Airplane crash a321 thread. Experts: Airbus A321 fell, as it should have fallen. The plane was shot down

On October 31, 2015, a Russian plane Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia (Metrojet) flying 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg, on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

There were 224 people on board, including 217 passengers (58 men, 134 women and 25 children - of which 212 people were citizens of the Russian Federation, four people were citizens of Ukraine, one citizen of Belarus) and seven crew members.

Mostly residents of St. Petersburg flew in the plane. Residents of neighboring regions - the Leningrad Region, Novgorod, Pskov, Karelia, and several people from other subjects of the Federation also returned to Russia. All on board were killed. The crash was the largest in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation.

The plane Airbus-A321 of the airline "Kogalymavia" (Metrojet), in which the tour operator Brisco, took off from Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg on October 31 at 06.51 Moscow time and disappeared from the radar screens 23 minutes later. According to the Egyptian Civil Aviation Administration, the airliner followed at an altitude of 9.4 kilometers, then dropped sharply by 1.5 kilometers, after which it disappeared from radar.

The fate of the aircraft was not reported for a long time. The liner disappeared from the radar screens in the Cyprus region, therefore, for half an hour, they could not determine the exact location of the possible crash.

Egyptian military aircraft were in search of the Russian aircraft. The Israel Defense Forces are serving Egypt by sending their reconnaissance aircraft to participate in a search operation.

Debris A321 was found in the center of the Sinai Peninsula in the mountains between the areas of El-Kantal and El-Laxim near the city of Al-Hasna. To identify the aircraft, the emergency services of Egypt were sent to the place of detection, where a large-scale search and rescue operation was carried out.

In agreement with Cairo, a grouping of forces and means of the Russian Unified State System for Prevention and Elimination of Emergency Situations (RSChS) in the amount of more than one thousand people and 250 pieces of equipment was involved in the elimination of the consequences of the crash of the liner, of which more than 660 people and 100 units were from the EMERCOM of Russia technicians, as well as psychologists EMERCOM of Russia.

On-site search operations were organized using unmanned aerial vehicles and space monitoring data, more than 40 square kilometers of the territory were surveyed.

On the day of the plane crash, two A321 airborne emergency recorders were found in Cairo - voice and parametric.

In connection with the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the declaration of mourning in the country on November 1, 2015. The authorities of St. Petersburg until November 3, and the Leningrad region - until November 4.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on the fact of the plane crash of a Russian plane in Egypt was first under the article "Violation of the rules of flights and preparation for them", then another one under the article "Performing work or providing services that do not meet safety requirements." Later they were in one production.

On behalf of the President, the Russian government in connection with the disaster, headed by the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) was led by the executive director of the committee, Viktor Sorochenko.

Cairo immediately after the disaster, all interested countries about the opportunity to take part in the investigation of the tragedy. A special one was created, it included specialists from five countries: Russia, Egypt, France (the state of the aircraft developer), Germany (the state of the aircraft manufacturer) and Ireland (the state of registration). Ayman al-Mukaddam was appointed head of the commission to investigate the disaster.

On November 1, 2015, Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Ahmed Sadek is investigating the causes of the crash with a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula. According to the Russian ambassador to Cairo, Sergei Kirpichenko, Russia and Egypt have, according to which Russian specialists have access to almost everywhere they want to go as part of the investigation of the A321 crash.

A group of investigators and criminologists of the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia, in agreement with the competent authorities and together with representatives of the Republic of Egypt in accordance with the norms of national and international law, participated in the inspection of the site of the plane crash in Egypt.

The head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bortnikov, during a meeting in the Kremlin on the results of the investigation into the causes of the crash of the Russian plane, said that as a result of the examination of personal belongings, luggage and parts of the plane that crashed in Egypt, traces of foreign-made explosives were revealed. It happened like a terrorist attack.

In turn, the Egyptian authorities. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said that this criminal case considers the terrorist attack as one of the versions.

In March 2016, the International Commission to Investigate the crash of the Russian A321 aircraft announced that it had transferred it from the Investigative Committee of Russia to the Egyptian Prosecutor General's Office to complete legal procedures. The commission itself, despite the transfer of the case to the investigative bodies of the state security of the country, will continue a technical examination of the wreckage of the liner.

In mid-April, Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek about the crash of a Russian plane to the country's Supreme State Security Prosecutor's Office. The decision of the head of the supervisory department, it was noted in the text of the statement, was made on the basis of the data of the report of the Investigative Committee of Russia, "which indicates the suspicion of a criminal trace."

In June, CIA Director John Brennan, speaking in the US Senate, announced that American intelligence was involved in the explosion on the Russian A321 passenger plane of the Egyptian group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist movement banned in many countries (IS), and on August 4, the Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of the leader of this terrorist group.

On August 28, the crash investigation commission began "laying out" the fragments of the aircraft structure in the aircraft hangar in the city of Cairo, where they were delivered from the crash site. after its completion, the point from which the destruction of the liner body began was determined.

According to media reports, when analyzing the layout of the collected fragments of A321 in the hangar of the Cairo airport, experts that the terrorists placed an explosive device in the tail of the vessel, the explosion caused the tail section to separate and an uncontrolled dive. According to them, Russia has almost completed a report on the causes of the disaster, unequivocally pointing out the terrorist trail: a powerful explosive device with a clock mechanism was used, which provoked a strong blast wave and fire.

Investigation into the case of the crash of the Russian A321 over the Sinai Peninsula. On October 24, it became known that a commission of inquiry formed by the Egyptian attorney general sent twelve wreckage of the liner to a scientific laboratory for alloys for detailed research.

After the disaster, there were flights to Egypt from the Russian Federation and a tourist flow. Russia announced the need to ensure security at Egyptian airports to resume air traffic between the countries. Flights to this country have also been suspended by a number of European airlines. The Egyptian authorities are making great efforts to improve security measures at resort areas and airports, wanting to restore tourist flow. In the months that have passed since the tragedy, many foreign expert delegations have visited the security inspection of the Egyptian airports in Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Until now, the picture of the crash looked too contradictory, which gave rise to a lot of rumors and unconfirmed versions that immediately spread in the media. At the moment, it is only officially confirmed that the plane began to fall apart while still in the air. This was announced by the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko. According to him, the wreckage of the plane was scattered within a radius of 20 km.

All other data about the disaster that appeared earlier, at the moment, are almost completely refuted. The statistics of such denials of "MK" were presented by specialists of the International Consultative and Analytical Agency "Flight Safety":

The information that the crew had reported a problem on board, that they had requested a landing in Cairo or at another nearby airfield, was denied by the Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation, who said on the evening of November 1 that the Russian crew did not send distress signals and did not get in touch.

The information that the plane crashed and that two large parts of it - the fuselage and the tail - are lying on the ground - was refuted by video footage.

The information that the tail section was burned was also refuted by photographs and video filming.

The information that rescuers hear the groans of passengers inside the crashed plane was refuted by the appearance of the wreckage - no one can survive with such destruction.

Meanwhile, Sergei Melnichenko, General Director of the International Advisory and Analytical Agency "Flight Safety", told MK that Egypt has published information containing a proposal to airlines not to use the airspace over North Sinai until the circumstances of the incident are clarified. So the wave of messages from carriers about the suspension of flights in this zone is no longer their own initiative, announced to the wound, allegedly with the aim of reassuring passengers.

Satellite photographs that have become available on the Internet, showing the areas where the debris fell, according to Melnichenko, indicate that the scatter of aircraft parts over an area of \u200b\u200bseveral kilometers really gives reason to believe that the disintegration of the A321 began in the air. It is possible that the front of the aircraft, where the transponder (transponder) and its antenna are located, flew a slightly greater distance than the first parts of the structure that separated from the aircraft - they were found along the route closer than the point where the tag from the transponder disappeared.

“The fact that the front part of the aircraft lies in an inverted position,” says Sergey Melnichenko, “is explained by the laws of aerodynamics and the design of the aircraft. While the wings create lift, the tail stabilizer is responsible for the aircraft's longitudinal stability. If we assume that for some reason the tail section has separated in the air, the nose of the aircraft will immediately go down, and the part remaining behind the wings will go up. So it remains to establish the cause of the tail section separation, and the main and concomitant causes of the accident will become clear. I would like to hope that they will really be found. "

In this regard, the main hopes of all specialists for establishing the true causes of the disaster are now associated with the decoding of the "black boxes". However, the specialists of the Aviation Safety Agency believe that “the data obtained after the decryption of the recorders may not be enough to completely restore the picture of what happened. Let us recall how many hopes were associated with the decoding of the "black boxes" of the downed Malaysian Boeing, but it only confirmed that the plane fell as a result of outside influence. "

Why did the plane of Kogalymavia (Metrojet) airline crash flight 7K 9268 Airbus A321-231 r / n EI-ETJ s / n 663? So far, no one knows the answer, and the results of the investigation may appear only in a few months.

Googled for over an hour. I downloaded all available photos of this particular aircraft from Jetphotos.net. Also found in other sources photos before the crash.

A slight blackening on the tapered part of the tail caught my eye. These two photos seem to be taken on the last day or a few days before the disaster (from another site):

Now about the nature of the scattering of debris. I don't follow the news very much. But I saw these photos on social networks:

Separately lying conical part with blackening on top:

In addition, it was this plane that landed on the fifth point in 2001, slightly hit with its tail while landing. Then he was still owned by another airline. After that incident, the plane was repaired. But negative consequences could be ...

I began to look for descriptions of the design of aircraft. In this tapered end there is an auxiliary power unit (APU), or in English Auxiliary power unit (APU). It is needed to start the main engines and to provide power in parking lots. At the end of the cone there is a nozzle. Those. there is an electrician and fuel.

It is a small gas turbine engine powered by an electric or hydraulic accumulator. Generates the alternating current needed to start large engines (fuel pumps, spark for fuel), builds up pressure in the hydraulic system, and powers the pneumatic system. To start the main engines, pneumatic cranking of the turbine is required.

Not used during flight. But in the event of a failure of one of the engines, it can be used to provide additional energy to various aircraft systems.

This is how the Boeing 737 APU looks like:

Video from the height of the crash site of the Kogalymavia 7K9268 Airbus A321, Sinai, Egypt 10/31/2015

Also in the photos with the tail dropped, the rudder on the vertical stabilizer is missing.

Overheating of the aircraft body in this place could lead to the separation of the conical part from the APU. And blackening is just a consequence of overheating. In addition, the plane was constantly repainted.

P.S. Photos of APU on A321:

A320 aircraft APU doors operation

MOSCOW, October 31. / TASS-DOSSIER /. On October 31, 2015, a passenger plane Airbus A321 of the Russian airline "Kogalymavia" (brand Metrojet, "Metrojet", which was flying on the route Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) - St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar 23 minutes after takeoff.

Since the beginning of operation of the Airbus A320 with aircraft of this type (including modifications A319 and A321), 13 accidents have occurred (excluding the incident on October 31, 2015), which led to the death of 1 thousand 101 people on board.

On June 26, 1988, a passenger plane Airbus A320-111 of Air France (registration number F-GFKC) crashed during a demonstration flight over Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport (France). Due to malfunctions of the altimeter and pilot error, the car, when flying at low altitude, touched the treetops and fell into the forest. Three of the 136 passengers on board were killed.

On February 14, 1990, an Indian Airlines Airbus A320-231 (registration number VT-EPN), flying 605 from Bombay (now Mumbai), crashed while landing at Bangalore Airport (India). The pilots did not notice that the plane was descending too quickly until the landing gear struck the concrete fence of the golf club near the airport. The liner fell down next to the runway. 92 people from 146 on board were killed.

On January 20, 1992, a passenger airliner Airbus A320-111 (registration number F-GGED) of the French airline Air Inter, flying 148 on the Lyon-Strasbourg route, crashed into Mount Saint-Odile, 19.5 km from Strasbourg airport. 87 of the 96 people on board were killed. According to the results of the investigation, it turned out that the disaster was due to a number of factors, including the complexity of the on-board control system and adverse weather conditions.

On September 14, 1993, a passenger aircraft A320-211 (registration number D-AIPN) of the German airline Lufthansa, flying 2904 from Frankfurt am Main, skidded off the runway at Warsaw Okecie International Airport (now named after Frederic Chopin) ... In the conditions of strong winds and downpours, the crew of the liner landed the car just 770 m from the end of the runway, the aircraft did not have time to brake, crashed into the fences and caught fire. One passenger and the captain-mentor were killed, the remaining 68 people on board were injured.

On March 22, 1998, a passenger airliner Airbus A320-214 (registration number RP-C3222) of the Philippine Air Lines, which was operating domestic flight number 137 from Manila to Bacolod, failed to perform a regular braking upon landing. The reason was the pilot's mistake, who turned off the reverse of one of the engines. The plane drove off the runway and crashed into wooden residential buildings outside the airport. None of the 130 people on board were killed, but three people on the ground were killed.

On August 23, 2000, a passenger plane A320-212 (registration number A40-EK) of the Bahrain airline Gulf Air, flying 072 from Cairo to Manama (Bahrain), fell into the waters of the Persian Gulf near Bahrain International Airport on the island. Muharraq. The crash occurred during a missed approach following an unsuccessful landing approach caused by pilot error. All passengers and crew members were killed - 143 people.

On May 3, 2006 a passenger airliner Airbus A320-211 (registration number EK-32009) of the Armenian company Armavia ("Armavia") crashed. The plane made flight 967 from Yerevan to Sochi. When landing at the destination airport in adverse weather conditions, the crew received a go-around command. While performing the turn, the crew turned off the autopilot, after which the plane went into climb mode, lost speed and fell into the Black Sea. All 113 people on board were killed.

On July 17, 2007, an Airbus A320-233 (registration number PR-MBK) of the Brazilian airline TAM Airlines crashed while approaching at São Paulo airport, on its domestic flight 3054 from Porto Alegre. After landing, the plane could not brake on a slippery runway, flew out of it, crashed into a hangar with aviation fuel and burned down. All 187 people on board and 12 others on the ground were killed. The cause of the disaster was that the thrust of one of the engines was in takeoff mode during landing. The commission was unable to determine if it was a pilot error or a technical malfunction.

On May 30, 2008, a passenger aircraft Airbus A320-233 (registration number EI-TAF) of the Salvadoran company TACA International Airlines, flying 390 from San Salvador to Tegucigalpa (Honduras), when landing at the destination airport, rolled off the runway onto the city street and received significant damage. Three people were killed on board and two in a car on the ground. The plane's fatalities included Nicaraguan economist Harry Brautigam, president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE), who died of a heart attack.

On November 27, 2008, a passenger aircraft Airbus A320-232 (registration number D-AXLA) of XL Airways Germany, performing technical flight number 888T near the French airport Perpignan-Rivaltes, crashed into the sea near the town of Canet-en-Roussillon. All seven people on board were killed. Investigation revealed that the disaster was caused by water entering the angle of attack sensors during maintenance. Failure of the sensors led to the loss of control over the aircraft by the crew.

On July 28, 2010, Pakistani Airblue's Airbus A321-231 (registration number AP-BJB) on domestic flight 202 from Karachi to Islamabad crashed in northern Islamabad amid heavy fog and monsoon rain. All 152 people on board were killed. The cause of the crash was weather conditions and uncoordinated actions of the crew.

December 28, 2014 December 28, 2014 Indonesia AirAsia Airbus A320-216 (registration number PK-AXC) on flight QZ8501 from Surabaya (Indonesia) to Singapore disappeared from radar while over the Java Sea in the area between the islands Kalimantan (Borneo) and Belitung (Indonesia). Onboard there were 155 passengers and seven crew members. On January 3, 2015, during a search operation at the bottom of the sea, the wreckage of the liner was found; in the period from January to March, 106 bodies of the dead were found in the crash zone.

On March 24, 2015, a passenger aircraft Airbus A320-211 (registration number D-AIPX) of the German airline Germanwings, performing a regular flight 4U 9525 / GWI18G on the route Barcelona (Spain) - Dusseldorf (Germany), crashed into a mountain slope and completely collapsed in the Alps Haute Provence (France). Onboard there were 144 passengers and 6 crew members, all of whom were killed. The crash was the result of the deliberate actions of the liner's co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.

On the morning of October 31, a plane crash occurred on the territory of the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people. 30 minutes after take-off, the Kogalymavia Airbus А321 airliner disappeared from the radar, making a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The plane began to rapidly lose altitude and, according to preliminary information, fell apart before falling.

The plane crash in Sinai was the largest in terms of the number of victims in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation. Before that, the tragedy that occurred near Uchkuduk on July 10, 1985 headed the sad list. Then the Tu-154 disaster claimed the lives of 200 people.

What happened on Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula? While experts are dealing with the contents of the "black boxes" of the crashed liner, the first versions of what happened are already emerging.

Photo gallery

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Engine failure

The most popular version is aircraft engine failure. According to some reports, a few minutes before the crash, the pilots contacted the dispatchers and asked for permission for an emergency landing due to the failure of one of the engines, according to others, there was nothing like this. Egyptian officials adhere to the second option: no one contacted the ground, the flight took place as usual.

In the Egyptian press, the words of one of the local residents are quoted, who allegedly saw one of the turbines catching fire in the air.

However, this version also has weak points. For the plane to fall, several engines had to fail. In other words, the failure of one engine could not lead to a plane crash.

Airplane damage on another flight

The second version - the plane was damaged in some other flight and they were simply not noticed in time. And if they noticed, then the plane was "patched" poorly. The crashed liner was 18 years old, during such a period of operation, abnormal situations occurred more than once during flights. So, 14 years ago, when landing in Cairo, the plane hit its tail hard, after which it was under repair for a long time.

Plane crashes due to poor-quality repairs or negligent inspection of aircraft are not the most rare. So, on August 12, 1985, the Boeing-747 plane crash near Tokyo claimed the lives of 520 people. It turned out that the cause of the tragedy was poorly carried out repairs: the workers had poorly welded the pressure bulkhead, which fell off during the flight along with the elevators.

The plane became practically uncontrollable, the pilots kept the airliner in the air for another half hour, managing to control the airliner by decreasing and increasing engine thrust. However, then the plane crashed into the mountain.

According to the Egyptian technician, who examined the Airbus A321 before departure, it was perfectly serviceable.

The plane was shot down

The latest of the most popular versions. The plane could have been shot down by militants of the Islamic State terrorist group banned in Russia. Currently, a bloody war is going on in the Sinai Peninsula between the troops of the Egyptian government and the Islamic State.

It is possible that the militants fired a rocket that shot down the plane. However, against this version speaks the lack of the appropriate means of IS, because the liners fly at an altitude of about 9-10 thousand meters. It is possible to shoot down the liner only with the help of the missile system.

However, on the eve there was information that the plane did not have time to gain the height of the echelon, which means that it could well become a target for MANPADS. IS has already published a video showing a plane being shot down by a rocket, but there are great doubts about the authenticity of the record.

Some conclusions can be drawn after an official investigation by the IAC and decryption of the "black boxes". As part of the investigation into the crash of the Airbus A321, investigators seized documents on the maintenance of the vessel. In Samara, fuel samples were taken from the place of the last refueling of the aircraft, said the official representative of the TFR Vladimir Markin.

"The IC of Russia will check all possible versions that could lead to a tragedy, including a technical malfunction of the aircraft," Markin said.