In the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow, there is an urn with the ashes of Yuri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut of the USSR, the first man in the world to fly into space. He died tragically in a ridiculous plane crash on March 27, 1968, the reasons for which are still not fully understood. His death was a great loss for the whole world.
And it all started so beautifully … On April 12, 1961, the whole world was amazed to learn that the Soviet Union had launched a spaceship with a man on board into near-earth orbit. He ascended into space and developed an unprecedented speed for that time - 28 thousand kilometers an hour! Gagarin flew around the Earth only once at an altitude of 302 kilometers, having spent 108 minutes in flight!
It was an unheard-of sensation. Russia has overtaken America! Russians are the first in the universe! They are her conquerors! The name of a simple guy from the small Russian city of Gzhatsk, who performed a feat in the name of science and all mankind, over the years has become a symbol of peace, heroism and valor of the country that has embarked on the exploration of outer space.
He traveled all over the world. He was greeted by parliaments and crowned heads, financiers and politicians. They looked at him like a miracle. It seemed that he, the first to look at the world from the Universe, a man with a charming smile could only live and delight earthlings.
And seven years later, another news spread around the world, mourning near the village of Novoselovo, Kirzhachsky District, Vladimir Region, the first cosmonaut in the world, Yuri Gagarin, died during a training flight in a plane crash.
Rumors spread that this was all rigged. Someone believed that the first cosmonaut was not saved, they deliberately lured into a trap, since he no longer represented any value from himself, and his worldwide fame allegedly irritated the country's leadership. He became capricious, demanded too much for himself, conceived a lot of himself and therefore was no longer needed.
On the other hand, a version was put forward that it was a conspiracy of his envious people, who slipped him a faulty plane. Considerations were also expressed that this could be an enemy sabotage: the enemies of the socialist country decided to remove its charming symbol and put explosives on the plane. Some even began to claim that he decided to commit suicide and chose this method for this.
There was hardly any truth in all these rumors and speculations. But rumors appeared, multiplied, and the Soviet government kept people in complete ignorance of the true causes of the disaster. Much, due to the practice that developed in the Soviet legal system, was simply kept silent: there is no need to agitate public opinion, even if in the minds of citizens he remains a hero.
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But Gagarin was not only a man of the Soviet country, he was a man of the world. And the world should have reported, told about the investigation and the revealed causes of the tragedy. Moreover, the Western media not only put forward their own versions, but also tried to provide some evidence in their favor. The public resonance of Gagarin's death is evidenced by the creation of several commissions that investigated the causes of the plane's crash. Many experts put forward their theories, mostly of a technical nature, but did not come to a single and unambiguous conclusion. Let's try to cite the obtained data, which were taken as a basis.
On that day, there was a regular training flight. Gagarin was going to take off with the pilot Seregin. He had not flown independently for a long time - exactly seven years. During the time spent in the cosmonaut corps, he essentially retrained. In addition, constant absences, trips to foreign countries, participation in social receptions, conversations with diplomats at dinners - all this not only discouraged, but also distracted him from his main profession, and he wanted to make another flight into space. And in order not to lose the acquired qualifications, I decided to try myself. Friends advised him the same. And now it was possible to restore the skills of a pilot-pilot.
Gagarin and Seregin were to complete only five flights: three control and two independent. The MiG-15 # 625 was already ready. There were no technical problems in it. It should be noted here that the MiG-15, on which Gagarin and Seregin were to take off, was already an outdated machine by that time. It entered service in the early 1950s. Then "MiGs" were delivered to the countries of the Warsaw Pact and the Middle East. In the Soviet Union, it was used mainly for training flights. It has long been replaced by a more maneuverable, faster and more powerful MiG-21. But in order to take to the skies in the brand new MiG-21, it was required to restore their qualifications on a training aircraft, which remained reliable in control and almost never fell into a tailspin.
Seregin was appointed commander, who was supposed to check Gagarin in the case and report his readiness to the leadership. The flight duration was not to exceed twenty minutes. In essence, this meant - to climb, fly 150-200 kilometers away and return. The visibility was not the best that day (cloudiness), but not the worst either - rain and fog were not promised.
However, as it turned out later, the aerial reconnaissance that day was carried out with a delay. The pilots did not have an accurate idea of the state of the weather in the area where the training flight was to take place. There was evidence that the lower edge of the clouds is at an altitude of 900 meters, but in fact, this data turned out to be inaccurate. The clouds dropped much lower and continued to descend.
The start was given at 10 hours 19 minutes. The engine was started, it roared, flame burst from the nozzle. The MiG began accelerating and soon soared into the sky. He made a turn and quickly went beyond the horizon. The clock began to tick the planned twenty minutes. Constant communication was maintained with the aircraft, the pilots were all right.
The flight took ten minutes. For some reason, he did not answer to the dispatchers' request from the Earth about the passage of flight No. 625. Again, a request was sent, which again went unanswered. Agonizing minutes flowed down.
After the allotted time, the plane did not return. Everyone knew that by this time he had already run out of fuel …
And everyone was afraid to say the worst thing. Nobody wanted to believe that they could have crashed. But then what happened to them? Why didn't they come back? Engine failure? Maybe they planned or ejected?
Everyone looked at the sky with hope: they will suddenly appear, because there is a miracle. But the miracle did not happen …
And then the rotorcraft set off in search. They circled around a hundred kilometers from the airfield, but could find nothing. Meanwhile, the cloud cover dropped to 150 meters, it began to get dark. Weather conditions did not allow to continue large-scale searches, but still one of the helicopters at a distance of 64 kilometers from the airfield managed to find the remains of a wrecked car and a crater from its fall. On the branches of the trees, we noticed a flight board, scraps from a jacket with lunch coupons, on which the surname "Gagarin" was visible. That was all …
Later, the state commission to investigate the causes of the accident found that the ground-based radio altimeter turned out to be faulty, control over the flight altitude was carried out according to the reports of the crews. But could this have played a decisive role in the disaster? Seregin, an experienced pilot, had to get his bearings.
Many who visited the crash site in those days noted the strong smell of aviation kerosene. So they had enough fuel? But why then did the car crash into the ground? What turned out to be faulty?
It is possible that either a bird (since it was not flying at high altitude) or a balloon-probe hit the nozzle of the plane. After all, when hitting the ground, the cockpit was depressurized. This happens if the plane collides with any object in the air.
The version that the crew commander Seregin was not sufficiently prepared for the flight did not stand up to criticism. His track record indicated that even during the war years he made two hundred sorties, was an experienced and knowledgeable first class pilot. He was distinguished by composure and discipline.
Perhaps the commissions of inquiry found the reasons for the plane's death, but this was never officially reported. The case was closed, considering that a number of negative factors led to the death of the plane.
From the book: "HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS". N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev