The An-2, which disappeared six months ago in the Sverdlovsk region under mysterious circumstances, has already been compared to a ghost board from the American TV series Lost (“The Lost”, in the Russian version - “Lost”)
The Oceanic movie board flew from Sydney to Los Angeles and crashed on an island in the ocean, where mysterious reality-shifting events began to take place. The Ural "maize" took off on June 11 at 22 o'clock from a tiny airfield in the city of Serov with an experienced pilot and 12 passengers on board. "Annushka" did not ask for permission to fly and did not leave any information about the direction of travel.
In addition to the foot group, two dozen aircraft of the Federal Air Transport Agency, the Ministry of Emergencies and even a space satellite were involved in the search. Answer the question: “Where is the RA-40312 board? What about people? - it still fails.
Special correspondent "MK" conducted its own investigation in Serov and found out: "wild" pleasure flights for cash at the local airport were practiced regularly; An-2 could fly into a zone where the magnetic field changes, the devices show the wrong direction, and the electromagnetic radiation affects, among other things, the human psyche; why a seemingly absurd version still prevails among local residents: the plane was shot down from a secret unit that controls the sky over the Northern Urals; and whether there is a chance even now to find the passengers of the "maize" who has flown away to nowhere alive.
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At the entrance to Serov airport, a red shield weighs with the inscription: it is forbidden to enter the airfield without an accompanying person. But the barrier is open. As I leave the car, I grab a warning sign out of the corner of my eye: “Stop! Service dogs on the territory. I barely have time to flop back down on the seat when a snarling dog the size of a calf grows up at the door of the Zhigulenka.
Accompanied by a shepherd dog, we slowly roll to a shabby two-story building, which is both a control room and a hotel for flight pilots. From the special transport at the airport, a battered tractor and a rusty attachment to a lawn mower. The unpaved runway is under the snow.
I am trying to meet with the head of the landing strip Valentina Soboleva, whose husband, Yuri Sobolev, who works as a watchman at the airfield, flew away that June evening on the An-2. But Valentina Fyodorovna, warned about the reporter's visit, hurried to retire from work. Relatives of the missing passengers say: “She understands that her every word can be used against her. Then he can go in a criminal case not as a witness, but as an accomplice in a crime. The landing site was run by Soboleva. And she could not help but know that the pilots on business conduct unauthorized flights with passengers on board."
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Meanwhile, the watchman Alexander comes out of the airport building, shouting from afar: "The site is put up for auction, if there is an investor with 7 million, we will work more, if not, we will be closed."
Until recently, the local airport was a subdivision of the 2nd Sverdlovsk Joint Aviation Detachment and Uktus airport, which is now in the stage of bankruptcy. After the An-2 disappeared, a prosecutor's check came here, it was revealed that the site was not properly marked, overgrown with grass, there was no security service at the airfield, and all responsibility for the flight lay solely with the aircraft commander. As a result, the work of the air site was suspended.
- Yurin's overalls are still hanging in the closet, his boots were put with socks inside the room, the omen is such - to return, - says the watchman Alexander. - Yura was lucky, he himself joked that he was “charmed”. It's no joke, for 30 years he worked as a pilot-observer, paratrooper-paratrooper in Avialesokhrana, jumped into the very hotbeds of forest fires. Only seven years ago he began to work as a watchman at the airport, but he missed the sky very much.
There was a ringing silence at the airfield for months, and on May 16, An-2 arrived in Serov from Orenburg. The aircraft was rented from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Orenburg International Airport by the Chelyabinsk company Aviazov for monitoring forest fires. The crew's mission was to last until September 15.
The last time the plane climbed on a mission on May 31. Then it started raining, the fire hazard classes were lowered, and the "maize" was temporarily locked up.
Each crew member used the respite in his own way. The co-pilot, Valery Kuzovenkov, went to Orenburg to drive his car out of the house. The aircraft commander, Khatip Kashapov, secretly from the tenant arranged, as the pilots themselves put it, "pokatushki". One of the unauthorized flights of An-2 was filmed by local fishermen on June 10 over the Kiselevskoye reservoir. The pilot, arranging an attraction, dived to the very edge of the water and again soared into the sky.
Later, the passengers of that flight were also found. They turned out to be two married couples. Having agreed on the flight, the husband thus decided to give his wife a gift for the wedding anniversary. They took their friends on board with them. Khatip Kashapov outlined the tax: "I need 1.5 thousand for gasoline, and the rest - how much you will give." They gave another 1.5 thousand.
"An-2" was like a truck, everything inside the cabin was trembling, it was shining from the windows. The pilot held on to the steering wheel, constantly pulled the levers, flipped toggle switches, - said one of the passengers of the "pokatushek" held on June 10. - Only now it began to reach us: our lives were in the hands of one pilot …"
“Now they say about the An-2 based here, that it is a“half-century old man”,“a flying bucket with nuts,”says Alexander. - And the plane was only 25 years old, it went through all the required overhauls, the last one was in 2010. He would have worked out his resource only in three years. And the most experienced pilot was at the helm. Khatip Kashapov has been driving An-2 since 1982, has more than 8000 flight hours, was awarded with the badges “Excellent Air Transport” and “For Accident-Free Hours of Flight” II degree. On January 3, he celebrated his 50th anniversary. His wife and three children were waiting for him at home. And in the summer, the same young people came to the airfield, like his two sons and a daughter, asked for a ride. Why not? Of course, earnings are not superfluous. Before the trip to us in the Urals, due to the lack of orders, the crew sat on vacation without pay for a long time.
The fate of the incredible way gathered passengers on the ill-fated flight
Initially, on June 11, Khatip Kashapov was not going to lift the "Annushka" into the sky. With the watchman Yuri Sobolev, they cooked dinner, heated the bathhouse and waited for the co-pilot from Orenburg. Investigators then found on the table a beer bottle, a decanter with the remains of homemade liqueur and two glasses.
At this time, 26-year-old cousins Ivan Chikishev and Evgeny Trenikhin were passing by the airfield. They were doing repairs at a relative, the head of the traffic police of Serov Dmitry Ushakov, taking construction waste to the dump. Seeing the "maize" on takeoff, they asked the almighty Ushakov to arrange an air travel.
From that moment on, events began to develop at an accelerated pace. The head of the traffic police arrived at the airfield, talked with PIC Kashapov. The intermediary in the negotiations was most likely the watchman Sobolev, who knew all the local authorities well. A fixed amount of "pokatushek" was named - 6 thousand rubles. The plane on two benches located along the sides could accommodate 12 people. To keep the pay per person as low as possible, they began to urgently recruit people.
Dmitry Ushakov phoned almost half of his employees. Some were at the dacha, others were visited by guests. Former traffic police inspector Sergei Frolov, for example, was late to climb into the sky. But I wanted to! In his 38 years, he has never flown by plane. And the current employee - 24-year-old Maksim Maevsky - did it. He also took with him his sister Oksana, with whom they were the same, and her fiancé from Yekaterinburg Maxim Glinskikh. Young people applied to the registry office, waited for the groom's parents to visit. Oksana, a hairdresser by profession, dressed up in an elegant long chiffon dress. In such a dress, almost a ballroom, and arrived by taxi to the airport.
A casual acquaintance of Maxim Mayevsky, 20-year-old Lyudmila Gagarina, also got on board. The girl was from the village of Gari, from a large family.
Fate unbelievably gathered passengers on the ill-fated flight. Zhenya Trenikhin, who works as a lineman at the Serovskaya hydroelectric power station, called his colleague, 30-year-old Denis Baranov, on the flight, with whom he fished and hunted together. He took the car and rushed to the airport.
When Ushakov phoned 29-year-old Grigory Shaad, an avid cyclist and photographer, he was in bed with a high fever. But he could not miss the opportunity to take pictures of the mountains from a bird's eye view. When he got dressed, he jumped out into the street, the car with his fellow travelers was already turning the corner, began waving his arms, whistling, and as a result managed to jump into the salon.
Anton and Yulia Safonov did come to the airfield, according to relatives, to fly a kite. Anton, 31, worked as a security guard at the local enterprise Ufaleinickel. Yulia turned 33. “This is our best laboratory assistant,” say her colleagues at polyclinic # 1. - Her parents had three daughters. The youngest girl died at the age of 14 from an electric shock. Now there is no news about Julia for six months. She was unlucky for a long time in her personal life. Finally she met Anton. I was happy without measure … They lived together for 1.5 years, recently returned from a honeymoon from St. Petersburg. So they dreamed of children."
Relatives are now wondering how Yulia, who was terribly afraid to fly, could get into an old "maize"? However, they immediately answer themselves: “She loved her husband very much, trusted him in everything. So I followed him on the plane."
One seat turned out to be free, and 67-year-old watchman Yuri Sobolev climbed into the salon. I jumped on the plane in what I was wearing - a T-shirt and slippers.
People gathered on the flight in an inexplicable haste. KVS Kashapov, for example, did not take with him a pilot bag with maps and additional emergency communications and radio beacons. And in three An-2 passengers' cars parked at the take-off, radio tape recorders remained on, and on the dashboards - working mobile phones and documents.
At about 23.00, the "maize" left on its last flight. In the Northern Urals at this time it is still quite light. We planned to fly for 20-30 minutes.
Returning from Orenburg, co-pilot Valery Kuzovenkov saw the An-2 already running along the takeoff. The plane was going hard, once it even touched the landing gear bushes.
"How small aviation in the Urals" went deaf"
On the walls of the dilapidated communication center of the Serov airfield hang yellowed flight instructions, a fly-by-night sightseeing map and posters with airplanes.
Previously, the dispatch center, which provided communication for small aircraft flying over the north of the Sverdlovsk region, was located at the airport in the village of Sosva. On March 26 this year, the entire staff of dispatchers was reduced. Soon after that, the dispatch point at the Uktus airport in Yekaterinburg was also closed. After that, small aircraft in the Urals "went deaf". Vladimir Pakhmutov, senior dispatcher at the Sosvinsk airport, who worked there for 27 years, admitted: “The aviation in our region now flies like this: in the morning they call on the phone that they are flying out, and in the evening they call and report that they have arrived. If something happens on the way - the ship will simply disappear into the taiga, unable to report the trouble."
The chairman of the local tourist club, Andrei Belyaev, suggests that the "maize" could head for the Konzhakovsky Kamen - one of the highest peaks of the Ural Mountains, 1569 meters. There are completely coniferous forests, mountain tundra and stone deposits. This area is adjacent to the village of Kytlym. Passengers of the "Annushka" could also go to Denezhkin Kamen, where there is a reserve of mixed fir-cedar-spruce taiga. We could also fly to the Kvarkush ridge, where there is a special energy, on the slopes there are huge raspberries, nicknamed "bear paradise".
Dmitry Ushakov, summoning his acquaintances on the flight, said: "Let's fly to Kytlym." In a straight line it is 77 kilometers. One of the witnesses, the captain of justice, claimed that he saw the board over the village of Verkhnyaya Lobva, which is 30 kilometers from Serov. It would seem that the direction of the search was determined - northwest. But then two hundred more testimonies of witnesses were added to this data. Psychics began to attack the headquarters …
- Clairvoyants from Voronezh, Uzbekistan, Tataria called every two hours. Faxes came in a stream: “We, the psychics of Kazakhstan …” We marked all the “prophecies” on the map, as a result a “sun” with many rays formed around Serov,”says Yuri Gerasimenko, head of the Civil Protection Department of the Serov city district. - Relatives asked to check every point, the forces of rescuers were scattered, they were thrown from place to place. As a result, we began to accept applications from relatives only in writing. And that was: "I dreamed … Check." For the first 2.5 months, the headquarters met daily. Plus, a group of experienced analysts worked in Yekaterinburg. The An-2 flight route could be traced by specialists of the air defense radio-technical regiment, which used to be on the “hill” in Serov, but the unit was disbanded.
A group of 1.5 thousand people went out daily to inspect areas of taiga, mountain slopes, swamps: professional rescuers, riot police, police and firefighters.
- We checked all deep lakes and flooded quarries with an echo sounder. On the surface, we looked out for oil spots, aircraft parts and, excuse me, corpses. Nothing anywhere, - says the state inspector of the Center for State Inspection of Small Vessels of the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation in the Sverdlovsk Region, Peter Ivanov. “The rivers are shallow almost along the entire course, and the height of the An-2 on wheels is 4.5 meters. Even if, suppose, he dived with his nose, the tail would still stick out.
Space photography also did not produce results. “We examined 16 suspicious objects, found only heaps of scrap metal and an abandoned transformer box,” says Yuri Gerasimenko.
- Why the plane was not found?
- Honestly, I don't know. At one time we were looking for the crashed An-2 in the area of the Kakvinskiye Pechei, then it turned out that the two groups passed the plane very close - 10 meters away - and did not notice the “maize” stuck vertically in the cedar. The plane was visible only from a certain angle.
- Most likely the plane is somewhere in the forest, - says Pyotr Ivanov. - In 1985, during my student practice, I had to look for "An-2" in the Polar Urals. We were given the task to take samples on the slope of the hill. There, among the forest thickets, we found the crashed "maize". He was lying on a slope, in a windbreak, from above it was impossible to see. It turned out that the plane was taking a shift to the drilling rig - and for some reason it crashed into the slope and crashed. We found it 8 years after it went missing. Debris and one skull.
When they were looking for the missing An-2 on June 11, rescuers on the ground and pilots in the sky fell into areas where everyone felt uncomfortable. The pilots and observers on board at once began to feel dizzy, they were inordinately sleepy. The search guys downstairs almost fainted. Certain areas slipped by, and everyone's head cleared up. And it was in these zones, as rescuers admitted, that even the satellite phone did not work.
Due to magnetic anomalies - iron ore lies close to the earth's surface - the compass needle deviates by almost 30 degrees, it was useless to use thermal imagers in searches. Moreover, the taiga was full of animals. Experts say the devices would go off for every bear, wolf or wolverine.
Anti-aircraft weapons were not used
As a result of almost 6 months of searching, no broken branches, no oil stains on the lakes, no pieces of sheathing, no torn off consoles were found. "An-2" seemed to have evaporated. In Serov, they are still asking the question: could the warriors take "corn" without communication for a training goal? "The low-flying object moved at a speed of about 200 km / h, did not respond to requests and demands in the restricted area, the reaction from the attendants took 2-4 minutes, then a volley."
“We were forbidden to fly near Kytlym, as if we were shining on the warriors' radars,” hang gliders add fuel to the fire.
The military sluggishly dismissed it: “We have no air defense troops. The zone is closed only during the launch of spaceships, when debris of spent rocket stages and a nose fairing can fall into the taiga.
The military prosecutor's office of the Central Military District was forced to conduct an inspection. The headquarters of the Central Military District issued an official statement: on June 11, 2012, anti-aircraft weapons were not used within a radius of 250 km from Serov's air site.
The chairman of the Kytlym village council, Aleksey Semenko, assured: “The military unit is located not far from our village, where 400 people live. To Karpinsk 60 kilometers. If the plane was shot down by the military, someone would surely notice the outbreak, the forest would catch on fire, there would be witnesses, because in the summer there are many fishermen and hunters in the taiga, on rivers and lakes. These people are not military, they did not give a nondisclosure receipt to anyone …"
Yuri Gerasimenko, head of the Civil Protection Department of the Serov city district, also speaks out against the “military trail”: “In the 1980s, it was still possible to hide the fact that the plane was shot down. Now, when any information is sold, it is impossible to do it."
Viktor Shaad, whose son was one of the passengers of the missing plane, has his own opinion: "If the military were to blame, they would unsubscribe and unsubscribe, and they sent only one paper."
It would seem that the investigation ruled out the version that the plane was shot down. But the residents of Serov unanimously say: “We do not believe. Shot down and cleaned up all traces."
“We considered the version that one of the drunken hunters could shoot at the plane, hit the engine or the cockpit … But even in this case, this type of plane does not go into a tailspin, it plans,” says Victor Shaad. - The commander of the aircraft is used to flying at low altitude, some obstacle could suddenly appear in front of him, for example, a tall dry tree, the pilot did not manage to maneuver and fell. Could all passengers at once, for example, having noticed a bear, crowd at one window, for example, in the tail, where the view is better. The alignment was violated … A technical malfunction could have affected or the device could fail, there are abnormal zones around. But then again, everyone, no matter who I talk to, assures that absolutely everyone on board could not have died.
Even with full tanks, the An-2 cannot fly further than 500 kilometers. Initially, they were guided by 250 kilometers, assuming that the pilot had calculated gasoline for the way back and forth. Then they began to think that the pilot was distracted, he missed the "point of return", began looking for a camp for landing, the necessary clearing did not appear and did not appear … But the pilots said that the An-2 could land on an unsuitable platform. Can glide and land even without a running engine. He will hardly be able to take off - he will lose the chassis. But at the same time people will be saved. I think that our An-2 flew into the Perm taiga zone, where there is practically no population. It is clear that it is necessary to expand the search boundaries up to 500 kilometers.
The missing An-2 is Russia in miniature
But on November 13, when a snow cover settled in the taiga, the search for the An-2 aircraft was stopped. The corresponding order was signed by the chairman of the government of the Sverdlovsk region Denis Pasler.
The “eye-catcher” and “peskochesom”, as the rescuers themselves put it, surveyed 3339 sq. km of taiga and swamps. Almost 300 thousand "squares" were viewed by pilots and observers from nearly two dozen aircraft. According to preliminary estimates, almost 200 million rubles were spent on searches.
Rescuers reported that they found the An-2 that crashed 6 years ago, as well as the Mi-8. But the locals are perplexed: “What was to look for them? Everyone knew where on the branches of the trees near the village of Kondratyevo lay the "maize" At one time a lot of people were loaded into the biplane, some with buckets of berries, some with bags of cones. The plane, barely taking off, immediately glided to the treetops. Only one passenger, having evacuated, broke his leg, the rest safely jumped into the deep snow. The fuselage of the plane, pierced by fir trees, was not lowered, only the engine was removed from it. As for the Mi-8, the residents of the surrounding villages knew perfectly well in which glade the abandoned car was rusting, all and sundry were taking pictures with the “turntable”.
Meanwhile, the relatives of the An-2 passengers believe that their loved ones could survive the plane crash and take refuge, for example, somewhere in a cave. In the autumn, in the taiga, there were a lot of mushrooms, berries, a good harvest of pine nuts. There are experienced fishermen and hunters among the passengers. It is in vain to remind them that people boarded the plane in summer dresses, shorts and slates. And in the taiga there are hordes of midges and midges, not to mention wild animals.
They do not want to hear that there was an emergency radio beacon on board the missing An-2, but it can only emit when you manually turn it on. The signal was never found. This means that there was no one to deploy the antenna.
Some say about the disappearance of An-2 in Serov: “It's a thriller of some kind …” Others say: “Typically Russian history”.
In the course of the proceedings, it turned out that every pilot of small aircraft can write out a ticket for himself, inspect himself and fly. And Kashapov, who put 12 people on board, violated only one thing: he took passengers with him on the flight.
When even all buses in Europe are equipped with automatic emergency beacons, it turns out that it is not necessary to install them on corn trucks. And the watchman can leave his post and fly away to nowhere in slippers.
"The tragedy with the An-2 is the result of uncontrollability and impunity," say Serov residents. The most cynical even say: "Or maybe natural selection." And they propose to remember who got on board the "maize".
The traffic police inspector Maxim Mayevsky was, it turns out, on the verge of dismissal. In May, while driving drunk, he flew into a ditch. Two of his passengers - saleswomen of a draft beer shop - were injured. One girl was admitted to the hospital with a concussion, the second was diagnosed with a compression fracture of the spine. Mayevsky, under the auspices of the chief, head of the traffic police Dmitry Ushakov, hid the fact of the accident. Mayevsky's father immediately sold the car that had been in an accident. Although he had no right to do this. The ambulance was not called. The victims were taken to the hospital by an acquaintance of Dmitry Ushakov. Later, the enemies "snitched" in the regional head office, employees of the Internal Security Directorate worked with Mayevsky, he was forced to write a statement of his own free will. Under Ushakov, they say, the chair also "swayed."
After the disappearance of the plane, it turned out that there were also those on board who were engaged in a not entirely legal business. For example, creditors now come to the common-law wife of Grigory Shaad, Anya, and demand money for the goods given to her husband "on parole". And Anya and Grisha were not officially registered, the woman was sure that her husband earned money only by repairing apartments.
In Serov, it's not a secret for anyone that the airfield watchman in Serov, Yuri Sobolev, like his wife, the head of the landing site, Valentina, loved to kiss the "forty-degree", in local slang - so that "only the fur coat wrapped up."
And the youngest passenger of the ill-fated flight, 20-year-old Lyudmila Gagarina, according to local residents, did not refuse to take money for sex. After her daughter's disappearance, her mother lost her legs. The daughter fed their entire family with many children.
The missing An-2 is Russia in miniature. Attitude towards tragedy is an indicator of how painful our society is. When some in the swamp haze among gnats and gadflies were looking for traces of missing people, others posted “fake” satellite maps with a “fallen” plane on the Internet and, on behalf of one of the sons of the missing pilot, Khatip Kashapov, collected money to find the plane.