Today is a year since the plane crashed over Sinai. A year ago, a plane carrying Russian tourists exploded over Sinai.
The root causes of the tragedy in Sinai should perhaps be sought in the events of 14 years ago
We find out about most airlines in Russia when a disaster occurs. Until this moment, everything seems to be fine - planes are flying, passengers are not complaining, the state is vigilant. But the “golden” rule of an official - the main thing is not to work, but to create an appearance - alas, also applies in aviation. Let's see what the Kogalymavia airline is like, whose plane crashed in Sinai. And let's try to understand why it was even possible.
Kogalymavia began its first flights in 1993. At first, her clientele was monotonous - they were oil and gas workers, as well as everyone associated with the mining industry. The company's fleet consisted of two aircraft - Tu-134 and Tu-154, and the main flights were made back and forth between Kogalym, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk and, naturally, Moscow. To other cities - Anapa, Baku, Volgograd, Kyiv, Mineral water, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi - they drove less often when a sufficient number of applications accumulated. Several Kogalymavia aircraft, along with their crews, were leased to the airline and operated flights in Iran.
It is not strange that the first owners of Kogalymavia were closely associated with LUKOIL (in fact, the abbreviation LUKOIL stands for Langepas, Urai, Kogalym - the company’s largest production regions at that time). But then the air carrier changed hands. According to Russian and foreign online publications, Kogalymavia now belongs to the Western Aviation Investment Company (ZAIC). This structure specializes in activities such as vehicle rental, installation, repair and maintenance services of pumps and compressors, and other special-purpose machines.
ZAIC has a clear Caucasian footprint. The company is owned by entrepreneurs Amirbek Gagaev, Buvaysar Khalidov (27.8% shares each) and Khamit Dzhankut Bagana (44.4%). The latter has Turkish citizenship and has been involved in the tourism business for more than 35 years. Moreover, he is a shareholder of the largest Turkish private airline Onur Air, which previously flew the crashed A321.
A turning point in the history of Kogalymavia occurred in 2009. The company purchased Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, and at the end of 2011 it completely stopped operating the aircraft. In May 2012, Kogalymavia rebranded and became known as MetroJet. What this was connected with is not clear. But, according to unofficial information that is being circulated among aviation business specialists, such a decision was made in connection with the interests of one of Kogalymavia’s partners - the tour operator BRISCO, which, as they say in the market, is Viskhan Tabulaev. He also runs ZAIC, whose office is located in the same business center as MetroJet. It is curious that BRISCO changed its name from Lagina Travel (as BRISCO was called since its founding in 2004) in the same 2012, when Kogalymavia became MetroJet. It is also worth noting that tragic flight Sharm al-Sheikh - commissioned by Brisco. Its owner Viskhan Tabulaev simultaneously runs the Western Aviation Investment Company.
Such a close fusion of aviation and the tourist industry is found all over the world. And in our case, the tour operator and the carrier have common beneficiaries. In this case, this is the already mentioned Bagan and a native of Chechnya, Ismail Lepiev. Their common office may have been seen more than once by lovers of Antalya beaches: an elaborate box made of glass and concrete under the sign of the Prince Group. The tourism component of the holding, represented by Lepiev, is called Tourism Holding and Consulting CJSC (this system also includes the tour operator BRISCO)
In total, until recently, the MetroJet fleet consisted of 10 aircraft: two Airbus A320, seven A321 and one Canadair Challenger 850 (this is one of the largest business aircraft, allowing to transport from 13 to 19). The average age of the aircraft is 14 years.
The A321 that crashed was 18 years old. It was registered in Ireland. Its airworthiness certificate was valid until March 2016. For the first few years, he flew with the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines, then with the Saudi Arabian Airlines, then with the Turkish Onur Air (remember Hamit Jankut Bagan, the largest co-owner of ZAIC) and finally the Syrian Cham Wings Airlines.
Here it would be appropriate to quote the interview of the deputy general director of ThiK Zelimkhan ZARMAEV two years ago to the Biblio Globus portal. It is about an Airbus whose flight was tragically interrupted on Saturday morning.
METROJET, in order to fulfill its obligations to passengers in tourist season, leased two in Ireland AIRBUS aircraft A-321-200, having submitted all Required documents for certification of air vehicles. The department, in turn, did not allow airbuses to fly, demanding that they be equipped aircraft icing sensors. But this requirement is not justified.... Since the aircraft were already certified in Ireland, their registration by the Russian responsible agency should have become a purely formal procedure. However, we were faced with bureaucratic delays, from which, ultimately, the passengers of our airline suffered.
Passengers really suffered - a number of flights had to be postponed. For an airline recognized as “the most punctual” in 2012, this is truly an unusual problem. Unfortunately, while caring about punctuality, the aviators themselves seemed to periodically forget about safety. At least, Kogalymavia has had troubles more than once, sometimes with fatal consequences. In January 2010, at the Iranian Mashhad airport, his Tu-154 plane, during landing (which was carried out quite roughly), broke the landing gear and the tail was partially torn off. About 40 people were injured and the accident was attributed to adverse weather conditions.
In the spring of the same year, an Airbus A320 crashed at Domodedovo airport while flying to Hurghada. The cause was a problem with the hydraulic system. An alarm went off on board the airliner warning of low pressure in the system. The aircraft commander decided to return to the airport to ensure the safety of the aircraft.
At the beginning of 2011, a Tu-154B-2 of Kogalymavia airlines, while performing a flight to Surgut, burned out at Surgut airport. The fire occurred in the tail section of the plane while taxiing. One of the fuel tanks exploded and the entire fuselage burned down. As a result, three were killed and 40 people were injured. More details about this can be found in the adjacent material through the mouth of the leader of the Na-Na group, Bari Alibasov.
And finally on October 31, 2015. An Airbus A321 flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg crashed 100 km from El Arish in Egypt. The main version of the crash is a technical malfunction. An investigation will show whether this is so.
Well, for now federal Service Transport Supervision Authority issued an order to Kogalymavia to suspend flights of A321 aircraft. According to Interfax, by November 2 the company must assess the condition of the Airbuses and all the risks associated with their flights.
But whether this will help is a big question. According to some information, the plane crashed almost 15 years ago, on November 16, 2001, and was involved in an accident at Beirut airport. It was then operated by the Lebanese MEA. He received a "tailstrike" or "tailstrike" on the runway. It underwent repairs and then flew on Saudi Arabian, Syrian and Russian-Turkish routes.
Just what is a “tail strike”? One of the most terrible “wounds” of an aircraft, when vehicle comes into dangerous contact with the runway. This can happen both during takeoff and landing.
However, the A321 did not crash in the air. What does the “tail strike” have to do with it? Not so simple. Such an accident causes significant damage to the owner and puts the lives of passengers in danger.
But any damage to the aircraft, even if repaired, is like a cancerous tumor. Their consequences can manifest themselves many years after the accident and subsequent repair of the aircraft. Two cases can be cited - in 1985 on a Japan Airlines line, which killed 520 people, and in 2002 on a China Airlines plane, which caused the death of 224 passengers. Failure to properly repair the damage caused by the "tail strike" led to the subsequent destruction of the aircraft in mid-air.
As the president of the Air Transport Infrastructure Development Fund “Partner” told MK civil aviation» Oleg Smirnov, if the aircraft was repaired after a “tail strike” by qualified specialists, and parts and equipment were replaced with “original” or certified products, then there will be no accident of any aircraft. But if there is some kind of “forgery” for supposedly replaceable parts, then you can expect the worst. Including accidents decades later.”
In this regard, we recall a major disaster in 1979 in the United States, when on takeoff from Chicago O'Hare airport, due to the separation of the left engine from the pylon (suspension under the wing) of the left engine, the Douglas DC-10 plane crashed (271 people died and several people died). ground).The investigation revealed that after routine maintenance of the engine, mechanics installed it according to a simplified scheme, which caused microcracks at the mounting site.
Experts do not rule out that unscrupulous repairs of the A321 after the accident in 2001 caused its crash in 2015.
However, there are opinions that the crash of the Kogalymavia plane is “ average temperature around the hospital." Air transport accidents in Russia are growing every year. This is largely due to the expansion of private passenger air routes in the mid-2000s. Over the past 10 years, according to some, more than 4,000 private jets and helicopters have been registered. Many people abroad can afford to buy a helicopter or a plane. In America, for example, there are about 750 thousand private aircraft.
But does Russia need this? Over Moscow, where the country's largest finances are concentrated, only the highest officials are allowed to fly in their own transport. In the regions, sometimes getting to your destination on regular routes is both cheaper and more convenient.
In this case, the question arises - is it possible to turn the system into some kind of uniformity. That is, there will be one, two or three (even up to a dozen) carriers and antimonopoly laws will not be violated. Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs Alexey Pushkov makes approximately this proposal. He proposed reducing the number of national air carriers to three. “I noticed that the disasters of the last 50 years are usually associated with medium-sized companies,” the parliamentarian notes.
At the same time, most problematic situations, including fatal accidents, are associated not only with the companies operating or servicing flights, but also with the aircraft fleet itself. According to Oleg Smirnov, until the end of the 1990s, our country used exclusively domestically produced aircraft - more than 13.5 thousand units. Now most airlines buy Boeings and Airbuses, which have been in operation from foreign carriers for at least 15-20 years. Almost all of them are registered in other countries - in the same Ireland, like the tragically lost A321, or on “islands where the tax system is much softer than in Russia.”
“We buy aircraft abroad, we train pilots in the same way, and we also import spare parts. We sell tickets in rubles. Accordingly, carriers have to save money. Including safety issues - repair and maintenance. The transition to reducing the number of air carriers, similar to the Soviet system, replacing the current private companies with state-owned ones, will not lead to an improvement in the situation. Now in Russia there are about 100 airlines of one level or another. During the year they transport just over 90 million people. There are approximately 1 thousand air carriers in the United States. And last year their passenger traffic exceeded 800 million. The leadership of our country needs to develop a new, more advanced aerification program. This will take many years - after all, over the past 25 years we have lagged behind the rest of the world in this business by half a century,” says Oleg Smirnov.
HOW ARE THEY?
The foreign passenger air transportation market is extremely vast. Thus, in the United States there are over fifty companies that provide passenger flights both within the country and abroad (excluding airlines that provide small aircraft for short trips). At the same time, there is no advantage in favor of one company. For example, in 2014, four companies - Delta Air Lines, United States Southwest Airlines, United States United Airlines and United States American Airlines - carried a total of 440 thousand passengers. Moreover, the first company accounted for 130 thousand, and the fourth from the list - 88 thousand.
The situation is similar in Europe, for example in France, where there are more than 20 carriers (however, the leader is unconditionally Air France with 52 thousand passengers), in Germany (about 30 companies, the leader is Lufthansa with its subsidiaries and 60 thousand passengers transported last year).
The striking exception here is perhaps Spain, where Iberia Airlines, privatized in 2001, absorbed a number of regional carriers, effectively monopolizing the domestic flight market. In 2010, it was announced that it would merge with British Airwaves, but both companies that formed the International Airlines Group continue to operate under their usual names. However, Vueling Airlines competes quite successfully with Iberia within the country.
In China, in turn, there is also a considerable choice of airlines, but the so-called “big three” traditionally stand out: China Southern Airlines, Air China and China Eastern Airlines. The first two accounted for a total of almost 120 thousand passengers last year.
October 31 marks one year since the worst air disaster in Russian history– the crash of the airliner A321 of the Kogalymavia airline, which did not fly from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashing over the Sinai. All 224 people on board were killed.
A year has passed since the plane crash over Sinai interrupted the lives of 224 people returning from Egypt to St. Petersburg. Among the dead were 25 children. The Kogalymavia airliner A321 took off from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg on October 31, 2015 at 5.51 am - or 6.51 Moscow time. After 23 minutes he disappeared from radar. Soon there were reports that it crashed over the Sinai, and that all on board, 217 passengers and 7 crew members, were killed. For the relatives of the victims, immersed in the inevitable routine procedures that followed the tragedy: identification of bodies, awaiting the results of genetic examinations of the remains, funerals, for a long time no one could clearly explain what actually happened to the plane.
The Russian authorities did not immediately officially admit that the plane crash was the result of a terrorist attack, although American and British experts, citing the intelligence services of their countries, announced this in the very first days after the disaster. In addition, the Sinai branch of the Islamic State terrorist group took responsibility for the attack. But in Russia, for more than two weeks, the main version of the investigation remained a technical malfunction of the aircraft. Possible wear and tear of equipment and an explosion of a lithium battery or fuel tank were considered as the causes of the crash. At the same time, air traffic with Egypt was stopped. Only on January 16, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, admitted that a terrorist attack had occurred in the skies over Sinai. Irrefutable evidence was found on the wreckage of the liner and on the belongings of the victims - traces of an improvised explosive device.
A month later, the noise made in connection with the plane crash began to subside, and the relatives of the victims felt left alone with their misfortune. At the end of November they turned to funds mass media with an open letter saying that the Investigative Committee was giving them too little information about the progress of the investigation, that their nerves could not stand the constant postponement of the release of the bodies of the dead. Fragments of this letter were published in many media, and soon an initiative group of people came to the Investigative Committee, outraged that they had not been given the remains of their loved ones for a long time. People wanted to bury them before 40 days had passed since their death. After this, the procedure for releasing bodies accelerated.
Today people prefer not to remember this. One of the relatives of the victims, Dmitry Sakerin believes that the state has fulfilled all its obligations to them.
We do not agree that there is no moral harm and no one owes anyone anything
“The relatives received compensation and places in cemeteries without unnecessary fuss, wherever they wanted. True, we only received insurance compensation, and we have yet to receive compensation for moral damage. We do not agree that there is no moral harm and no one owes anyone anything. Therefore, we still have to face trials - both in Egypt and with Western insurance companies. Our Egyptian partners will definitely receive a stack of lawsuits.
Sergey Barabanov, brother of the deceased Natalia Vetlugina and uncle of her daughter Katya Grigorieva, also believes that all the state’s obligations are being fulfilled.
– Only the moral damage has not yet been compensated; here we are facing trials. And in principle, we are satisfied with the amount of what was paid. The only thing is that we lost two cases regarding Katya - we do not want her father, the alimony provider, who for 10 years did not take any part in her life at all, to receive compensation for her. But it was he who turned out to be the beneficiary here, since he was not deprived of parental rights. Perhaps we will still challenge this decision in the Supreme Court. My sister, Katya and I lived in the same apartment, and I know how unfair this is.
Valery Gordin, who lost his son in a plane crash, believes that the state supported him.
“We received financial support - almost everything; there were still questions regarding the crew members, because at the time of the tragedy their relatives did not have the right to certain compensation payments. Now the legislation has been changed and improved, but our law does not have retroactive force. Financial assistance is not very important to me, but I know that in St. Petersburg and in other cities people received good support; if the relatives of the victims contacted the social protection committee, they received comprehensive assistance.
Amalia Vishneva, who lost her only son in a plane crash, recalls how she did not want him to fly to Egypt shortly after Russian aircraft began helping Syrian government forces.
“I warned him, but they should have warned him about the danger and travel companies, and the Federal Air Transport Agency also had to say that these air corridors are unsafe. As for compensation, I am the only one who has not yet processed and received the 2 million that have already been given to everyone, but I can’t imagine how I can buy food or some things with the money received for the death of my son. They are trying to persuade me to take them and give them to charity - in general, I don’t know, I haven’t made a decision on this yet, but the insurers are telling me that I need to make a decision by the end of the year.
The issue of compensation is a complicated one: according to the law, only first-degree relatives are entitled to it, so, for example, elderly people whose entire family died can receive money for their dead children, but not for their grandchildren. In fact, the compensation amounts, to put it mildly, are very modest compared to those that the relatives of those killed in such cases receive. Western countries. Why is this happening? Advocate Boris Gruzd believes that this is a global problem: in Russia human life priced very cheap.
The point here is a fundamental difference in the attitude towards the value of life, health, honor and dignity of a person in our country and in developed countries
– It seems to me that this is the most serious difference between the Russian state and Western democracies. That is, the point here is a fundamental difference in attitude towards the value of life, health, honor and dignity of a person in our country and in developed countries. This manifests itself not only in this case, but in any business, in any process. If we are talking about ordinary citizens, and not about powerful of the world This means they cannot count on decent amounts of compensation. Payments are sometimes mocking in nature - when, for example, we are talking about compensation to citizens for illegal detention. This generally happens infrequently when a person manages to prove that he was illegally prosecuted and placed in a pre-trial detention center, but it still happens sometimes. And then compensation for staying in a pre-trial detention center, actually in a prison, in my opinion, is purely symbolic. The same thing happens when people die. But where the defendant is a private individual, one can still hope for the recovery and reflection of a certain amount in the court decision, although there is no guarantee that this decision will be enforced. But at least these amounts will be recorded in the court’s verdict to satisfy a civil claim for compensation for moral damages for the death of a loved one. When it comes to state responsibility, things are usually very bad. Moreover, the case of this plane crash is not even entirely typical: two million rubles is more than a citizen can usually receive if he is recognized as a victim in connection with the death of a close relative. Although, of course, it cannot be compared with what a person can get in the West. And one more thing: these payments are, one might say, of a humanitarian-compensatory nature. After all, in general, compensation should be collected from the culprit, from the criminal, when he is found, but here the state pays money based on purely humanitarian considerations, that is, it is its good will.
– The investigation has not yet been completed, but theoretically, who, besides terrorists, could be to blame for the plane crash – perhaps the Egyptian airport security service?
– Theoretically, yes, because, as far as I know, the bomb was planted on Egyptian territory. As we know, the owner of Domodedovo Airport was forced to pay compensation to the victims, although the airport security services do not report to him. But, to be honest, I don’t remember any cases where a claim was brought against a state that did not provide security. I know that lawyer Igor Trunov represented the interests of many victims, in particular in the case of the owner of Domodedovo Airport, but I don’t remember that anyone received anything from the Russian state.
Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg of the 5th convocation, lawyer Alexander Kobrinsky believes that throughout the year that has passed since the plane crash over Sinai, its public coverage was subordinated to political circumstances.
It was absolutely clear that this terrorist attack was a response to Russia’s entry into the war in Syria, that we are already paying for a war about which it is still impossible to say whether Russia needs it or not
– Let’s start with the fact that when everyone all over the world unanimously said that this was a terrorist attack, when even I, after consulting with a specialist, received the answer that there could be nothing but a terrorist attack, for some reason our authorities stubbornly worthy of better use, they denied that a terrorist attack had occurred, and admitted it later than everyone else - when this fact had already become completely obvious. In reality, this meant that the Russian intelligence services missed the terrorist threat emanating from Egypt. And most importantly, it was absolutely clear that this terrorist attack was a response to Russia’s entry into the war in Syria, that in this way we were already paying for a war about which it is still impossible to say whether Russia needs it or not. That is why, of course, they delayed the recognition of the very fact of the terrorist act for so long.
And I also want to say that I am unpleasantly struck by the trouble with perpetuating the memory of the dead: my colleague, deputy Boris Vishnevsky, and I appealed to Governor Poltavchenko with a request to resolve the issue of installing a monument to the dead. And we even received a positive response, however, then it turned out that this was just an intention, but in fact we still need to find funding, find a location, find a sculptor, and nothing has yet been decided. After all, there are people there who don’t even have the remains of their loved ones, because they cannot be identified, and we talked about how important it would be for them that on the anniversary of the tragedy they could come and lay flowers at the monument,” said Alexander Kobrinsky.
In fact, a Foundation has already been created to perpetuate the memory of those killed in the Sinai plane crash, and today it is assumed that there will be three monuments: one - the Garden of Memory in Vsevolozhsk, where all the names of the victims will be carved on special slabs. The laying of the first stone of this garden took place on October 30, on the eve of the anniversary of the crash of the liner. Another monument will be erected over a mass grave with unidentified remains in one of the St. Petersburg cemeteries. The third monument should be an Orthodox church in the Krasnoselsky district. This idea has already caused controversy - a group of local residents opposes it, believing that kindergartens should be built first, and only then churches.
Alexander Kobrinsky believes that the suburban Vsevolozhsk is too far for the Garden of Memory, because many relatives of the victims are elderly, and it will be difficult for them to get there. Idea Orthodox church As a monument, Kobrinsky has the most criticism.
Among the dead were Jews, Muslims, and atheists - no religious symbols should be erected in their memory against their will.
– This is simply tactless, because not all those who died were Orthodox. It’s not for nothing that Vysotsky’s song says that “they don’t put crosses on mass graves” - they don’t put them precisely because people could be of different religions. And here among the dead, as far as I know, there were Jews, Muslims, and atheists - no religious symbols can be erected in their memory against their will. This is also a sad sign of our time: if you live in Chechnya, you must be a Muslim, somewhere in other regions - a Christian. I know that not everyone agrees with the idea of a temple, and in fact, it is tactless to put people in a situation where they have to object to the construction of a temple of another denomination.
According to Alexander Kobrinsky, the monument to the dead should be of a neutral civil nature.
In October 2015, a Kogalymavia plane took off from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. A bomb planted on board exploded over the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people: seven crew members and 217 passengers, 25 of whom were children.
"Paper" I spoke with the families of the victims and found out how they live two years after the tragedy, why relatives of the victims are suing for compensation, and how in St. Petersburg they perpetuate the memory of the largest disaster in Russian aviation.
In 2015, Larisa and Anatoly Pulyanov were going on vacation to Abkhazia. Initially, their son Roman suggested going to Egypt. Larisa categorically refused: she did not want to fly on a plane and spend a lot on travel - the room at the dacha was then being redecorated for the wedding of Roman and his bride Tatyana Mokievskaya.
Roman and Tatyana, despite her mother’s protests, flew to Egypt on vacation. On October 31, they, along with 222 others on board flight A321, were killed in an explosion.
All these two years we have been thinking about the death of our son: you wake up with it and fall asleep, think about it throughout the day. We don't go crazy - we'll cry, sometimes. But I understand that this feeling is to the end and it will never let go,” says Anatoly Pulyanov.
Previously, every day for us began with a call from Roman and his question: “Parents, how are you there?”, and ended: “Parents, how was your day?” recalls Larisa. “My best friend died. Such relationships are rare between father and son, but this is exactly what we had,” shares Anatoly.
Roman and Tatiana
One day, Anatoly wandered into an unfinished firehouse, where it was dark, with fittings and sharp pieces of metal sticking out everywhere. However, the man was not injured. “We think Roman saved it. We try so hard to think so as not to die. After all, there are already relatives of the victims who died within two years,” explains Larisa. - Things constantly happen to us that confirm that there is a small connection, and a lot of them have accumulated over two years. I know that death is not the end. I feel it."
Even though the couple misses their son dearly, they are not alone. Roman's good friends constantly communicate with them - one friend, Maria, calls almost every day. The Pulyanovs also attend meetings of members of the Flight 9268 charitable foundation, which includes families dead passengers. When spouses communicate with them, they feel understood.
How does the fund created after the tragedy work?
The prototype of the fund was a closed group for relatives, which was created by St. Petersburg resident Alexander Voitenko in the first days after the tragedy. His 37-year-old sister Irina and 14-year-old niece Alisa died in the plane crash. Alexander and his sister lived in different cities, but constantly communicated.
For the first two months the bodies were not given to us. It was necessary to bring everyone together so that we could have a single information space, it’s easier that way. And ultimately, we decided that we needed to create our own fund: once a legal entity is registered, it is easier to communicate with the city administration or the Investigative Committee and provide financial and legal assistance.
Photo: group of the charitable foundation “Flight 9268” on VKontakte
The headmistress of the St. Petersburg school, Irina Zakharova, became the chairman of the foundation’s board; Her 28-year-old daughter, an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Elvira Voskresenskaya, was flying in the plane that exploded. The first meeting of relatives, where it was decided to create a fund, took place in the assembly hall of the school headed by Zakharova.
All the remains were released to relatives only in May. Seven people, according to Voitenko, remained unidentified.
Now the fund group has almost 40 thousand subscribers from Ufa, Belgorod, Voronezh, Kaliningrad and other cities. Voitenko calls them a big family, where people always help each other. Among them are ordinary Russians who believe that this tragedy has affected them personally. Alexander himself believes that the disaster over Sinai affected everyone in one way or another.
A few days ago, the relatives of the victims were presented with a collection of poems, “Stepping into Eternity,” some of which were written by group member Arina Korol. Voitenko recalls that she began offering help to relatives from the first days and still writes poetry almost every day dedicated to the dead. And another participant, Irina Solya, helps the foundation organize events: concerts and holidays for children. So, recently the fund’s members planted trees together, and after that they organized a tea party. In the disaster over Sinai, Arina and Irina did not lose loved ones, but they still perceive the tragedy as personal.
The main goal of the foundation is to preserve the memory of all those who died. On October 28, at the Serafimovskoye cemetery, a monument “Folded Wings” was unveiled over the grave with the unidentified remains of victims of the disaster; it was created with money from the authorities of St. Petersburg. On the anniversary, October 31, the Garden of Memory memorial was opened on Rumbolovskaya Mountain.
How the city supports the families of the victims and what it does to preserve memory
When everything first happened, the psychologists of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, high-level professionals, helped us a lot: they brought people out of the state of shock. Then psychologists from district social protection services picked up the baton: social psychologists were assigned to all those in need. After a year and a half, we realized that connections with specialists had weakened, and time does not heal, we still need social support,” says co-founder of the foundation, HSE professor Valery Gordin.
According to him, after the program was announced, under which the foundation was ready to pay for anonymous consultations with psychologists, several dozen people applied for them. Psychologists, according to Gordin, say that relatives of the victims experience phantom pain.
Valery’s son, 28-year-old Leonid, died in a plane crash along with his fiancee Alexandra Illarionova. Lenya loved animals very much and was, as his father recalls, a spontaneous animal activist. Once, when Gordin was about to get a cat, he persuaded him not to buy a pet, but to adopt it from a shelter. And when Leonid himself lost his cat Kysya, he looked for the pet together with volunteers.
Then the father treated Leonid’s beliefs with irony and did not follow the advice. After the death of the young man, he decided to organize the Lenkin Cat Foundation, which helps animals.
Lenkin Cat Foundation at the Night of Museums
Gordin still runs Lenka's Cat, and his attitude towards animal protection has changed. The man says he takes a pragmatic approach to the matter and details how the fund has changed. He plans to open a second center for the rental of veterinary equipment, so that it is more convenient for veterinary clinics and those wishing to help, and a school for animal volunteers who will help homeless cats.
Valery believes that after the tragedy the city authorities behaved with dignity and always responded to the requests of relatives. Now the deputies, together with Vice-Governor Albin, are helping to build a temple in the Baltic Pearl area. They plan to set up an educational center at the temple, where they will also provide social assistance.
“Not only to the relatives of the victims, but also to the residents of the area. In my opinion, this is very important and symbolic,” notes Gordin.
They opposed the construction of the temple a year ago local residents, who claimed that it had nothing to do with the “Baltic Pearl”, and the issue of construction was decided without consulting them.
Gordin says that opponents “to some extent” remained:
Some people like the idea of preserving memory, others think it should be pushed further into a drawer. We met and explained our position. I really hope that the temple will be built in the near future,” Gordin explained.
St. Petersburg residents feared that the construction of the temple would delay the creation of schools and clinics. According to KP, the dissatisfied addressed Vladimir Putin in a letter.
What kind of support do relatives of the crew receive in Moscow and what is known about payments to them?
What they do in St. Petersburg to perpetuate it is all the great merit of the foundation. This is of great importance to us. If they also build us a spiritual and educational center, this will be another place where we can come and bow to the memory of our family and friends,” says the father of 25-year-old flight attendant Alexei Filimonov, Muscovite Andrei Filimonov.
Andrey says that over the past two years he has been regularly calling and communicating with relatives of the crew. Almost all of them live in Moscow and the Moscow region, and try to meet more often and support each other. Sometimes they come to fund meetings in St. Petersburg.
25-year-old Alexey, according to his father, got on board at the last moment: he was not supposed to work on this flight: on the way to the airport, his car broke down on the Moscow Ring Road, as a result, the young man missed his flight and ended up in reserve. He was called 12 hours before departure to replace another flight attendant.
The crew's relatives have their own separate VKontakte group, and they have been supported by subscribers all these two years. The families of the victims now know some of them personally and meet regularly. Andrey is given icons and poems about his son, and souvenirs are sent from St. Petersburg.
Andrey and Alexey Filimonov
Previously, disasters in our country were mainly due to the fault of the crew. But in this case, our loved ones found themselves in the same situation as the passengers. It was terrorism. There was no chance of salvation. The main thing is that we are not forgotten.
According to Filimonov, Kogalymavia never paid compensation to any of the relatives of the deceased crew members. About the same in the charity fund group
The biggest disaster in the history of our civil aviation occurred this morning. 224 people - passengers and crew of the flight Sharm el-Sheikh - St. Petersburg - crashed in Egypt, on the Sinai Peninsula. People were flying back from vacation with their families. 27 children among the dead. The Egyptian Prime Minister said that 129 bodies have been found so far. Experts are working on a "black box".
This is the first evidence of a plane crash in Sinai - photographs published by an Egyptian television channel. The first - for the whole day. Before this, there was not a single photograph, not a single video recording, even the shortest one. Towards evening, the first military helicopters carrying the remains of disaster victims from Sinai landed at the Egyptian Air Force Kabrit air base, a little over a hundred kilometers from Cairo. Ambulances - a long line of cars with lights flashing - transport them from the airbase to the Cairo morgue. Before nightfall, the bodies of almost all the dead were delivered to the Egyptian capital. From there they will be sent to Russia, to St. Petersburg.
“Since this tragic incident, our countries have been working in close contact. The President and the government of Egypt expressed condolences in this regard and offered to do everything possible to, firstly, conduct a joint investigation, and secondly, help in transporting the bodies of our citizens to their homeland ", said the Russian Ambassador to Egypt Sergei Kirpichenko.
Airbus Flight 9268 flew for only 23 minutes. Much longer - several hours after it disappeared from radar - conflicting information about the fate of the liner came. It was not immediately possible to create a more or less clear picture of what happened in the skies over Sinai.
Sharm el-Sheikh airport, 5 hours 51 minutes local time (6.51 Moscow time). Airbus "Kogalymavia" is charter airline, also known under the Metrojet brand, took off and is heading for St. Petersburg. There were almost no empty seats left. An experienced crew commander - 12 thousand flight hours, a third of which were on an Airbus 321. Almost immediately after takeoff, he discovered some problems on board, contacted the ground, reported the malfunctions, and asked for permission to land at the nearest airfield. At this point the session ended, and the Airbus did not make contact again. By 7:14 am Moscow time, the plane was lost by radar.
"At 7.14 I was supposed to establish a communication session with Larnaca, the Republic of Cyprus. Radio communication did not take place with the plane, it was lost. The aircraft's mark also disappeared from the radio radars of air traffic control services. There were 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board the plane, mostly citizens Russia," said Sergei Izvolsky, press secretary of the Federal Air Transport Agency.
Of the 217 passengers, 27 were children. Families were returning from a holiday in Sharm.
Judging by data from the Internet resource Flytradar, the last thing the earth recorded was that the plane dropped about two kilometers in altitude a minute before disappearing from the screens. The speed also dropped sharply: from almost 750 kilometers per hour, first to 350, and then to 170 kilometers per hour! This is the last thing the transponder transmitted, and these numbers are beyond critical. Big liner at such a low speed it simply cannot stay in the air. Moreover, according to witnesses who observed the crash of the Airbus, its engine seemed to be on fire.
The plane had already crashed - it fell in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, 35 kilometers from the city of El-Arish, and the press and news agencies continued to pour out contradictory messages. Someone immediately declared the plane crashed. Then information came that he allegedly got in touch again. Then all the confusing references to Egyptian dispatchers appeared, who allegedly claimed that they had handed over the Airbus to their Turkish colleagues. But this information was not confirmed either.
Closer to noon, it became clear that the plane did not leave Egyptian airspace. The prime minister of this country canceled all trips, called an emergency meeting and announced that the plane had crashed after all. A state of emergency has been declared in Sinai. And finally, in the afternoon, it was officially announced: the wreckage had been found.
“We have sent a working group of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the scene of the crash. It will conduct an investigation, this is a standard procedure. Of course, we are in constant contact with the Russian ambassador,” said Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.
Those who were the first to see the crash site with their own eyes conveyed news that finally buried hope: the liner was completely destroyed, there was no chance of finding survivors. After another half hour, rescuers began to remove the bodies of the dead from the rubble. Search efforts were complicated by the difficult mountainous terrain and the fact that the fallen airliner was literally scattered around the area.
An Egyptian security officer described a terrible scene to Reuters: "I am witnessing a tragic scene. There are many dead bodies lying on the ground, many of them fastened with seat belts in their seats. The plane is split into two parts. The first - a small tail part - is burned, the second - the large front part crashed into the rock. We have already recovered 100 bodies, the rest are still under the rubble. We heard dozens of phones that belonged to the dead ringing, our officers collected them in a bag."
The crashed Airbus 321 was in operation for about 19 years - this is quite acceptable in civil aviation; another question is how the aircraft was maintained. This particular aircraft served for several years in airlines in the countries of the Middle East region: in Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria. The Russian Kogalymavia acquired it in 2012.
Experts are looking into the causes of the tragedy, but photographs of the people remain. Photos of those who flew from Egypt, returned from vacation on flight 9268 and, before takeoff, managed to leave publications on social networks with the following caption, for example: “Hello, Peter, goodbye, Egypt. We are flying home.”
