That day - March 27, 1968 - became a day of mourning for the whole country, because it lost its hero - the First Cosmonaut. Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin did not return from an ordinary, in general, training flight on a MiG-15UTI aircraft …
Not enough 200 meters …
As a result of the investigation, the following reason for the tragedy was announced to the people: "The crew, due to the changed air situation in flight, made a sharp maneuver and fell into a tailspin." At first, many were perplexed: how could such an experienced pilot like Gagarin die because of what kind of air situation there was? But then it became known that, despite numerous regalia and the title of a 1st class pilot, Yuri Alekseevich did not have so many "raids" - he was too busy with social work: trips, interviews, attendance at various official events … And this affected that last flight. Ironically, Yuri Alekseevich intended to go on that flight alone, but General N. P. Kamanin considered that he was not quite ready yet, and gave the order to the pilot V. S. Sereginu to accompany him.
Aviation Lieutenant General Pushkin, Honored Military Pilot of the USSR, recalls: “Having heard from Seryogin on the phone that he would release Gagarin himself on an independent flight, I mentally approved the choice of the export command: Volodya fought, behind him - 200 sorties to Il- 2, three downed Messers; total flight time of 4 thousand hours. He graduated from the academy with an assignment to the Air Force Flight Research Institute. As a pilot, he is reliable, cool, qualified and highly disciplined."
Gagarin and Seregin took off early in the morning, the flight proceeded as usual, and at 10 hours 19 minutes the pilots reported to the command that they were returning to the airfield. At 1032 hours, communication with the aircraft was lost … This alarmed everyone, because the MiG-15 should have had enough fuel for only ten more minutes. The pilots did not return, and the search was urgently abandoned Il-14 aircraft and helicopters. By 15 o'clock near the village of Novoselovo, Kirzhach district (Vladimir region), the remains of an aircraft were found …
According to the researchers, the cause of the plane's death was the changed air situation, due to which the car made a sharp maneuver and left the cloud layer, diving almost vertically. The pilots tried to bring the car into horizontal flight, but literally 200-300 meters were not enough for them - the plane collided with the ground, and the crew died. During the investigation, no equipment failures or malfunctions were found.
However, why do versions of the reasons for the deaths of the pilots still appear? Probably, it's all about the ambiguity of the wording - what does "changed air situation" mean? What is it: a thundercloud, a cloud, a flock of birds, a balloon-probe … what is this factor that caused the plane to enter its fatal peak? There is still no answer.
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Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was sure that on that March day, an interceptor Su-15, which was also performing a training flight, passed next to Gagarin's plane. The trajectory of this aircraft was not agreed with anyone, and its appearance was a complete surprise for Gagarin and Seryogin, which led to a sharp dive. This version of the plane crash has a right to exist and, as Alexei Leonov himself writes (by the way, who refused to name the pilot responsible for the crash): “In 2013, I turned to Putin:“Vladimir Vladimirovich! Forty-five years have passed since Yuri Gagarin died, open the documents. " Opened. Everything is just like I said: an unauthorized plane next to a twin "(the so-called two-seater version of a single-seat fighter or a sports plane) passed, turned it over,and then they asked me not to give the name of this test pilot …
By the way, he is alive. He is already over ninety. In 1988 he became a Hero of the Soviet Union ….
Did Gagarin need an instructor? …
All agree that the instructor Vladimir Seregin, despite his experience, underestimated the emergency situation. Someone even hints at a malicious intent, which, of course, is ridiculous - however, we can say with confidence that Seregin's mood before departure was significantly spoiled. Before getting on the plane, he talked on the phone with the head of the Chkalovsky garrison, and colleagues noted that he was angry and tense. Moreover, General Kamanin suddenly gave the order to fly with Gagarin, and this is a huge responsibility in itself!
Of course, Kamanin had the best intentions. As he writes in his diary: “March 26. After the meeting of the State Commission, General Kuznetsov (head of the Cosmonaut Training Center in 1963 + 1972) reported to me that tomorrow it is planned to release Gagarin on an independent flight on a MiG-17 aircraft. Kuznetsov asked me to allow him to personally check on the UTI MiG-15 aircraft Gagarin's readiness for an independent flight.
I banned the joint flight of Gagarin with Kuznetsov, directly telling the latter that he had long lost his skills as an instructor pilot. I gave permission to the commander of the regiment V. S. Seregin tomorrow to check the piloting technique with Gagarin, and ordered General Kuznetsov to personally check the organization of the release of Gagarin in flight, analyze and report to me the air situation and meteorological conditions. I reserved the right to permit Gagarin's independent departure. It is believed that due to catching up with the authorities, Seregin's heart began to ache on the plane, so he unfastened his seat belts, and when the car pivoted, he lost consciousness. However, he had the preemptive right to control the aircraft, so Gagarin, sitting in the front cockpit, could not do anything. And he made a conscious choice - to stay with a friend until the end,and not to be ejected from a falling plane … Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin later wrote that he loved Gagarin like a son. Interestingly, the general did not accept the official conclusions of the state commission about the deaths of Gagarin and Seryogin. He believed that Gagarin and Seregin were unconscious after losing contact with the Earth, and also allowed sabotage, but he did not say anything directly and did not name names …
Gagarin conspiracy theories
Of course, there was no shortage of conspiracy theories of varying degrees of madness. There were ridiculous rumors that Gagarin somehow crossed the road to Brezhnev, and therefore was eliminated by the Soviet special services. According to another version, Gagarin exposed foreign agents in the top Soviet leadership and wanted to inform Brezhnev about this, and therefore was eliminated by the American special services.
Of course, the case was not without aliens. So, allegedly one collective farmer (who was just heading to a village store for a drink) watched as Gagarin's plane collided with an alien ship - "bright, round and shiny" and, moreover, emitting white rays.
But the "clairvoyant" Vanga, famous for her unfulfilled predictions, claimed that Gagarin did not die, but was taken by aliens straight to heaven. And such an outstanding authority as engineer E. Emelyanov, according to his own statement, was also abducted by aliens. The aliens took Emelyanov to a spaceship, where he saw three earthlings, one of whom was Gagarin. Unfortunately, in the publications dedicated to E. Emelyanov, it is not indicated whether Emelyanov is registered in the mental hospital and whether doctors are providing him with assistance.
The alien version of the death of Gagarin is also confirmed by theoretical scientists. Thus, a certain A. Subbetto, referred to as a "doctor of philosophy", believes that he is inclined to believe that Gagarin was abducted by aliens. Subbetto argues that if several people saw the plane crash into a huge luminous ball at once, then Gagarin's abduction is true.
One cannot help but admire the purely philosophical approach to the problem - since the "eyewitnesses" saw how Gagarin crashed into a UFO, it means that Gagarin was kidnapped!
There is still heated debate about the purpose for which the aliens abducted Gagarin. Either Gagarin spied on alien secrets during a space flight, and therefore was abducted (so as not to blab out!), Or the aliens liked Gagarin too much, so they took him to themselves. The evidence that UFO researchers seek to confirm their constructions is striking in its irrefutability: “This theory makes sense, just remember the fact that after Yuri Gagarin's flight into open space, information about the flight was not fully made public. The true content that could shed light on what happened is in the classified documents. This means that the cosmonaut really saw what he was not supposed to know, and this determined his fate."
However, not everyone believes in aliens. So, a researcher from Zhitomir E. Chursin believes that Gagarin was kidnapped by the Templars, since Gagarin wanted to reveal to the people the secret of the Slavic-Aryan Vedas! However, recently Chursin watched the film "Aquaman", after which he realized that he was mistaken - in fact, Gagarin was not kidnapped by the Templars, but the Atlanteans living at the bottom of the ocean …
Be that as it may, it seems that the time has not yet come to reveal the true reasons for the death of Yuri Gagarin …
MiG-15UTI
The MiG-15UTI is a Soviet jet two-seat training aircraft based on the MiG-15 fighter. Developed by the Mikoyan and Gurevich Design Bureau in the late 1940s. The armament of the I-312 was simplified and consisted of one NR-23 cannon with 80 rounds of ammunition and a UBK-E machine gun with 150 rounds of ammunition. The aircraft was also equipped with wing bomb racks for the suspension of 50 kg and 100 kg bombs. The disadvantages of the MiG-15UTI generally corresponded to the shortcomings identified in the MiG-15, at the same time the aircraft also had all the advantages of the basic model. In addition, the new aircraft met the requirements of the military for a training fighter and was recommended for adoption.
Vladimir Sergeevich Seregin
Vladimir Sergeevich Seregin (July 7, 1922, Moscow - March 27, 1968, Kirzhachsky District, Vladimir Region) - military pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1945), 1st class test pilot (1967), engineer + colonel. Member of the Great Patriotic War, pilot of ground attack aircraft, Hero of the Soviet Union (1945). Completed a huge number of combat missions. Seryogin flew a low-altitude IL-2. During the war years, he flew 140 missions of combat significance with the assault of enemy troops, 50 reconnaissance missions with photographing enemy objects. He had 19 air battles. Died in a plane crash together with Yu. A. Gagarin during a training flight on a MiG-15UTI aircraft, during which he served as an instructor. Urn with Seryogin's ashes installed in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
Gagarin's doubles
Yuri Gagarin was escorted to the spaceship by not one, but two backup. In addition to the well-known German Titov, Grigory Nelyubov was the understudy. Unlike Gagarin and Titov, he did not put on a spacesuit, but was ready to fly in case of special circumstances.
Farewell letter
Two days before the flight into space, Yuri Gagarin wrote a farewell letter to his wife in case a catastrophe happened. In 1961, this letter was not required. Gagarin's wife Valentina Ivanovna will be given this letter after the plane crash on March 27, 1968, in which the first cosmonaut of the Earth died.
Do you know that…
The Vostok spacecraft did not provide for the landing of astronauts inside the descent vehicle: at an altitude of 1500 meters, the pilot ejected. This was due to the fact that the "Vostoks" did not have soft landing engines that ensure a safe landing. In addition, the specialists feared that the hatch would “weld” under the influence of high temperatures in the dense layers of the atmosphere. However, due to the landing outside the ship, the International Aeronautical Federation refused to register Gagarin's record flight. And then the Soviet representatives cheated by announcing that the first cosmonaut had landed in the cockpit. The actual circumstances of the landing of the USSR were officially recognized only in 1964.
How many hits were there?
Initially, three prelaunch appeals of the “first cosmonaut to the Soviet people” were recorded. The first was recorded by Yuri Gagarin, and two more were recorded by his backup German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov. In exactly the same way, three texts of the TASS message about the first manned flight into space were prepared: in case of a successful flight, in case of a search for an astronaut, and also in case of a disaster.
I'm on fire …
During the final stage of the flight, Yuri Gagarin threw a phrase about which for a long time they preferred not to write anything: "I am burning, goodbye, comrades!" The fact is that before Gagarin no one had a clear idea of what it would look like for a spacecraft to pass through dense layers of the atmosphere during descent. Therefore, Gagarin, like any pilot, seeing a raging flame in the window, assumed that the spacecraft was engulfed in fire and in a few seconds it would die.
Nikolay Petrovich Kamanin
Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin (1908-1982) - Soviet pilot and military leader, Colonel General of Aviation (1967-25-10), one of the seven first Heroes of the Soviet Union (1934). Member of the operation to rescue the expedition of the steamer "Chelyuskin" (1934). Organizer and leader of the training of the first Soviet cosmonauts (1960-1971). Since 1960, Kamanin directed the selection and training of the first Soviet cosmonauts. From January 1961, he carried out this work officially, being the head of the department for preparation and support of space flights of the Air Force General Staff. In 1966-1971 he held the post of Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for Space. In August 1971 - retired. He lived in Moscow. He died on March 12, 1982.
Journal: Unknown USSR (War and Fatherland). Author: prepared by Alexander Stela