Aircraft accidents, incidents and air crashes in the USSR and Russia. Plane crash of flight Tu-154 Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk (2001). Help Compensation without admitting guilt

On October 4, 2001, exactly 16 years ago, Ukraine shot down a Russian passenger plane Tu-154M of Siberia Airlines over the Black Sea, flying from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk. Everyone on board died.

Forgotten over the years, the disaster over the Black Sea, which killed 78 people on the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk flight, has not yet found its logical conclusion. Having admitted its guilt, Ukraine never paid compensation to the Russian airline Siberia in the amount of $15 million, limiting itself to payments of $200,000 for each Israeli and Russian killed. Shoot down, shoot down, but we won’t respond in full - this is in the style of Kyiv’s current policy.

Scheduled flight SBI1812 on the route Tel Aviv - Novosibirsk, performed on the morning of October 4, 2001 from David Ben Gurion Airport to Tolmachevo Airport, was interrupted after 1 hour 45 minutes of flight. The airliner was at an altitude of 11 thousand meters and was about to begin its descent at the Sochi airport, where an intermediate refueling was to take place. There were about 200 kilometers left before landing in a Russian resort town, when the crew recorded the fact that their plane was hit by a missile and managed to send several signals on the air with a panic button. It was no longer possible to deviate from the destructive effect of the missile rushing to intercept it - the pilots only had time to notice that they were being attacked.

As you know, it was at this time that Ukrainian air defense exercises took place on the territory of Cape Opuk in Crimea, which were also attended by foreign observers. Firing at training air targets was carried out, among other things, from the S-200B complexes, the missile of which mistakenly hit a civilian ship.

“It’s difficult to imagine any malicious intent in the downing of a Tu-154 over the Black Sea in 2001; most likely there was none,” says military expert Vladislav Shurygin. - Then there was not such an amount of negativity in the minds of Ukrainian citizens towards Russians. Moreover, it was an international flight; there were mostly Israeli citizens on board the plane, and Ukraine would not have risked running into such a major scandal that it could not get out of. The reason seems to be different - by that time, graduates of specialized military schools had not entered the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces for ten years, and many of the active officers had either quit or left for Russia. Most likely, the operator of the S-200B complex was simply not professionally trained enough, plus he was under psychological pressure from high authorities, who demanded to show skill in the eyes of foreign observers. All this could have led to the fact that instead of the training target, which was 60 kilometers away, the operator aimed the missile at a target that was 250-300 kilometers away - he got it wrong! The main thing was to launch faster and show the bravery of the Ukrainian airborne vehicles. The result is known."

After the disaster, Kyiv immediately went into “unconsciousness” and for a long time denied participation in the tragedy of its rocket.

“Tragedies when a civilian aircraft becomes a victim of the military (for various reasons) are not so rare,” says media consultant Alexander Zimovsky. - In such cases, there is an iron rule: deny everything. In addition, the great powers can take one more liberty. Justify the destruction of a civilian aircraft by recognizing it as a military incident. This is how Americans behave, for example. Remember the Iranian airbus that was shot down by a missile from the American cruiser Vincennes? Then 290 people died, the ship’s commander received an order.

Ukraine, as a third-rate country, cannot afford such luxury. Therefore, in the case of the destruction of the Tu-154 over the Black Sea in 2001, Kyiv went into complete “unconsciousness”. I am well aware of all the circumstances of the tragedy, because in 2001 our television company reported that a Ukrainian air defense system shot down a passenger plane during shooting in Crimea. I myself supervised this special news release and conducted fact-checking based on data from American tracking and warning systems. They immediately and without hesitation pointed out the Ukrainian origin of the missile that shot down the plane taking off from Tel Aviv.

Subsequently, Ukrainian commanders and officials refused. But then, in the first few hours, out of fear, almost everyone involved on the Ukrainian side did not dispute what had happened. The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine recognized both the fact of the exercises, and the shooting itself in the specified area, and the loss of control over the fired missile by the combat crew of the air defense system. And even the command of the Minister of Defense Kuzmuk to the air defense missile system commander, who expressed doubt about the captured target, was preserved in Ukrainian military folklore: “Knock him down..!” Two weeks later, Kuzmuk was removed from his post.

On that fateful day, at the Opuk training ground, they staged a show for President Kuchma. The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, General of the Army Kuzmuk, conducted the event; with him were the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense of Ukraine, Colonel General Vladimir Tkachev, and his deputy for combat training, Lieutenant General Vladimir Dyakov, and the commander of the 49th Ukrainian Corps, Lieutenant General Kalinyuk. Kuchma was saved only by the fact that he “fell ill” the day before (this often happened to him) and did not arrive at the training ground. However, he never denied either the incident itself or Ukraine’s guilt in what happened. Even if with the indispensable reservation that the tragedy was accidental.”

Then, as a result of an official investigation into the tragedy in the skies over the Black Sea, many high-ranking military personnel who were even indirectly related to the downed Russian plane “resigned.” However, none of them were brought to trial - all got off with censure. Moreover, all this time Ukraine has been putting forward and is putting forward versions of its innocence in the incident and, despite the results of investigations, it is “pushing through” the version of an internal explosion on board a civil aircraft. And even today, on the next anniversary, no one in Kyiv remembers that terrible tragedy - such “accuracy” of Ukrainian air defense is clearly not held in high esteem today.

Occur almost every year since the start of flights of this type of aircraft. From 1973 to 2011, there were only a few years during which not a single incident related to the Tu-154 occurred.

In total, 72 Tu-154 aircraft were lost in accidents and disasters. The largest Tu-154 crash(and all Soviet aviation) occurred on July 10, 1985 near Uchkuduk. The overloaded plane went into a tailspin due to the fault of the crew. There were 200 people on board, all of them died.

In general, despite the fact that, according to some pilots, the Tu-154 is too complicated for a mass-produced passenger airliner and requires highly qualified flight and ground personnel, this airliner has proven itself to be a completely reliable and safe aircraft. Moreover, Tu-154 plane crashes are not always due to the fault of technology.

Of course, airliner problems do happen, but more often they occur on aircraft that are operated beyond normal limits and do not receive adequate maintenance. In addition, errors of the crew, dispatchers, or other circumstances often lead to disasters. For example, in 2011, a civilian flight flying over the Black Sea was mistakenly shot down by a Ukrainian air defense missile during an exercise...

Of the latest disasters, it is worth noting Polish Tu-154, crashed near Smolensk in 2010. On that plane is the President of Poland with his wife, as well as many high-ranking officials. They all died.

But more favorable outcomes also happen. In 2010, a plane with failed engines was able to land safely at an abandoned airfield in Izhma. This legendary Alrosa company saved the lives of 81 people.

The table below provides a short list of all Tu-154 plane crashes compiled by Wikipedia.

The coordinates of the approximate crash site of the plane have been determined 42.183333 , 37.616667 42°11′ N. w. 37°37′ E. d. /  42.183333° N. w. 37.616667° E. d.(G) (O), which is approximately 280 kilometers from Novorossiysk.

A special commission was created to establish the causes of the accident. An An-26 of the Russian Federal Border Service urgently flew to the scene of the accident from Gelendzhik. The border patrol ship "Grif" also went there. Also, an AN-12 plane of the Ministry of Defense and a Mi-8 helicopter of the Sochi Search and Rescue Service with rafts and rescuers on board flew to the crash site, two rescue tugboats - "Mercury" from Tuapse and "Captain Beklemishchev" from Novorossiysk, as well as a vessel of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations - headed "Rescuer Prokopchik". The An-12 plane found oil stains at the supposed crash site. Helicopters found several pieces of the plane and the bodies of dead passengers floating on the surface of the sea.

Versions

Technical investigation

October 5 Information appeared about bullet holes found in the Tu-154 fuselage, but this information was called premature. The head of the West Siberian Regional Air Transport Administration, Vladimir Tasun, said that “according to unverified information, the controller on the locator saw a luminous point quickly approaching the plane. This is the only thing that was received from unofficial sources via telephone channels by employees of the Sibir company from Rostov.” On the same day, rescuers from Israel joined the Russian rescuers, and an analysis of the Tu-154 crew’s conversations and an analysis of the videotape recording radar readings began. On this day, Prime Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Kinakh made a statement that the version of a missile hitting the Siberia Airlines Tu-154 plane “has a right to exist.”

October 6 Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo said that objects that were not related to the structure of the aircraft were found at the scene of the accident, and that “the aircraft was destroyed as a result of an explosive attack.” At the same time, the head of the Main Directorate of the North Caucasus Regional Center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ivan Teterin, expressed the opinion that the likelihood of finding any remains of the Tu-154 aircraft at the bottom of the Black Sea is minimal due to the great depth and zero visibility.

October 7th According to the commission, at 13:45:12 the scream of the Tu-154 pilot was recorded by a ground tape recorder.

October 9 According to the commission, an analysis of the holes in the fuselage shows that the plane could have been hit by a missile from the S-200 air defense system, since the size and shape of the holes are quite consistent with the shrapnel of the high-explosive fragmentation warhead of the missile of this particular complex. Establishing the details of the disaster is complicated by the inability to determine the exact location of the plane crash - the debris was scattered over an area with a radius of more than 12 nautical miles.

October 10 The Russian Prosecutor General's Office reported preliminary data from a forensic medical examination of the victims - the cause of death of all 14 passengers, whose bodies were discovered during search and rescue operations, was barotrauma. Also, according to information from Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky, carbon monoxide was found in the blood of the victims, which indicates a fire on board the ship.

October 11 Vladimir Rushailo announced the conclusion of the technical commission that investigated the causes of the Tu-154 plane crash: “multiple damage in the form of similar holes indicate that the Russian aircraft was damaged from the outside.” At the same time, Rushailo emphasized that “the remains of the plane that crashed into the sea were not found due to the complex structure of the bottom, the aggressive hydrogen sulphide environment and a large layer of silt - up to 6 meters.”

October 12 Press Secretary of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Konstantin Khivrenko, commenting on the preliminary results of the investigation into the incident, admitted that a Ukrainian missile could have caused the death of the Tu-154.

October 13 Vladimir Rushailo said that according to the analysis of the plane's wreckage and holes, an anti-aircraft missile exploded 15 meters above the plane. At a conference in Kyiv, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine apologized to the families and friends of those killed in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 aircraft. “We know that we are involved in the tragedy, although its causes have not yet been fully established.”

Ukrainian expertise

Legal investigation and claims for damages

Initially, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case under the article “Terrorism” in connection with the crash of the Tu-154 passenger plane over the Black Sea. . After the publication of the commission’s findings on October 16, 2001, the case was transferred for proceedings to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, and the Russian side officially closed the case.

Immediately after the court decision, the head of the Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Victims, Boris Kalinovsky, and the Belonogov family, who refused to receive financial assistance, filed a lawsuit for compensation for moral damage - the defendants were the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine. The case was heard in the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv and on January 30, 2008, compensation was completely denied. The motivational part of the refusal stated that the defendants’ guilt in the disaster was not established by the investigation of the prosecutor’s office, the evidence presented by the plaintiffs is contradictory and cannot be recognized as a basis for satisfying the claim. The losing party did not file an appeal against the court's decision.

Simultaneously with the claim from the relatives of the victims, Siberia Airlines OJSC filed a claim against the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the State Treasury of Ukraine for damages: the amount of the claim included the market value of the destroyed aircraft with additional equipment, costs associated with the investigation of the disaster, expenses for insurance, lost profits due to the loss of the aircraft, and moral damages. The consideration of the case lasted more than seven years and ended in a victory for the defense of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine: based on an additional analysis of the materials of the State Commission of Investigation carried out by the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, the claims were completely rejected. On October 10, 2011, the losing party filed an appeal to the Economic Court of Appeal of Kyiv.

On May 28, 2012, the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of the Russian airline Siberia (S7 Airlines) against the decision of the court of first instance, which did not admit the guilt of the Ukrainian military in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 in 2001. On December 11, 2012, the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine upheld the decision. Representatives of the airline announced their intention to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Versions of the causes of the tragedy

Operator error

The S-200 anti-aircraft missile system uses a semi-active guidance system, when the source of radiation is a powerful ground-based radar (“target illumination”), and the missile itself is guided by the signal reflected from the target. In the S-200, there are two main operating modes of the target illumination radar - MHI (monochromatic radiation) and FCM (phase code modulation). The MHI mode is typically used to scan the airspace when searching for targets, which determines the elevation angle, azimuth and radial speed of the target, but does not determine the range to the target. The range is determined in FCM mode, but switching the radar to this mode takes up to 30 seconds and may not occur if there is not enough time.

It is most likely that during firing training with the participation of Ukrainian air defense, which was carried out on October 4, 2001 at Cape Opuk in Crimea, the Ty-154 aircraft accidentally ended up in the center of the intended firing sector of the training target and had a radial speed close to it, as a result of which it was detected by the S-200 radar and accepted as a training target. In conditions of lack of time and nervousness caused by the presence of high command and foreign guests, the S-200 operator did not determine the range to the target and “highlighted” the Tu-154 (located at a range of 250-300 km) instead of an inconspicuous training target (launched from a range of 60 km). Thus, the defeat of the Tu-154 by an anti-aircraft missile was most likely the result not of the missile missing the training target (as is sometimes claimed), but of the obvious aiming of the missile by the S-200 operator at an erroneously identified target. The calculations of the complex did not assume the possibility of such a shooting outcome and did not take measures to prevent it. The size of the range did not ensure the safety of firing air defense systems of such a range. The organizers of the shooting did not take the necessary measures to free up the airspace.

Terrorist attack

Due to the absence of the remains of the plane and the “black boxes”, which were never found, the establishment of absolutely reliable causes of the disaster was considered impossible by the KNIISE examination, but based on the available information, Ukrainian experts suggested that the plane was damaged by an explosive device that could have been located "between the ceiling of the interior of the aircraft" and its body.

Reactions of senior officials of states affected by the plane crash

Russia

Ukraine

Israel

The Ukrainian president’s statement “there are tragedies on a larger scale” shocked the world community. L. D. Kuchma's frivolous statement provoked an angry reaction from official Israel. The press secretary of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon commented on the statement of the Ukrainian president:

When the person killed is not a representative of your people, then it is probably possible to make such academic conclusions. 78 people died, most of whom were Israelis - for us this is the greatest tragedy.

The 16th episode of the series “Aerobatics” (Russia, 2009) contains references to the disaster described: the Russian Il-86 plane was flying from Tel Aviv to Moscow, fell into the zone of Ukrainian air defense training exercises over the Black Sea and was shot down from the S-200 air defense system (in the film, however, the plane was landed in the steppe in the Kuban)

Perpetuation of memory

Ten years later

Notes

1. I am not me and the rocket is not mine
2. Plane crash of flight Tu-154 Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk (2001). Help | Inquiries | News feed "RIA Novosti"
3. "The crash of the Tu-154 plane in the Black Sea occurred due to a terrorist attack"
4. Tu-154 plane crash in the Black Sea
5. Chronicle of the tragedy
6. Western media report that the TU-154 plane was shot down by a missile from Ukraine
7. Tu-154 was shot down by a Ukrainian missile?
8. In search of the Ukrainian trace
9. No bullet holes were found on the fuselage of the Tu-154 - News NEWSru.com
10. There is practically no hope for Triton
11. “The cause of death of the TU-154 passengers was barotrauma”
12. “Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo told reporters the conclusion of the technical commission. ..."
13. “The conclusion of the commission to investigate the death of TU-154: “the plane was hit from the outside””
14. News NEWSru.com:: Experts deny that the Russian Tu-154, which crashed into the Black Sea in 2001, was shot down by a Ukrainian missile
15. Experts deny that a Russian plane was hit by a Ukrainian missile in 2001 // RIANovosti Ukraine.
16. Ukraine sees no reason to initiate a case regarding the Tu-154 crash
17. The investigation is over, forget it
18. The Prosecutor General's Office has again taken up the case of the crash of the Russian Tu-154 over the Black Sea
19. The court ordered the Ukrainian prosecutor's office to resume the case of the Tu-154 plane crash
20. The Kyiv Economic Court rejected the claim of Siberia Airlines against the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine
21. Ukraine denied a claim to the families of those killed in the Tu-154 crash
22. The decision of the Kyiv court in the case of the Tu-154 shot down in 2001 has been appealed
23. The Ukrainian military was not involved in the emergency situation with the Tu-154 in 2001, the court confirmed // RIA Novosti, 05/28/2012, 15:27
24. Khripun, V.; Shagiakhmetov, P. Ukraine will appear before the ECHR. Kommersant (December 12, 2012). Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.

The coordinates of the approximate crash site of the plane have been determined 42.183333 , 37.616667 42°11′ N. w. 37°37′ E. d. /  42.183333° N. w. 37.616667° E. d.(G) (O), which is approximately 280 kilometers from Novorossiysk.

A special commission was created to establish the causes of the accident. An An-26 of the Russian Federal Border Service urgently flew to the scene of the accident from Gelendzhik. The border patrol ship "Grif" also went there. Also, an AN-12 plane of the Ministry of Defense and a Mi-8 helicopter of the Sochi Search and Rescue Service with rafts and rescuers on board flew to the crash site, two rescue tugboats - "Mercury" from Tuapse and "Captain Beklemishchev" from Novorossiysk, as well as a vessel of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations - headed "Rescuer Prokopchik". The An-12 plane found oil stains at the supposed crash site. Helicopters found several pieces of the plane and the bodies of dead passengers floating on the surface of the sea.

Versions

Technical investigation

October 5 Information appeared about bullet holes found in the Tu-154 fuselage, but this information was called premature. The head of the West Siberian Regional Air Transport Administration, Vladimir Tasun, said that “according to unverified information, the controller on the locator saw a luminous point quickly approaching the plane. This is the only thing that was received from unofficial sources via telephone channels by employees of the Sibir company from Rostov.” On the same day, rescuers from Israel joined the Russian rescuers, and an analysis of the Tu-154 crew’s conversations and an analysis of the videotape recording radar readings began. On this day, Prime Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Kinakh made a statement that the version of a missile hitting the Siberia Airlines Tu-154 plane “has a right to exist.”

October 6 Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo said that objects that were not related to the structure of the aircraft were found at the scene of the accident, and that “the aircraft was destroyed as a result of an explosive attack.” At the same time, the head of the Main Directorate of the North Caucasus Regional Center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ivan Teterin, expressed the opinion that the likelihood of finding any remains of the Tu-154 aircraft at the bottom of the Black Sea is minimal due to the great depth and zero visibility.

October 7th According to the commission, at 13:45:12 the scream of the Tu-154 pilot was recorded by a ground tape recorder.

October 9 According to the commission, an analysis of the holes in the fuselage shows that the plane could have been hit by a missile from the S-200 air defense system, since the size and shape of the holes are quite consistent with the shrapnel of the high-explosive fragmentation warhead of the missile of this particular complex. Establishing the details of the disaster is complicated by the inability to determine the exact location of the plane crash - the debris was scattered over an area with a radius of more than 12 nautical miles.

October 10 The Russian Prosecutor General's Office reported preliminary data from a forensic medical examination of the victims - the cause of death of all 14 passengers, whose bodies were discovered during search and rescue operations, was barotrauma. Also, according to information from Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky, carbon monoxide was found in the blood of the victims, which indicates a fire on board the ship.

October 11 Vladimir Rushailo announced the conclusion of the technical commission that investigated the causes of the Tu-154 plane crash: “multiple damage in the form of similar holes indicate that the Russian aircraft was damaged from the outside.” At the same time, Rushailo emphasized that “the remains of the plane that crashed into the sea were not found due to the complex structure of the bottom, the aggressive hydrogen sulphide environment and a large layer of silt - up to 6 meters.”

October 12 Press Secretary of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Konstantin Khivrenko, commenting on the preliminary results of the investigation into the incident, admitted that a Ukrainian missile could have caused the death of the Tu-154.

October 13 Vladimir Rushailo said that according to the analysis of the plane's wreckage and holes, an anti-aircraft missile exploded 15 meters above the plane. At a conference in Kyiv, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine apologized to the families and friends of those killed in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 aircraft. “We know that we are involved in the tragedy, although its causes have not yet been fully established.”

Ukrainian expertise

Legal investigation and claims for damages

Initially, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case under the article “Terrorism” in connection with the crash of the Tu-154 passenger plane over the Black Sea. . After the publication of the commission’s findings on October 16, 2001, the case was transferred for proceedings to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, and the Russian side officially closed the case.

Immediately after the court decision, the head of the Fund for Assistance to the Families of the Victims, Boris Kalinovsky, and the Belonogov family, who refused to receive financial assistance, filed a lawsuit for compensation for moral damage - the defendants were the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine. The case was heard in the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv and on January 30, 2008, compensation was completely denied. The motivational part of the refusal stated that the defendants’ guilt in the disaster was not established by the investigation of the prosecutor’s office, the evidence presented by the plaintiffs is contradictory and cannot be recognized as a basis for satisfying the claim. The losing party did not file an appeal against the court's decision.

Simultaneously with the claim from the relatives of the victims, Siberia Airlines OJSC filed a claim against the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the State Treasury of Ukraine for damages: the amount of the claim included the market value of the destroyed aircraft with additional equipment, costs associated with the investigation of the disaster, expenses for insurance, lost profits due to the loss of the aircraft, and moral damages. The consideration of the case lasted more than seven years and ended in a victory for the defense of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine: based on an additional analysis of the materials of the State Commission of Investigation carried out by the Kiev Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise, the claims were completely rejected. On October 10, 2011, the losing party filed an appeal to the Economic Court of Appeal of Kyiv.

On May 28, 2012, the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal rejected the complaint of the Russian airline Siberia (S7 Airlines) against the decision of the court of first instance, which did not admit the guilt of the Ukrainian military in the crash of the Russian Tu-154 in 2001. On December 11, 2012, the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine upheld the decision. Representatives of the airline announced their intention to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Versions of the causes of the tragedy

Operator error

The S-200 anti-aircraft missile system uses a semi-active guidance system, when the source of radiation is a powerful ground-based radar (“target illumination”), and the missile itself is guided by the signal reflected from the target. In the S-200, there are two main operating modes of the target illumination radar - MHI (monochromatic radiation) and FCM (phase code modulation). The MHI mode is typically used to scan the airspace when searching for targets, which determines the elevation angle, azimuth and radial speed of the target, but does not determine the range to the target. The range is determined in FCM mode, but switching the radar to this mode takes up to 30 seconds and may not occur if there is not enough time.

It is most likely that during firing training with the participation of Ukrainian air defense, which was carried out on October 4, 2001 at Cape Opuk in Crimea, the Ty-154 aircraft accidentally ended up in the center of the intended firing sector of the training target and had a radial speed close to it, as a result of which it was detected by the S-200 radar and accepted as a training target. In conditions of lack of time and nervousness caused by the presence of high command and foreign guests, the S-200 operator did not determine the range to the target and “highlighted” the Tu-154 (located at a range of 250-300 km) instead of an inconspicuous training target (launched from a range of 60 km). Thus, the defeat of the Tu-154 by an anti-aircraft missile was most likely the result not of the missile missing the training target (as is sometimes claimed), but of the obvious aiming of the missile by the S-200 operator at an erroneously identified target. The calculations of the complex did not assume the possibility of such a shooting outcome and did not take measures to prevent it. The size of the range did not ensure the safety of firing air defense systems of such a range. The organizers of the shooting did not take the necessary measures to free up the airspace.

Terrorist attack

Due to the absence of the remains of the plane and the “black boxes”, which were never found, the establishment of absolutely reliable causes of the disaster was considered impossible by the KNIISE examination, but based on the available information, Ukrainian experts suggested that the plane was damaged by an explosive device that could have been located "between the ceiling of the interior of the aircraft" and its body.

Reactions of senior officials of states affected by the plane crash

Russia

Ukraine

Israel

The Ukrainian president’s statement “there are tragedies on a larger scale” shocked the world community. L. D. Kuchma's frivolous statement provoked an angry reaction from official Israel. The press secretary of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon commented on the statement of the Ukrainian president:

When the person killed is not a representative of your people, then it is probably possible to make such academic conclusions. 78 people died, most of whom were Israelis - for us this is the greatest tragedy.

The 16th episode of the series “Aerobatics” (Russia, 2009) contains references to the disaster described: the Russian Il-86 plane was flying from Tel Aviv to Moscow, fell into the zone of Ukrainian air defense training exercises over the Black Sea and was shot down from the S-200 air defense system (in the film, however, the plane was landed in the steppe in the Kuban)

Perpetuation of memory

Ten years later

Notes

1. I am not me and the rocket is not mine
2. Plane crash of flight Tu-154 Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk (2001). Help | Inquiries | News feed "RIA Novosti"
3. "The crash of the Tu-154 plane in the Black Sea occurred due to a terrorist attack"
4. Tu-154 plane crash in the Black Sea
5. Chronicle of the tragedy
6. Western media report that the TU-154 plane was shot down by a missile from Ukraine
7. Tu-154 was shot down by a Ukrainian missile?
8. In search of the Ukrainian trace
9. No bullet holes were found on the fuselage of the Tu-154 - News NEWSru.com
10. There is practically no hope for Triton
11. “The cause of death of the TU-154 passengers was barotrauma”
12. “Secretary of the Russian Security Council Vladimir Rushailo told reporters the conclusion of the technical commission. ..."
13. “The conclusion of the commission to investigate the death of TU-154: “the plane was hit from the outside””
14. News NEWSru.com:: Experts deny that the Russian Tu-154, which crashed into the Black Sea in 2001, was shot down by a Ukrainian missile
15. Experts deny that a Russian plane was hit by a Ukrainian missile in 2001 // RIANovosti Ukraine.
16. Ukraine sees no reason to initiate a case regarding the Tu-154 crash
17. The investigation is over, forget it
18. The Prosecutor General's Office has again taken up the case of the crash of the Russian Tu-154 over the Black Sea
19. The court ordered the Ukrainian prosecutor's office to resume the case of the Tu-154 plane crash
20. The Kyiv Economic Court rejected the claim of Siberia Airlines against the Ministry of Defense and the State Treasury of Ukraine
21. Ukraine denied a claim to the families of those killed in the Tu-154 crash
22. The decision of the Kyiv court in the case of the Tu-154 shot down in 2001 has been appealed
23. The Ukrainian military was not involved in the emergency situation with the Tu-154 in 2001, the court confirmed // RIA Novosti, 05/28/2012, 15:27
24. Khripun, V.; Shagiakhmetov, P. Ukraine will appear before the ECHR. Kommersant (December 12, 2012). Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2012.

The last words of the crew commander - “Where did it go?”, spoke unambiguously about what was happening.
After examinations, it turned out that the damage was caused by rocket shrapnel, which is used in air defense systems. The explosion occurred 15 meters from the plane, but this was enough to cause irreparable damage to it.

Versions of what happened

1. The very first version is a terrorist attack. Moreover, three weeks earlier there was a bloody attack on the United States associated with the explosion of the twin towers. And the plane itself was flying from a country well acquainted with this evil. But at Ben Gurion Airport, unprecedented control measures are always carried out and security services assured that terrorists could not sneak on board unnoticed. At least, during the entire existence of the air harbor there has not been a single such case.

2. Soon another explanation appeared - a technical malfunction of the aircraft or unprofessional actions of the crew. By that time, 18 accidents with the TU-154 had occurred due to various problems. Experts, first of all, drew attention to the weak points of the airliner - turbines, fuel tanks, landing gear. But after a thorough check, the version turned out to be irrelevant.

3. The plane was shot down by an S-300 missile fired by the Russian side. Supporters of this version argue that the Ukrainian S-200 air defense system could not hit the plane, since it simply would not have had enough time to reach the target. And the rocket itself needs illumination from ground equipment, which was turned off 3 minutes before the explosion of the plane. In addition, they refer to the words of V. Putin, who stated on the day of the disaster that, according to the tactical and technical characteristics, the fired missile could not reach the corridor in which the ill-fated plane was flying.

4. The airliner was shot down by a Ukrainian missile. This version was initiated...by the Americans. The Pentagon allegedly obtained a recording of negotiations between the Ukrainian military, in which the words “Where did this target come from?” can be heard. Then this version was actively supported by the Russian side. In particular, the head of the commission to investigate the causes of the tragedy, V. Rushailo, 10 days after the incident, announced the defeat of the airliner from the outside.

Conclusions from the investigation

A commission created from specialists from the Interstate Aviation Committee, which at that time included representatives of 11 CIS states, began studying all the circumstances of the incident. It was established that the plane was killed by an S-200 missile, the diameter of which shrapnel corresponded to the size of the holes in the plane's hull.

As a result, the commission came to the conclusion that on that ill-fated day, the radar station, which was supposed to control the missile’s flight path, was disconnected from electricity. The radial speed of the TU-154 most likely turned out to be close to the training target. For this reason, the missile was aimed at a passenger airliner, mistakenly losing sight of the training target.

The organizers of the exercises did not take preventive measures to ensure the safety of the shooting. In particular, the corridor was “cleared” only within a radius of 50 km from the test site, although the technical range of the projectile is about 300 km. Later, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense of Ukraine, V. Tkachev, stated that the stated facts and expert assessments indicate a possible hit by a Ukrainian missile.

In 2008, official Kyiv initiated a new investigation, which was carried out only by Ukrainian experts. It is not surprising that all charges on the Ukrainian side were dropped by this conclusion.
Litigation.

The airline filed claims against the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the State Treasury in the court of the city of Kyiv back in 2004. However, the KNIISE expert commission, which carried out the examination at the initiative of the military department, issued a verdict that the TU-154 could not be destroyed by a Ukrainian missile. Then Sibir demanded that a third party be involved in the investigation, which was MAK. Its experts, on the contrary, clearly noted the cause of the plane’s death from being hit by an S-200 missile.

Despite these circumstances, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine dropped the criminal case. In 2011, the appeal court rejected Siberia's claim, citing the lack of a clear evidence base from the IAC.
In 2012, the Supreme Arbitration Court of Ukraine decided to refuse the Sibir company's appeal for damages in the amount of $15.5 million.

In 2002, an interdepartmental commission was formed to resolve claims, and a year later a corresponding agreement was signed between Russia and Ukraine. On its basis, from 2003 to 2005, the Independence government compensated moral damages to the relatives of the victims in the total amount of $15.6 million. However, all payments were made without legal admission of guilt by the Ukrainian side.