The passenger plane took off, gained altitude, collided with birds, which caused the engines to catch fire, and then what experts called a miracle happened. The pilot masterfully landed the liner on the river.

Reporting by Anton Voitsekhovsky.

What journalists later called the "Hudson miracle" at first looked more like a nightmare. When the passengers of Flight 1549 saw through the windows the rapidly approaching water, many thought that this was the end.

The victim: "It was a hard landing. In my opinion, there was no one who would not hit his head. I saw how the passengers in the neighboring seats were bleeding. It later became clear that everyone escaped with bruises and cuts. And then it was very scary" .

It was a normal mid-range flight. Departing from New York's LaGuardia Airport, he was supposed to land in the city of Charlotte. But a few minutes after takeoff, the captain reported that birds had hit both engines and could not be restarted.

In the dry language of pilots, such a landing is called an "emergency landing on the water."

Safe landing, professional actions of the crew... But, above all, it was a rare success. After all, in an emergency, and most importantly without harm to passengers, to land on the water, this was rarely possible in the history of aviation. Flight 1549, after splashing down, remained afloat for another hour and a half before the arrival of rescuers. This means that the fuselage was not damaged by the impact. And the passengers had enough time to leave the plane.

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York: "I personally spoke with the pilot. He had a difficult task, and he coped with it brilliantly. Mr. Chelsea Selenberger walked around the cabin twice after the passengers were evacuated, and how the real captain was the last to leave the ship. From On behalf of all New Yorkers, I thank him."

The most terrible thing in an emergency landing on water is a blow. After all, the plane actually landed on an uneven surface.

There are few examples of successful landings. For example, these are the splashdown of a Japanese airlines plane in 1968 near San Francisco and the accident in 1972, when a Tu-134 plane landed in glide mode in the Moscow Sea. But the most unique case occurred in 1963.

It was a landing that entered aviation textbooks. The Tu-124's engines failed over the city. Having glided over three bridges, the crew commander Viktor Mostovoy was able to land the plane directly into the Neva. Not far from the Finland railway bridge. Not a single passenger was hurt.

By analogy with America, it was the Neva miracle. This case was silent for a long time, but all the pilots of all passenger aircraft know about it.

So the captain of flight 1549 Chelsea Sellinberg, directing the plane to the Hudson, confirmed the main law of aviation: the death of an aircraft or its rescue is equally strongly influenced by the human factor.

Tu-124 landing on the Neva became one of the first cases of successful splashdown passenger aircraft. The crew of the crashed liner, at the cost of incredible efforts, managed to land the plane in the very center of Leningrad. The accident was avoided and no one was hurt.

Circumstances of the accident

On August 21, 1963, the Aeroflot Tu-124 passenger airliner was preparing to make a regular regular flight Tallinn - Moscow. The aircraft was assigned to the Estonian squadron. The commander of the ship that day was an experienced pilot Viktor Yakovlevich Mostovoy. The crew included co-pilot Chechenov and flight engineer Tsarev.

The liner took off from the Ülemiste airport early in the morning, at 8.55, and headed for Moscow's Vnukovo airport. After a few minutes of flight, the pilots discovered that the front landing gear jammed and it remained in a semi-retracted state. Returning to was not possible, as it was shrouded in dense fog. It was extremely dangerous to make an emergency landing in such conditions. The crew was ordered to fly to Leningrad and try to land there.

The fact is that an emergency with a faulty chassis is possible only on a special, plowed dirt strip. It allows you to minimize the risk of sparks during landing, which means avoiding fire or explosion of the aircraft. Such a band was in Leningrad. Everyone was immediately accepted at Pulkovo necessary measures, to take the emergency board. In a short time, all emergency services of the airfield were brought to full readiness.

Over Leningrad

The liner flew up to Leningrad at about 11.00. Pulkovo specialists asked the plane to fly over the airport in order to assess its damage from the ground. Visual inspection confirmed that the nose landing gear was in a semi-retracted state.

The crew was ordered to prepare for an emergency landing. However, before committing it, it was necessary to develop excess fuel. The plane began to make circles over the city at an altitude of 500 meters.

Meanwhile, the flight mechanic Tsarev tried with all his might to free the jammed landing gear. To do this, he had to cut a hole in the floor of the aircraft cabin and, using a pole, manually, try to bring the rack to its normal position. All efforts were in vain.

The plane managed to make 8 circles over the city, when at 12.10 it turned out that there was no longer enough fuel for landing in Pulkovo. Suddenly, the left engine stalled. In connection with the complications that arose, the crew was given permission to fly directly over the city center in order to shorten the distance to the airport.

However, at the very moment when the plane was directly over Smolny, the right engine also stopped. The liner began to quickly lose altitude, and everyone who was at that moment in the center of Leningrad was under threat. In such an emergency, the commander, on the advice of co-pilot Chechenev, a former naval aviation pilot, decides to land directly on the Neva.

emergency landing

Mostovoy ordered the crew to distract passengers, and he, alone, began to plan over the city.

The plane flew over the Liteiny Bridge at a height of 90 meters and managed to pass Bolsheokhtinsky just 40 meters from the water, miraculously not hitting its high trusses. Ahead was under construction. When the liner flew over it, the workers from the scaffolding jumped into the water in horror.

At the cost of the incredible efforts of the commander, the aircraft managed to successfully splash down a few tens of meters before the supports of the next, Finnish railway bridge. They say that Mostovoy turned gray in these few minutes.

The landing of the Tu-124 on the Neva was completed successfully, and the aircraft remained afloat, but due to damage received during landing, water began to flow into the fuselage. The old Burevestnik tugboat, which accidentally passed by and miraculously avoided a collision with an aircraft, managed to drag the sinking liner closer to the shore, to the territory of the Severny Press plant. By another lucky chance, wooden rafts stood at this place near the shore. The wing of the aircraft lay down on these rafts and formed a natural ladder along which all passengers and crew safely went ashore.

In total, there were 44 passengers on the plane, including two children, and 7 crew members. There was no panic, but once on the shore, people gradually began to realize that they had recently been on the verge of death. The crew of the plane was immediately sent for interrogation to the KGB, and the passengers were taken to Pulkovo, from where they were returned to Tallinn on the first flight.

Causes of the accident

The Tu-124 landing on the Neva was the first successful splashdown of a large passenger aircraft. But what caused the accident, which almost turned into a terrible disaster?

Tu-124 by that time was the latest brainchild of the Tupolev design bureau. It was designed and tested in a short time, and therefore had many minor flaws. One of them played a fatal role in the fate of the Estonian board. It turned out that during the takeoff in Tallinn, the ball bolt of the front landing gear fell off the plane, it was later found on the runway. Without this small but important detail, the front landing gear of the aircraft could not take its normal position, and it jammed. According to experts, landing with such a malfunction threatened to overturn the car. In such a situation, a successful splashdown of the aircraft may have been the only way to save the lives of passengers.

The second reason for the almost unleashed tragedy was the malfunction of the fuel gauge, which gave incorrect data on the amount of fuel on board. This common defect in many aircraft of that time was well known to all pilots, and many of them asked to fill the plane with a little more fuel than it was supposed to. However, this did not happen that day. In addition, before an emergency landing, it was necessary to develop the maximum amount of fuel, leaving only a little to reach the airport, and here the error in the readings of the device turned out to be fatal.

The fate of the aircraft

After all the people left the board, a special steamer was used to pump water out of the plane. But still, he could not cope with the rapidly incoming water, and soon the Tu-124 sank. The next day, pontoons were brought under the plane, it was raised from the bottom and towed along the Neva to the west Vasilyevsky Island where the military unit was located at that time. After inspection, the aircraft was written off due to damage.

His end was sad. The cockpit was cut off and sent as a flight simulator to the Kirsanov aviation school, located in the Tambov region. Beautiful soft chairs were sold to everyone at a price equal to the cost of a bottle of vodka. And the remains of the fuselage rusted for a long time on the banks of the Skipper channel, until they were cut and sold for scrap.

The fate of the crew

Initially in the KGB and the Main Directorate civil aviation Mostovoy's heroic deed was regarded as sloppiness, he was severely reprimanded and fired from the squadron. However, due to the noise raised in the foreign press, the authorities changed their anger to mercy. They even wanted to award the commander of the ship with the Order of the Red Star, but the order was never signed. In the end, Khrushchev decided not to reward, but not to punish the pilot.

The entire crew was soon allowed to fly again. The co-pilot Chechenov after some time himself became the commander. Mostovoy also continued to work, but already as part of the Krasnodar squadron. In the early 90s, he and his family emigrated to Israel, where he was forced to leave flying and work as a simple worker in a factory. He passed away from cancer in 1997.

Consequences of the accident

Despite the fact that the landing of the Tu-124 on the Neva was successful, after this incident, all airliners were strictly forbidden to fly over the center of Leningrad. This ban is still in effect.

Mostovoy's amazing experience made a strong impression on pilots all over the world. An emergency landing of an aircraft on water is now being practiced on simulators in many airlines of the world. This is what allowed the American pilot to successfully land his emergency Boeing on the Hudson in 1997. Unfortunately, in our country, such training is not carried out.

August 1963 was remembered for a long time by many Leningraders who witnessed the unique landing. Many have seen the silver Tu-124 on the Neva with their own eyes, and this sight, of course, remains one of the most vivid memories of their lives.

This event will certainly go down in the history of aviation, it will teach young American pilots and test the knowledge of the current flight crew.

As befits a Hollywood movie, this story has main character- former military pilot, 57-year-old pilot Chesley Sullenberger, nicknamed Sally. And a worthy happy ending - after the plane he was flying landed on the water, all 150 passengers were saved.

Moreover, the pilot left the board, as befits a sea captain, the last. He examined the plane twice to make sure once again that people had left the sinking airship.

The American media reproduced the chronicle of the flight incident. At 15:26 local time, the Airbus A-320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport. But he did not manage to gain a given height. Having risen about 800 meters, 30-45 seconds after takeoff, the pilot reported emergency situation- a collision of an aircraft with at least two birds. Passengers will become aware of this later - already on the ground. Those who were in the cabin, pressed down by seat belts, looking out of the windows with curiosity, described what happened in the same way - "something loudly banged, the plane staggered, and there was a smell of burning."

It is hard to imagine what people experienced when they realized that the liner, which was taking off, began to lose altitude sharply. Everyone understood that something was happening and it was not turbulence. Some passengers sitting closer to the tail saw flames burst from the engines and they began to smoke. It became unusually quiet. The words "fasten your seat belts" continued to burn on the scoreboard. At this critical moment, a message from the pilot about the upcoming landing on the water followed. The pilot warned passengers about a possible "strong blow".

What happened in the cockpit became known from the transcript of the recordings of Sally's conversations with the control room. Initially, the crew requested a landing at the airport of departure. However, it quickly became clear that a return was impossible. Then it was decided to reach the nearest runway in the state of New Jersey, neighboring New York. But after about three minutes of flight, the pilot transmitted to the ground that he would not be able to keep the car in the air. Then the idea came up to land the plane on the only open area suitable in size - in the park, located along the route of the plane. But the control room found out that the risk is too great, because the park is being repaired. The last chance to save passengers was landing on the water, in the Hudson, which separates Manhattan from New Jersey. This decision was forced and, according to experts, very difficult.

“The huge difficulty lies in the fact that the airbus, which Sally piloted, has engines located under the wings. When landing on the water, he had to make sure that the motors did not touch the water. Otherwise, the liner would simply bury its nose in the water. Therefore, the pilot had to do all to glide on the surface of the water for as long as possible, keeping the nose of the aircraft above the surface," professional pilots explain the intricacies of landing in the Hudson.

Another serious danger was represented by ships that the airbus could collide with. The low water temperature - now minus five degrees in the Hudson - and a strong current exacerbated the situation. It is not surprising that, upon learning of the successful landing, New York State Governor David Paterson angrily called what happened "a miracle over the Hudson."

However, there is one detail that Americans hardly remember today. About the panic that arose in Manhattan when people saw a liner falling on skyscrapers. About the rumors that appeared in the first hours after the disaster, about a possible "Arab trace" in this incident. However, the authorities reacted quickly, informing the population that the terrorists had nothing to do with this case.

Everything that follows is well known. In anticipation of rescuers, passengers climbed onto the wing of the aircraft. Five people who applied for medical care were taken to hospitals. According to Lorrie, the wife of pilot Sullenberger, he called her when it was all over, and briefly said: "There was an accident. But everything is over."

Mooring from the sky

On August 21, 1963, a Soviet aircraft made the world's first successful splashdown in Leningrad on a flight from Tallinn to Moscow..

Already during takeoff at the Tallinn airport, the commander of the Tu-124, Viktor Mostovoy, discovered that the front landing gear was jammed in a semi-retracted position.

Mostovoy reported on the radio about the problem to dispatchers. However, due to thickening fog, an emergency landing in Tallinn was banned. Mostovoy was offered to land the car on the spare unpaved runway of the Pulkovo airfield in Leningrad, - recalls Vladimir Dmitriev, Honored Pilot of the USSR. - While firefighters and doctors arrived at the place of the alleged landing of an emergency airliner, the plane circled over the city at an altitude of 400 meters, developing a fuel reserve of up to one ton. Mostovoy received such an order from Georgy Narbut, the head of flights at Pulkovo Airport. Each lap took 15 minutes.

On the seventh lap, the flight mechanic reported to Mostovoy about the fuel supply, which remains more than necessary according to the instructions. And landing in violation of the rules with a margin of at least 1200-1300 kilograms of fuel threatened the passengers with death. "I'm going for one more lap," the commander of the ship announced on the radio to the ground. He did not suspect that the plane's fuel gauges were faulty. When the airport was 21 kilometers away, the fuel supply was exhausted: the aircraft's left engine stopped.

To shorten the distance to the airfield, the crew decided to fly over the historic center of the city. However, flying over the "headquarters of the revolution" - Smolny, the second engine also failed. Fortunately, the Neva was below, - says Dmitriev. - "Vitya, get on the water," Vasily Chechenov, the co-pilot, a former hydro-pilot, shouted to his comrade.

And then Mostovoy made the only right decision in the current situation: to land the plane on the surface of the water - between the Bolsheokhtinsky and Finland bridges. To avoid panic, the 27-year-old ship's commander ordered the crew members to distract the passengers with conversations. While Mostovoy was planning in a heavy car without fuel over the water surface, the stewards told the passengers about the weather in the city on the Neva.

The plane flew a couple of meters over the Alexander Nevsky bridge - at that time still under construction. Workers standing on complex metal structures then fell into the water in horror, - recalls Nadezhda Stepankova, an eyewitness to the events. - A few tens of meters from the Finland Bridge, the plane plopped into the river.

The passengers were happy. But their joy was premature. When landing, the Tu-124 received a significant hole and almost immediately began to take on water. Only thanks to the actions of Yuri Porshin, the captain of the tug, who hooked the metal cable to the pilots' helm and towed the aircraft to the shore, the plane did not sink to a depth of 13 meters.

It was "moored" to the berth of the Severny Press plant in such a way that one of the wings lay on land, forming a gangway, Stepankova recalls. - Passengers with children were the first to leave, followed by women, men with things and the crew. The aircraft commander was the last to land. He was very calm, but completely gray-haired.

Reward or punish? - such a question arose before the Main Directorate of the Civil air fleet USSR immediately after the accident.

Viktor Mostovoy was expelled from the Tallinn squadron, as they said - for sloppiness. Allegedly, due to his fault, the Tu-124 with passengers on board at first almost collapsed on the historical center of the city, and then almost went to the bottom, - continues Vladimir Dmitriev. - Only after the scandal reached the Central Committee of the CPSU, and the heroism of the pilot became known in the West, Mostovoy was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and his crew members were awarded medals.

DOSSIER "RG"

The most amazing landings

July 17, 1972 Moscow. The Tu-134 aircraft of the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation performed test flights from the Sheremetyevo airfield. During the landing approach, two engines failed at the same time. The commander landed the aircraft on the water surface of the canal. Moscow. No harm done.

August 12, 1997. Thessaloniki. The plane "Boeing-727-230" of the Greek airline Olympic Airways performed a local passenger flight from Athens to Thessaloniki. The aircraft was flown by very experienced pilots (both commanders aircraft taken from other flights for this flight). The weather at the destination airport was the most difficult: a thunderstorm, wind gusts near the ground up to 28 knots, heavy clouds, heavy rain. The plane landed with a significant flight: after flying the first third of the runway, it rolled out of the runway. The nose of the plane hung over the coastline mediterranean sea. The aircraft received significant damage. The crew and passengers - 35 people - survived.

November 23, 1996. Comoros. The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-260ER was on an international passenger flight from Addis Ababa bound for Abidjan. Shortly after entering air space Kenya, three terrorists hijacked the plane and demanded to fly to Australia. On approach to Comoros, the aircraft ran out of fuel, the engines stopped. The pilots attempted to make a controlled water landing in closed shallow water 500 meters from Le Galava beach. However, the left engine and wingtip hit the water and the aircraft was destroyed. Of the 175 people on board, 125 were killed.

March 22, 1998. Philippines. Philippine Airlines' newest A320-214 aircraft was operating a domestic passenger flight from Manila Airport to Bacolod Airport. The aircraft took off with the first engine thrust reverser deactivated. The flight went well. But during landing, due to asymmetric thrust, the plane "blew" to the right side of the runway. The plane collided with the airport fence and stopped in a small river. Luckily, none of the 130 people on board were hurt. The plane was not subject to restoration.

, St. Petersburg

November 22, 1968 passenger aircraft DC-8 of Japan Airlines (Japan Airlines), registration number JA8032, callsign Shiga, PIC - Kohei Aso, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco, made an emergency landing in low cloud cover, splashing down half a kilometer from the American coast. None of the 96 passengers and 11 crew members were injured during the accident.

July 17, 1972 Tu-134 aircraft, board USSR-65607 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, performed a test flight. FAC - Vyacheslav Kuzmenko. During the flight in the holding area, the fuel pumps of both engines turned off. The engines have stopped. The relatively low altitude and the expended battery power did not allow them to be launched in flight. The plane made a splashdown on the water area of ​​the Ikshinskoye reservoir, near the village of Bolshaya Chernaya. As a result of splashdown, the plane did not collapse and none of the 5 crew members was seriously injured.

June 2, 1976, in the afternoon, in simple weather conditions, when landing at the Zhuliany airport, the Yak-40 aircraft, tail number USSR-87541 of the Lithuanian Civil Aviation Administration, performing the flight Kaunas - Kyiv, made an emergency landing outside the airfield. KVS - Shtilyus V.S. At an altitude of 700 meters, having received an instruction from the dispatcher to take a height of 400 meters, the commander of the ship gave the command to the flight mechanic Sinkevicius to set the engines to idle and began to descend. At this time there was a simultaneous stop of three engines. An attempt by the crew to start the engines in flight failed. The crew decided to land on the water of the Dnieper. But the plane did not reach the river. The commander of the aircraft made an emergency landing with retracted landing gear on marshy shallow water in the area of ​​Osokorki, which is now a residential area of ​​Kyiv, and then was a wasteland. The aircraft received minor damage. The crew and passengers were not injured.

August 8, 1988 An-12 military transport aircraft (535th OSAP, Rostov-on-Don) carried out the task of transporting personnel from the Bataysk airfield to the Yeysk airfield after the party meeting in Bataysk. In flight, the flight engineer switched off the fuel supply from the floor tanks, which were filled for a long time and were not used. The kerosene in them settled and contained water. On the pre-landing straight, 3-4 kilometers from the runway, all four engines died out one by one. The crew tried to make an emergency landing in the estuary Sea of ​​Azov in shallow water. The plane's landing gear hit the water and pecked with its nose. Upon impact with the water and the bottom, the fuselage split and partially sank into the water. The cargo hold, where most of the passengers were, was filled with water mixed with kerosene. It was a laboratory aircraft, not suitable for transporting people. Inside the cabin there was equipment that blew off on impact, which became the main cause of death. 24 people died in this plane crash.

November 23, 1996 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 Boeing 767 flew from Addis Ababa to Abidjan, with stops in Nairobi, Brazzaville and Lagos. Shortly after entering Kenyan airspace, three terrorists hijacked the plane and demanded that it head for Australia. On approach to the Comoros, the plane ran out of fuel, and the crew tried to land on the water in a shallow, quiet coast 500 meters from Le Galava beach. The plane caught the water with its left wing, rolled over and collapsed right in the water. Of the 175 people on board, 125 were killed, including the terrorists.

January 15, 2009 US Airways Airbus A320 flight 1549 from New York to Seattle with an intermediate stop in Charlotte (North Carolina), FAC - Chesley Sullenberger, with 150 passengers on board, made an emergency landing on the water of the Hudson River in New York. Both engines failed during takeoff. All on board survived. Five people were seriously injured (the flight attendant suffered the most) and seventy-eight were minor.