40 years ago, the sky was peaceful far east region near the city of Zavitinsk (800km northwest of Vladivostok) was rocked by an explosion after the collision of two planes. aircraft. The incident occurred on August 24, 1981, military aircraft The Tu-16K collided with the An-24RV passenger plane.
The passenger plane then departed from Komsomolsk-on-Amur (910km northeast of Vladivostok) for Blagoveshchensk (860km northwest of Vladivostok). The military plane was on a weather intelligence reconnaissance mission.
Tu-16K aircraft. Photo: RBTH
The Tu-16K was one of several aircraft operating in the area that day. Tu-16K pilots were not given specific information about other aircraft operating in the skies in the area. That’s why the Tu-16K notified air traffic control that they had reached their next altitude, but in fact, they did so a little later.
Military aviation commanders at that time did not use radio tuners, because if they did, they would have detected the An-24RV. Neither military nor civilian forces coordinate well in their operations.
The only survivor
At 15:21, the two planes collided at an altitude of 5,200m. The An-24 suffered damage to the top and wings, the Tu-16K was torn off. The two planes then crashed into the taiga forest.
37 people died, including 6 people on a military aircraft, 5 crew and 26 passengers (including 1 child) on the An-24RV. However, 20-year-old pedagogical student Larisa Savitskaya miraculously survived the accident.
An-24RV passenger plane. Photo: RBTH
Larisa Savitskaya was then on her way back from her honeymoon with her husband, Vladimir. The two visited relatives in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The city of Blagoveshchensk is where newlyweds live and study.
Larisa still remembers all the passengers and when everyone got on the plane it was fine, but then she recounted: “I feel so tired and I don’t even remember us taking off. How are the wings?”
The flight was more than half empty, so the flight attendant suggested the couple sit at the front, but they decided they wanted to sit in the back to avoid getting too excited. This was one of the decisions that saved Larisa’s life.
“When the plane split apart, the seats we were sitting in were blown away with other parts of the plane, no one could survive,” said Larisa.
Larisa regained her senses from the strong impact. The temperature of 25 degrees Celsius in the cabin suddenly turned to minus 30 degrees Celsius when the plane was torn apart. Larisa felt a burning sensation. He heard screams and hiss in the air around him. Vladimr was dead and Larisa felt her life was over, she couldn’t even speak because of the intense pain both physically and mentally.
At that time, Larisa suddenly remembered the Italian film entitled “The Miracle Still Happens”. Larisa saw this film in theaters with Vladimir about a year ago. This film tells the story of Julianne Koepcke, who survived an accident airplane accident in the Peruvian jungle.
“At that time I only had one thought: how to die without torture. I held on to the armrests and tried to push my hands and feet out of the chair with all my might,” recalls Larisa. Julianne’s character in the film does the same.
Larisa couldn’t imagine what was happening: “Clouds flew past my eyes, followed by thick fog and a deafening howl of wind. The plane didn’t catch fire. Suddenly, everything turned dark blue: taiga. I felt the tension and then tried to calm down.”
Then Larisa was lucky again: after eight minutes of freefall, the wreckage of her plane landed on a soft birch, making the impact much softer than falling straight to the ground, or falling on a spruce.
Larisa Savitskaya. Photo: Sputnik
The first sound Larisa heard when she came to her senses was the resonant sound of a forest mosquito. He really didn’t know how badly he was injured. Larisa felt pain in her spine, broken ribs, arms and legs, broken head and teeth, and pain all over her body.
“I opened my eyes and saw the sky above, I was in a chair and Volodya was right in front of me. He sat on the floor where his right side remained untouched, leaning his back against the wall. It seemed like he was looking at me. But his eyes were closed. It was as if he was saying goodbye. I think if he has one last wish before he dies, he just wants me to live,” Larisa said of the hallucinations that followed.
Despite having injuries all over her body, Larisa can still walk. In the afternoon, it started to rain. He found a light section of the fuselage for cover and used a seat cover to keep warm.
The first night, Larisa heard a growl somewhere in the forest. It might have been a bear, but he was still too shocked to think about it. Larisa survived for two days, drinking from a nearby puddle of rain. Because she lost most of her teeth, Larisa couldn’t even eat the berries.
“I heard the helicopters and tried to send them a signal. I found a red chair cover and started waving. They saw it, but thought I was the chef of the bunch of geologists at the party. Their camp is somewhere near me,” said Larisa.
On the third day, Larisa remembered that Vladimir had a lighter and a cigarette in his coat pocket.
Small compensation after plane crash
The search team found Larisa while she was sitting on a chair smoking a cigarette.
“When the coast guard saw me, they fell silent. I understand, they looked for body parts in the tree for three days and then suddenly saw a living person,” recalls Larisa.
No one believed anyone had survived such an accident. That’s why Larisa was not found until 3 days later.
“I don’t look like anything in this world. My whole body was as red as a plum with a silver shimmer from the paint on the fuselage. My hair is like glass wool from the wind.”
After the rescue team arrived, Larisa could no longer walk.
“When I look at everyone, I’m exhausted,” explains Larisa.
The rescue team had to cut down some birch trees and a helicopter landed and carried the lone survivor to Zavitinsk.
“While I was in Zavitinsk, I learned that a grave had been dug for me. The grave was dug according to the list of passengers on the flight,” said Larisa.
Larisa Savitskaya in 2021. Photo: TASS
Larisa recovered after a long treatment. He also received very little compensation – only 75 rubles (about 117 USD at 1980 exchange rates), while the average monthly salary in the Soviet Union was about 178 rubles (about 278 USD).
Larisa Savitskaya holds the Guinness World Record as the person who received the smallest compensation after a plane crash.
Meanwhile, the plane crash was kept secret. The Soviet press at that time published nothing about this disaster. Regarding the results of the official investigation, the authorities admitted to blaming the pilots and air traffic controllers. Larisa Savitskaya was only notified of this result in the 1990s.
The first information appeared in 1985 in the newspaper ‘Sovetsky Sport’ (“Soviet Sports”).
“It seems they really want to publish the information, but it is forbidden to mention the accident. So they made up the story that I flew on a homemade plane and fell from a height of 5,000 meters, but survived, because the Soviets could overcome anything.” Larisa Savitskaya recalls:
Then Larisa moved from Blagoveshchensk to Moscow. He finds it difficult to live in a city where everything is related to Vladimir.
40 years after the accident, Larisa still remembers everything and the memories still make her miserable. But Larisa believes that “a rocket never falls twice in the same place”, so she is not afraid to fly.
In 2020, Larisa Savitskaya participated in the production of the film ‘Odna’ (“Alone”) directed by Dmitry Suvorov. He works as a consultant to screenwriters and actors to help bring films to life.
“I always thought that it was possible to learn to survive in such situations,” says Larisa Savitskaya.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
