
When the first shock wore off among the spectators and air show participants, they realized with horror what had happened. A toxic fire was blazing where the stands had just been located. The bodies of the dead were scattered far around the explosion site. The groans of the wounded, the cries of horror, the crying of children... In the first minutes, no one could even approximately imagine the scale of the tragedy. But it soon became clear that the number of victims was in the dozens.
A terrible tragedy befell the family of warrant officer Vladimir Serbin from Lvov. He came to watch the show with his sons, six-year-old Rostislav and eight-year-old Yuri. All three died.
Ambulances took people to four hospitals. Most of the victims suffered severe burns, cuts and lacerations.
“I have never seen anything like this,” said Vasily Ivanyushko, a doctor in the intensive care unit of the Lviv Emergency Hospital. - 14 people were immediately brought to us in critical condition - with traumatic brain injuries, wounded limbs, and bodies. They had to be pulled out literally from the other world. Alas, two were never saved - a teenage boy and a woman about forty-five. By the way, only two of our patients, when they regained consciousness, were able to remember their last names.”
Perhaps the Lviv telephone network has never experienced such a flurry of calls. There is only one question: “Are you all alive?” Both on Sunday and Monday in Lviv, near hospitals and the city morgue, people crowded, trying to find out whether their relatives and acquaintances were among the victims and dead. Obtaining such information was not easy. After all, when the plane crashed, it mutilated many of the victims beyond recognition. The situation was complicated by the fact that most of the dead and injured did not have any documents with them.
President Kuchma, interrupting his vacation in Crimea, urgently arrived in Lvov. After holding an emergency meeting at the scene of the tragedy, he fired the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Air Force Vladimir Strelnikov, and the country's Minister of Defense Vladimir Shkidchenko, on the instructions of the President, fired the commander of the 14th Air Corps Sergei Onishchenko. The military prosecutor's office of the Western region opened a criminal case in connection with the incident. What was the cause of the disaster was to be answered by a state commission headed by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Yevgeniy Marchuk. The President of Ukraine demanded a report on the results of the investigation and the measures taken by August 7.
The pilots of the crashed fighter suffered severe but non-life-threatening spinal injuries during the ejection. Vladimir Toponar and Yuri Egorov told the president that they were powerless to prevent the tragedy.
Soon the pilots were transferred from intensive care to the military medical center in Vinnitsa. The fact that their health was not in danger most outraged the eyewitnesses of the incident.
The plane's black box was found and sent for examination. According to the first official version, the cause of the tragedy was the simultaneous failure of two aircraft engines. Russian experts were extremely skeptical about the version put forward by the Ukrainian side about the simultaneous failure of two engines of the Su-27 fighter. The AL-31F turbojet engines with afterburner installed on this aircraft have proven themselves to be extremely reliable over decades of operation in many countries around the world, in a variety of climatic conditions. In addition, to regulate the operating modes of the AL-31F, the functioning of two systems is provided - electronic (main) and hydraulic (backup). The characteristic features of the AL-31F include modular design, high gas-dynamic stability of the compressor, low specific fuel consumption, high testability and manufacturability. According to specialists from the Sukhoi Design Bureau, they cannot remember that a simultaneous failure of two engines occurred on a Su-27 under normal piloting conditions.
Nevertheless, the Sukhoi aviation military-industrial complex did not rule out that the cause of the tragedy at the air show in Lviv could have been the failure of the engines of the Su-27 fighter, since, according to experts, after the collapse of the USSR, aircraft in Ukraine were operated with serious technical violations.
And yet, the cause of the tragedy in Lviv was the notorious human factor. The Ukrainian army in general and the Air Force in particular were in critical condition after the collapse of the USSR. Over the years of independence, pilots have lost their former professional qualifications. Ukrainian pilots have a minimum annual flying time. The weapons remaining from the Soviet Union were operated in gross violations of established rules. The same can be said about exercises and training using technology.
Aviation safety expert Valery Timoshkin, for example, compared the disaster near Lvov with the tragic death of Hero of Russia, Major General Timur Apakidze. On July 17, 2001, during a holiday in Ostrov, near Pskov, a Su-33 under his control crashed. The cause of the disaster was a pilot error. Apakidze, apparently realizing that he was to blame, died himself, but the plane was diverted away from the audience.
The Ukrainian commission concluded that the tragedy was caused by “serious miscalculations in the organization of preparation and implementation of flights in the Air Force, and in particular in the organization of demonstration events in Lvov.” This was stated in a message from the press center of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.
The tragedy could have been avoided if the air show organizers had maintained the minimum safe height and distance from the spectator stands. Then the pilot, in the event of an emergency, had the opportunity to divert the plane to the side. This is evidenced by the experience of aviation accidents at the world's largest air shows, such as Farnborough and Le Bourget, where crashes and incidents with aircraft have recently occurred without loss of life.
First class pilot Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Melnik, having watched television reports about the tragedy, noted obvious errors in the organization of the show. Flights must be demonstrated at an altitude of at least 400 m, and the machine itself must not fly over the audience.
According to generally accepted standards, the distance from the location of the flight to the location of the spectators should be from 300 m to 1.5 kilometers. Even if the pilot makes a mistake, the organizers must provide for this. According to Melnik, a pilot would not stoop so low to the ground on his own in full view of his superiors: “There must have been a script, and someone gave the go-ahead to it. There was a flight director who, if the pilots violated the altitude regime, had to give the order not to carry out the mission further.” Melnik described Yuri Egorov, whom he knows, as a strong pilot. “People should forgive him, since he himself has already been punished enough by the tragedy that happened.”
And here is the opinion of expert V. Timoshkin:
Second. The minimum height of the vehicle's withdrawal from vertical figures is always determined - in this case, no less than 100 m. But the Ukrainian pilots calculated 30-40 m, for which they paid. Here we see first a mistake by the show organizers, and then also by the pilots themselves. The organizers of the show are to blame for the tragedy, not just the crew.”
Less than two weeks had passed when the chairman of the commission to investigate the causes of the disaster, Yevgeny Marchuk, announced that there had been a deviation from the flight mission. The black box records have been deciphered. The pilot asked: “Where are our spectators?” Before the fall, the crew received a warning: “The plane has entered supercritical overload.” It was established that all systems and components of the machine were working normally.
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