You can only hear about this in flight schools

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

40 years ago, an event took place, which is only talked about in the classroom in flight schools and at the homes of the participants in the events. It was a regular flight from Leningrad to Moscow. Shortly after takeoff, a call lamp from the passenger compartment came on in the cockpit. Commander Vyacheslav Yanchenko asked the flight mechanic to find out what was the matter. He returned to the cockpit with an envelope.

"The man handed over the letter, demands to change course and fly not to Moscow, but to Sweden, and threatens to blow up the plane," recalls Hero of the Soviet Union Vyacheslav Yanchenko. In addition, the criminal demanded to be allowed into the pilot's cabin in order to control the actions of the crew … Text of the note:

“For 5 minutes to read! To the commander and crew of the aircraft. Dear Pilots! I ask you to send a plane to Sweden, Stockholm airfield. A correct understanding of my request will save your life and mine, and those who, with their atrocities, forced me to do this, will be responsible for this. After a safe landing, I may return to my homeland, but only after a personal conversation with representatives of the highest authorities of the USSR. In my hands you see a weapon. This projectile contains 2 kg 100 g of explosives used in mines, which means this charge in action, you do not need to explain. Therefore, do not circumvent my request with provocation. Remember that any risk will end in a plane crash. Convince yourself of this firmly, for I have studied, calculated and taken into account everything. The projectile is designed in such a way that in any position and provocation it will be detonated without warning ….

The handwriting was uneven and illegible. Therefore, the crew commander only considered a long message. It contained a threatening description of the operation of an explosive device, and outlined the bandit's demand to let him into the cockpit. The phrase was striking:

“For many years I have been experiencing the claws of bloodthirsty superbeasts on my skin, and otherwise death for me is not sadness, but a refuge from the predatory animals hungry for my life.”

After that, the second pilot V. M. Krivulin (with a pistol) and navigator N. F. Shirokov came out to the terrorist. In the course of communication with the criminal, they managed to find out that the explosive device is made in such a way that it will be activated when the terrorist's fingers are unclenched. It became clear that it was impossible to eliminate the criminal. After that, the commander of the ship V. M. Yanchenko made a decision to return to the Pulkovo departure airfield … At this time, outside the cockpit door, Gryaznov was negotiating with the terrorist, gradually pushing him away from the passenger compartment.

The incident on board was reported to ground services. However, it was pointless to wait for instructions. In the 73rd year, there were simply no instructions on how to act correctly in such situations. The commander independently decided to return to Leningrad.

It was impossible to fly to Stockholm. At that time, any plane crossing the USSR border without special permission could be shot down. The flight mechanic and the navigator had to take turns to calm down the terrorist with a bomb in his hands, which could only detonate if he removed his finger from the button. They tried to convince him that the plane was going to Sweden.

“Our crew had a pistol. I gave the pistol to the co-pilot and, naturally, it was impossible to touch it. If he fired a shot, he would still release the button,”says navigator Nikolai Shirokov.

They approached the landing from the south, from the side of the Pulkovo Heights, so that the terrorist would not see the Leningrad spiers and domes through the window. The commander pulled from the chassis to the last. He released them when the ground was 150 meters away. But, having heard the characteristic roar of the emerging racks, the invader understood everything and released the button. From the explosion, the control mechanisms jammed, the plane began to fall.

Vyacheslav Yanchenko recalls that it was possible to level the car just a few moments before the collision with the ground: “The plane is dropping lower and lower. And already scraping on concrete - the speed was even greater. Sparks fly in all directions."

The uncontrollable liner stopped on the ground. Only after that did the pilots open the armored cockpit door and saw: their colleague Vikenty Gryaznov and the terrorist had died. The flight mechanic closed the passenger compartment with his body. Thanks to this, no one else was hurt. Only 45 minutes have passed since the departure from Pulkovo.

The decree on rewarding flight mechanic Vikenty Gryaznov was read to his wife and children after a month and a half. Now it sounds strange, but forty years ago people got on a plane like on a regular bus, it never occurred to anyone to inspect passengers or their belongings. Even the passport was not always asked. The ticket was enough.

Investigators later found out that the bomb was brought in an ordinary travel bag. And soon throughout the Union, air passengers began to show the contents of their bags.

The entire crew after that flight was presented for military awards. For many years they could not be told what these awards were for. Today the secrecy label has already been removed from this case. And Vikentiy Gryaznov's colleagues hope that they will be allowed to perpetuate the memory of the man who saved that flight at the cost of his own life. First person:

“We were already quite close to the landing strip, the height was 150 meters,” recalls Vyacheslav Mikhailovich, “From the ground they saw that we were landing without releasing the landing gear. We did not want to attract the attention of a criminal with a typical noise. And I gave the command to release the chassis at the very last moment. But then there was an explosion. The door of our cockpit held out, but debris, some kind of debris and smoke burst into it from under the inner skin of the aircraft. Navigator Shirokov, who was sitting behind me, reported that there was a fire on board. Subsequently, it was found that the explosion of the device in the metal tube turned out to be directed, its main force went towards the side, tore out the front door along with part of the fuselage. The entire power of the explosive charge was taken over by the flight mechanic Vikenty Grigorievich Gryaznov, who was near the terrorist. Both died from the explosion. The terrorist, who wanted to fly to Sweden, flew to the next world from the explosion of his own bomb. The Tu-104 aircraft was seriously damaged as a result of the explosion. But none of the passengers were injured anymore …

We did not lose consciousness from the explosion. I moved the steering wheel, felt that the plane was controlled. And we continued to decline. I was often asked later if I was scared. I will answer as in spirit: in this whole story, from the beginning to the end, I did not feel fear, there was no time to be afraid. There was only tension, the search for the most correct way of action. And one more feeling took possession of me: all of us, the crew, are like one hand, each doing everything that is necessary and that is possible. The airliner lands on an inclined trajectory, and then raises the bow and sits down gently. When the right moment came, I moved the control wheel towards myself, but the plane did not begin to level off, continued to go down, as it was going. Here the counting of time began, perhaps, not for seconds, but for their fractions. Co-pilot Vladimir Mikhailovich Krivulin and I, two healthy men, pulled the controls as best we could.

At the cost of incredible, extreme efforts, the co-pilot and I still managed to raise the nose of the car, and the landing turned out to be relatively soft. The plane rushed along the runway, we released the braking parachute. The speed dropped, and the bow, as it should be, began to lower to stand on the front wheel, but did not stand up. The bow dropped lower and lower. The front desk came out, but as the pilots say, it did not come out to the lock. We didn't have a front wheel! Krivulin and I managed to meet our eyes. There are 10 tons of fuel on board, and even a fire … If the bow with the pilot's cabin begins to slide on concrete, an additional sheaf of sparks will hit the plane, and then the cabin will begin to collapse. Therefore, having waited until the last moment, I pedaled the car from the concrete road to the side safety lane. A sharp jolt, and the plane froze, with its nose buried in the ground. Only forty-five minutes passed between take-off and landing ….

Vladimir Arutinov reports: “The contact with the ground was very tangible. "Citizens, calm down!" It seemed to me that there was a wadded silence. There were no screams, no hysteria, no fainting. The passengers moved first to the back door of the liner, because they understood that they should leave the plane that was burning inside without the slightest delay. But it was too high (about seven meters) and no one wanted to jump down onto a concrete strip even in that situation … The fire inside the cabin was quickly extinguished by ground services and a mass evacuation began through the front door. Of course, there was some hustle and bustle in the narrow aisle between the rows of seats. But no one knocked each other down, no one walked over anyone, no one rushed forward at the expense of others … Amazing people here …"