"Seven Simeons": the tragic story of the Ovechkin family. The bloodiest terrorist act of the times of the USSR: thirty years ago, a large Ovechkin family from Irkutsk hijacked a plane A family that hijacked a plane in the USSR
It happened almost 30 years ago, on a holiday on March 8, 1988. The large and friendly Ovechkin family known throughout the country - the mother-heroine and 10 children from 9 to 28 years old - flew from Irkutsk to music Festival in Leningrad.
They brought with them a bunch of instruments, from a double bass to a banjo, and everyone around them smiled happily, recognizing the "Seven Simeons" - Siberian nugget brothers playing incendiary jazz.
But at a 10-kilometer altitude, people's favorites suddenly took out sawn-off shotguns and a bomb from their cases and ordered to fly to London, otherwise they would start killing passengers and generally blow up the plane. An attempted hijacking turned into an unheard-of tragedy 
“Wolves in the Ovechkins’ clothes” - this is how the stunned woman later wrote about them Soviet press. How did it happen that sunny, smiling guys turned into terrorists? From the very beginning, the mother was blamed for everything, allegedly raising her eldest sons as ambitious and cruel. Plus, a noisy glory somehow easily and immediately fell upon them, and it completely blew their heads off. But also, some saw Ovechkin as sufferers, victims of the absurd Soviet system, who went to crime just to "live like a human being."
Shine and poverty
Discontent and anger accumulated among the Ovechkins for another reason: All-Union glory did not bring any money. Although the state allocated them two three-room apartments at once in good home, leaving the old suburban area, they did not heal, as in a fairy tale, happily ever after. The family quit agriculture, and it was impossible to earn money with music: they were simply forbidden to perform paid concerts. 
"Seven Simeons" with his mother near his rural house
The abandoned Ovechkin house today
The Ovechkins dreamed of their own family cafe, where the brothers would play jazz, and the mother and sisters would be in charge of the kitchen. In a couple of years, in the 90s, their dreams could come true, but so far private business in the USSR was impossible. The Ovechkins decided that they were born in the wrong country, and set about to leave forever for the “foreign paradise”, which they got an idea of after having been on tour in Japan in 1987. Simeons spent three weeks in the city of Kanazawa, Irkutsk’s sister city, and received a cultural shock: shops are bursting with goods, shop windows shine brightly, sidewalks are illuminated from underground, vehicles drive silently, streets are washed with shampoo and even flowers in toilets, as their sons enthusiastically told mothers and sisters. Part of the family, according to the then principle, was not released, so that the guest performers would not think of running away to the capitalists, dooming those who remained in their homeland to shame and poverty.
The result of the tragedy
9 people died - Ninel Ovechkina, four eldest sons, a flight attendant and three passengers. 19 people were injured - 15 passengers, two Ovechkins, including the youngest 9-year-old Seryozha, and two riot police. Only six of the 11 Ovechkins who were on board survived - Olga and 5 of her underage brothers and sisters. Of the survivors, two went to court - Olga and 17-year-old Igor. The rest, by age, were not subject to criminal liability, they were transferred under the care of a married sister, Lyudmila, who was not involved in the capture. An open trial took place in Irkutsk that autumn. The hall was crowded, there were not enough seats. Passengers and crew were witnesses. Both defendants, testifying, stated that they "somehow did not think" about the passengers when they planned to blow up the plane. Olga admitted her guilt in part and asked for leniency. 
Olga in court. She was 7 months pregnant at the time.
Igor sometimes recognized partially, then completely denied and asked to be forgiven and not be deprived of his freedom.
Moreover, at the trial, Igor, whom his mother described in his diary as “too self-confident and roguish”, tried to put all the blame for what happened on former leader ensemble, Irkutsk musician-teacher Vladimir Romanenko, thanks to which Simeons got to jazz festivals. Like, it was he who inspired the older brothers with the idea that there is no jazz in the USSR and that recognition can only be achieved abroad. However, the teenager could not stand the confrontation with the teacher and admitted that he had slandered him. 
Vladimir Romanenko is rehearsing with his brothers. Igor is at the piano. 1986
The court received bags of letters from Soviet citizens who were eager for a show of punishment. “Shoot with the performance shown on TV,” writes a veteran Afghan. “Tie them to the tops of birches and tear them apart,” a woman teacher calls (!). “Shoot so that they know what the Motherland is,” advises the party secretary on behalf of the assembly. The humane Soviet court of the era of perestroika and glasnost decided otherwise: 8 years in prison for Igor, 6 years for Olga. In reality, they served 4 years. Olga gave birth to a daughter in the colony, she was also given to Lyudmila. 
Olga with a child in prison
The further fate of the Ovechkins
The last time journalists asked about them was in 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. Here's what was known at the time. Olga traded fish in the market, gradually became an inveterate drunkard. In 2004, she was beaten to death by a drunk cohabitant during a domestic quarrel. Igor played the piano in restaurants in Irkutsk and drank himself. In 1999, an MK journalist talked to him - then he was indignant at the fresh film "Mama" with Mordyukova, Menshikov and Mashkov, based on the story of the Ovechkins, and threatened to sue director Denis Evstigneev. He eventually received a second sentence for selling drugs and was killed by a cellmate. 
One thing is clear as the years go by. Whether from pride, lack of intelligence or lack of information, the Ovechkins sincerely believed that they would be met abroad with open arms, and not considered dangerous terrorists who took innocent people hostage. The “Simeons” were dazzled by the reception in Japan – full house, applause, promises of fame and fortune from local journalists and producers… They didn’t realize that they aroused the interest of foreigners more like circus monkeys, a funny souvenir from a closed country with its Siberia and “gulags” than like musicians. As one Irkutsk publication concluded, “these were simple, rude people with simple, rude dreams - to live like a human being. This is what killed them."
Exactly 30 years ago, March 8, 1988, the large family Ovechkins - the mother and ten of her eleven children - decided to escape from the USSR, seized the Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad scheduled flight and demanded to fly to England. But instead of Heathrow, the Tu-154 landed at the Veshchevo military airfield near Vyborg. The negotiations ended in a firefight, as a result of which the plane burned down completely, 11 people were killed, 35 were injured. Almost all air terrorists committed suicide during the assault. All these years, the materials of the criminal case and litigation were stored in the Leningrad Regional State Archives in Vyborg, and, according to the employees, none of the media representatives tried to get acquainted with them. In search of new details, the correspondent studied the history of the last flight of the Ovechkin family.
Problem family
On March 8, 1988, at 14:52 Moscow time, the crew of the Tu-154 aircraft, which was operating flight 85413 on the route Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad, through a flight attendant, one of the passengers handed over a note with the following content: “The crew should go to any capital country (England). Do not descend, otherwise we will blow up the plane. The flight is under our control." The note itself is not in the case file - it burned down along with the plane.
This case entered the history of world aviation under the name "Seven Simeons" - that was the name of the Ovechkin family jazz band. One feature distinguishes it from other similar stories: the 53-year-old peasant woman Ninel Ovechkina was the mastermind behind the operation. The modern generation does not know that the name Ninel is one of the first Soviet neologisms, resulting from rearranging the letters of the pseudonym of the leader of the world proletariat (Lenin) backwards.
The Ovechkins were a simple Siberian family, in some ways even an ordinary one. She has many children, lives in an ordinary Irkutsk wooden-stone house with “comfort in the yard”, as they said then. They had a large subsidiary farm, on which they had to work from morning to night. Father, Dmitry Vasilievich, worked as a mechanic - and, as they later write in the indictment, “because of alcohol abuse, he became disabled and died in 1984.”
The mother was left alone with ten children: seven boys and three girls. She worked as a salesperson in the wine and vodka department. In the materials of the criminal case on the hijacking of the aircraft there is a short, non-binding phrase, “characterizing”, as lawyers say: “For a long time, Ovechkina Ninel Sergeevna worked as a seller of wine and vodka products and all this time she was engaged in speculation in alcoholic beverages, including including at home, in the presence of her children, for which she was prosecuted. Constantly, by any means striving for profit, the mother, possessing a strong and domineering character, raised her children in the spirit of money-grubbing.
In fact, people who lived in the Soviet Union remember very well: due to the widespread shortage and beggarly wages for the majority of the population, everyone was spinning as best they could: someone took “hack work”, someone needleworked at night, someone from spring to autumn plowed on personal plots.
From this point of view, the Ovechkins were absolutely no different from millions of other families in the USSR. In the villages, and even in small towns, children from the beginning of the sowing campaign to the end of the harvest spent more time with adults: the problem of attending classes was very acute for most provincial schools. Hence - and long, not like in the rest of the world, summer holidays.
But the same work personal plot in the characteristics could be reflected in different ways. For beloved students, they wrote: "A caring and hardworking student who constantly helps his parents." And for violators, the same thing was indicated by a completely different phrase: "Prone to skipping classes under the pretext of helping the family, prone to money-grubbing."
In the characteristics of the Ovechkins, collected by operatives, both phrases are found: in particular, for traveling abroad to the international festival of youth and students, they indicated about all children: “Assiduous, caring, take a great part in public life, in the classroom actively discussing with teachers; help mothers, including by looking after younger brothers and sisters. And a year later, the same people signed completely different characteristics: “Without good reasons skipped classes at school, negatively influenced younger brothers and sisters, entered into disputes with teachers.
There was a similar duality with the criminal case against Ninel Ovechkina: the KGB officers of the USSR removed it from the archive, and the investigator filed it into the appropriate volumes. This is typical of the mid-80s of the last century: first, the district police officer interrogates several local alcoholics under the protocol, and they voluntarily and sincerely say that you can buy vodka from Ninel at any time. Then the same people give the same testimony to the police investigator. After that, the house is searched and a couple of bottles of vodka are found.
In March 1984, the Kuibyshev city of Irkutsk initiated a criminal case under the article "Speculation". The mistress of the house herself explains that she keeps alcohol for personal needs. For six months, no new papers appear in the criminal case, and in January 1985 (when the delegations from Irkutsk to the international festival of youth and students are being formed), the investigator decides to release Ninel Ovechkina from criminal liability, since she is a mother-heroine and can improve with the help of the team.
It is clear that such a criminal case was just a certain form of pressure on employees or residents. One can, of course, assume that Ninel gave a bribe to the investigator ... Be that as it may, now we will not know the truth. The children saw everything that happened - and knew a lot from the words of their parents and friends. The duplicity of power was projected onto the duplicity of every full member of progressive Soviet society.
And, by the way, the cult of a man reigned in the Ovechkin family. Despite the fact that everyone worked on an equal footing, the best always went to men. Daughters were preparing all their lives to be on the sidelines. Although Ninel Ovechkina herself, according to the same neighbors, was a very domineering and determined woman. But the saleswoman of the wine and vodka department cannot be a sissy ... It is because of a certain “privileged” position that all the Ovechkin boys have been studying music in circles since childhood. According to the mother, all her sons were talented, although the teachers interrogated later did not confirm this.
On the jazz wave
Be that as it may, but in early 1982, the Ovechkins created the Seven Simeons jazz band: in honor of the heroes of the Siberian fairy tale of the same name about seven twin brothers who attracted the local king with their prowess. It included seven brothers - girls were not taken. The eldest, Vasily, was 20 years old at that moment, the youngest, Seryozha, was three years old.
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
Actually, it is external data and unusual for Soviet Union repertoire - not too popular then jazz - attracted attention to the Ovechkins. In their native Irkutsk, they were quite popular, but not with everyone: for example, only three or four people recognized them at the airport, mostly by musical instruments. And of the entire crew of the hijacked plane, only the flight attendant knew who they were and told everyone else. As follows from the testimonies of the crew, everyone heard about the "Seven Simeons", but they did not know by sight and were not even familiar with the work.
Nevertheless, an excellent questionnaire (children from a peasant family who became young age brilliant musicians), the similarity of faces and the contrast of age, an unusual repertoire and youthful enthusiasm, as well as feedback from public and Komsomol organizations, who actively invited an ensemble with an unusual repertoire, played their role - the Ovechkins were noticed. As they said then, they "hit the jet" that carried them up.
In 1985, they entered the cultural delegation of Irkutsk to the International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. Reports were filmed about the delegates of this event - and the Ovechkins were noticed. In the same 1985, they were filmed documentary, the leitmotif of which was peasant hands making amazing roulades. And, of course, - an interview with Ninel Sergeevna (with the order "Mother Heroine" on her chest) and the sisters, who are proud of their brothers and say many thanks to the relatives of the party and the government, who managed to reveal the talent in ordinary farmers.
This was the façade. He was followed by many plaintive letters: to the director of the house of pioneers with a request to accept them into the music section on preferential terms, to the State Concert - to help purchase musical instruments at preferential prices, to the Komsomol city committee - to allocate funds for tailoring concert costumes ... To the Irkutsk City Executive Committee - with a request to allocate two apartments. Ovechkina, being a Soviet trade worker, knew better than most what it meant to “go with the flow.” And how it should be done.
Actually, the Seven Simeons group did not have enough stars from the sky, but it was profitable and convenient largely because it remained amateur and did not require funding. In the end, everyone was happy: the musicians, who were becoming popular and in demand, and the local authorities, who discovered the nuggets, and Ninel Ovechkina…
“Possessing musical abilities, the Ovechkin brothers, with the help of city organizations, created the Seven Simeons family musical ensemble in 1982, but they pursued only one goal - to get rid of unattractive, in their opinion, work in their subsidiary plots, earning money as part of the ensemble . (...) Soon the Ovechkin ensemble gained fame, but wage did not suit the selfish aspirations of the family. And even when the brothers Vasily, Dmitry, Alexander and Oleg, as an exception, were admitted to the Gnessin Music College, and Igor and Mikhail were given the opportunity to study at the Dunaevsky School, after studying for one semester, they left their studies and returned to Irkutsk, as the dream of large earnings was postponed indefinitely.
Behind the iron curtain
In November 1987, "Seven Simeons" as part of the cultural delegation of Irkutsk went on tour to Japan. According to an unspoken, but strictly observed rule in the USSR, it was impossible for the whole family to go abroad, and only sons flew to Tokyo: mother and sisters remained in Irkutsk.
The indictment states that in Japan, the Ovechkin brothers intended to apply to the US Embassy for asylum, but could not find an acceptable way for this and abandoned their intention. From the testimony of the accused Olga and Igor Ovechkin, it follows that the older brothers really wanted to seek political asylum abroad, but without fail - with the whole family, they did not want to leave their mother and younger sisters in the USSR. Be that as it may, but "attempts during their stay in Japan in November 1987 to contact the US Embassy by the Ovechkins were not recorded by the competent authorities."
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
Inspection of the test site of a homemade bomb.
However, it was after returning from the Country rising sun in the Ovechkin family, they thought about emigration. Moreover, Seven Simeons not only freely acquired very scarce and standard-quality radios and cassette recorders there, but also brought them to the USSR, where they sold them very profitably. At first, dreams were abstract, according to the principle “it would be nice to live there ...” Then they began to grow into concrete details.
From the indictment:“Initially, mother and sister Olga did not support this decision, but then, under the influence of the persuasion of the rest of the family members, they agreed, and in mid-February, the final decision was made at the family council - to seize the plane in flight and force the crew to land outside the USSR. From that moment, the Ovechkins began to actively prepare for the implementation of their plan: family members, including Igor, began to sell various household items, furniture, radio equipment, carpets, personal items, etc., and Olga closed her personal account on March 2, 1988 in the savings bank of Irkutsk”.
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
The uniform of a military medic, who was sitting in the second row and was wounded during the storming of the aircraft.
The investigation painstakingly restored recent months life of the Ovechkins - and the slightest sign that they began to prepare for the hijacking of the plane did not really appear until February 1988, less than a month before March 8.
the day before
Even when testifying, the surviving members of the Ovechkin family defended their mother: apparently, they loved her. Therefore, the main "engines" of the seizure, as follows from the indictment, were the brothers Vasily, Dmitry, Oleg and Igor. Three of them had already passed by then. military service in the Soviet army, and, contrary to the tradition of serving away from home, they served in Irkutsk, in the Red Barracks, which was occupied by an air defense division. They had combat training- but in general Siberians and so on early childhood they know what a weapon is and from which end it is loaded.
In mid-February, Vasily and Dmitry came to a neighbor, a well-known hunter, and asked him for a gun. They explained their interest by the fact that on the eighth of March they were called to hunt along with the big Irkutsk bosses. A neighbor gave me a gun.
The brothers immediately made a sawn-off shotgun from the received weapon, but then the unexpected happened: the owner of the gun, frightened of something, demanded that the weapon be returned. And then Dmitry and Vasily imitated the rupture of the barrels of weapons, which allegedly occurred during an accidental shot. So they managed, albeit through a quarrel, but not to attract attention to themselves.
They took two new guns under the same pretext from another neighbor, as well as from an officer of the unit where the older brothers served. He bought for his hunting ticket and gave the brothers capsules, gunpowder, shells ... The officer gave the brothers devices for equipping cartridges and poured shots.
Igor helped his older brothers to make improvised explosive devices (self-made bombs): it was he who, through former classmates, found an approach to the master industrial training school Code of Criminal Procedure (training and production plant). Under the guise of some "glasses for musical instruments that are needed as counterweights," the teacher carved three cases for grenades for them. Judging by the fact that Vasily paid a gold piece (ten rubles) for each of the details, the main condition was speed: in normal times, such work did not cost more than three rubles.
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
Examination of weapons found in a burned-out aircraft.
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Three more similar parts “by acquaintance” were made by a garage turner of the Irkutsk Regional Consumer Union - also under the guise of musical counterweights. Having equipped the grenades with gunpowder, the brothers tested them: they blew up a tree in the city garden. The birch survived, but, apparently, the Ovechkins were satisfied with the effect achieved.
In the early 1970s, there were several cases of aircraft hijacking and hijacking abroad in the USSR. At that time, almost no one wrote about it, but people talked a lot. The most striking confirmation of the veracity of the tales was the introduced screening system: in a short period of time, all airports in the Soviet Union were equipped with X-ray machines (intrascopes) and hand-held metal detectors, and the boarding gate was altered so that it became impossible to pass without screening. The Ovechkins, who flew several times to performances in Moscow, carrying musical instruments with them, knew both the features of the check and the procedure for transporting bulky luggage.
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
Misha Ovechkin's drawing, in which he showed how the older brothers hid weapons in the double bass.
From the indictment: “The Ovechkin brothers decided to carry weapons, ammunition and explosive devices on board the plane in a double bass. Wishing to check whether the double bass is inspected at airports, Dmitry and Alexander flew to Moscow on February 17, 1988 with the double bass, traveled by train to Leningrad, from where they again returned to Irkutsk by plane. Convinced that during the inspection, the double bass could be placed in the intrascope and detect weapons, Dmitry installed a pickup on the double bass, which increased its dimensions, but did not allow the double bass to be placed in the intrascope, and placed and strengthened weapons, ammunition and explosive devices inside the double bass.
At the same time, the Ovechkins were hastily selling all their property. When, immediately after the capture, operatives of the KGB of the USSR came to search their house, they found literally empty walls: there were no carpets, no radio equipment, no watches and valuables. The fate of jewelry and money is unknown; most likely, they burned down along with the owners.
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
In this form, the KGB officers found the Ovechkins' apartment in Irkutsk.
The route to Leningrad was not chosen by chance: unlike the flights to Moscow, the planes to the city on the Neva flew regularly and often, but half empty. This was important for the capture: the whole family could gather together in a convenient place in the salon, surrounding themselves with hostages.
To a better life
The flight from Irkutsk to Leningrad made an intermediate stop at Kurgan. An hour after taking off from this city, the Ovechkins handed over to the flight attendant a note written on a piece of paper torn from a school notebook: “The crew should go to any capital country (England). Do not descend, otherwise we will blow up the plane. The flight is under our control." Immediately after that, one of the Ovechkin girls for some reason pasted two pieces of adhesive plaster on the partition in the cabin - so that they formed white cross. Why this was done, it was not possible to find out, but it was this white cross that was remembered better than the rest by all participants in the tragedy: both passengers and crew.
At 14:52 Moscow time, the note was handed over to the aircraft commander. After reading it, he immediately pressed the special “distress” button, and a little later he reported by radio to the Vologda air traffic control center: at that time there was an aircraft in his area of responsibility at an altitude of 11,600 meters.
From the protocol of the interrogation of the commander of the aircraft Kupriyanov:“Immediately after receiving the note, I drove the flight attendants out of the cabin, locked the door, then the crew and I loaded our service pistols and read the instructions on what to do in case of capture. After that, I asked the flight attendant to report on the situation in the cabin. Vasilyeva reported that the invaders were a group of 11 people, including three children aged 9-10-11. They are armed with two sawn-off shotguns, a cross is pasted on the panel on the left. The crew and I agreed to simulate a flight abroad.”
At 15:11 the crew was asked to proceed to Tallinn, but 20 minutes later the new team- a choice of either Siverskaya airport or Veshchevo airport. At the same time, a change in route required a significant U-turn. And although the earth was hidden by clouds, the terrorists could not fail to notice such a turn from the sun shining through the windows.
At 15:19, flight engineer Ilya Stupakov went to negotiate with the terrorists - he was the oldest of the crew and the most representative. “When I entered the salon, they immediately pointed two sawn-off shotguns at me and forbade me to approach. I said that we were going to refuel, as there would not be enough fuel even to the border of the USSR. In response, they demanded that I refuel in any country outside the socialist camp, except for Finland. I said that we would not have enough kerosene anywhere, and then the criminals agreed to Finland, ”the protocol of his interrogation recorded.
At 15:24, the Nabat plan was announced in the Northwestern Military District of the USSR. Details in the materials of the criminal case are not reflected. At 15:25, an alarm was announced to the Alpha group. At 15:30, on alarm, officers of the Vyborg police departments and the KGB of the USSR began to gather.
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
At this time, the plane, in order to simulate a long flight to Finland, reduced its speed to the limit ...
Around 15:45 the board began to decline. Only at this time, the flight attendants announced to the passengers that the plane was hijacked and, at the request of the criminals, was flying abroad. But by this time, many have already guessed - something strange is happening: those who tried to go to the toilet saw two young men armed with sawn-off shotguns, and a strange cylindrical object hung on the chest of one of them.
Veshchevo airport at that time was military unit. Its commander, having received an alarm signal, ordered the personnel to cordon off the runway. Nobody told him that this could not be done (then the newspapers wrote that in a few minutes the soldiers turned the Soviet military facility into a kind of Finnish small town, - but this is not true).
From the protocol of the interrogation of the stewardess:“Before landing, Ninel Ovechkina, and then Olga Ovechkina, demanded that the male criminals make sure that the plane was landing in Finland. However, under the pretext of a lack of fuel, the crew immediately went to land. Olga Ovechkina, who was watching through the window, saw the soldiers and shouted that the plane was landing on a Soviet airfield.
The plane landed at 16:05. The Ovechkins immediately demanded that the passengers not get up or move. Immediately after landing, Igor moved to the cockpit and demanded to open the door. Then he put a peephole in the door chewing gum. After 15 minutes, a flight engineer came out to him, who explained that he needed to refuel. In response to this, the Ovechkins took flight attendant-instructor Tamara Zharkuya hostage ... They forced her to sit on the row that they themselves occupied and forbade her to move.
“Igor behaved like this: he shouted into the cabin in a menacing voice so that the passengers would not move, and then turned to me and in a completely different, calm tone, told about his life. Then he said in a terrible voice into the cockpit that in 10 minutes they would start killing the hostages, but then he calmly continued talking to me again. I got the impression that he only imitated threats,” said flight attendant Irina Vasilyeva during interrogation on March 9.
Immediately after landing, the crew commander handed over to the center of the organization air traffic the terrorists' demand is to remove the soldiers. And they were removed - they were taken outside the runway and hidden "in the folds of the terrain."
At 16:30, an operational group from Vyborg arrived at the Veshchevo airfield, consisting of 16 people - officers and sergeants of the police and the KGB, pulled out of their homes and not trained in anything. They immediately from the side of the nose and tail - so that they were not visible through the windows, ran up to the plane. And one of them, an investigator of the Vyborg police department, senior lieutenant Petrov, climbed a stepladder through a window into the cockpit. He had a pistol in one hand, a spare magazine in the other, and a bulletproof vest over his pea coat.
“The capture group entered the cockpit with such noise that it immediately became clear to the criminals that outsiders were on board,” all the crew members repeated several times during interrogations. In response, Dmitry Ovechkin shot Tamara Zharkaya with a shot in the head. Her body was left lying in the aisle.
By 18:00 in the cockpit, in addition to the pilots, there were two police officers armed with Makarov pistols and bulletproof shields. At 18:30, the headquarters reported on board that the signal for the start of the assault would be the start of the aircraft's movement along the runway. And they were forbidden to move without a command.
Negotiations of varying degrees of intensity continued until 18:32. During this time, tankers drove up to the plane three times, and under their cover, police officers and KGB officers approached. They were just going to the blind spot. With the help of ordinary pliers, they were able to open the hatches of the luggage compartment, penetrate into it, and find technological hatches leading to the passenger compartment. But, unfortunately, the Ovechkins heard all this well.
The command to "start takeoff" was received at 18:42 - and the plane began to move.
The policemen who were in the cockpit opened the door to the saloon and opened fire along the aisle. At the same time, they hit the passengers sitting in the front rows and wounded Igor Ovechkin, who was standing near the door, in the leg. Vasily and Dmitry, in response to the shots, opened fire with sawn-off shotguns - and wounded both policemen. Both sides ran out of ammo and the cockpit door was closed.
From the protocol of interrogation of Igor Ovechkin: “At this time, my older brother Dmitry shouted that soldiers had entered the salon, after which he showed us all to the carpet, which they tried to lift from below near the kitchen. Shooting began, who was shooting, I did not see at that moment, because I hid in the kitchen.
From the protocol of the interrogation of the minor witness Mikhail Ovechkin:“As a result of this shooting, Serezha was wounded, at that time, together with his mother and Ulya, he was sitting in a chair in the third row from the tail of the plane. Dima also fired once in response. I remember very well that first shots rang out from below, from under the rising carpet, and then Dima answered. At this time, the shooting in the first saloon stopped.
The brothers realized that they were surrounded - and decided to blow themselves up. Dmitry at that time said that he would not sit in a Soviet prison [and committed suicide]. Vasily and Oleg approached Sasha, who had been sitting in a chair all this time in the last row on the left side of the plane, stood tightly around the explosive device, and Sasha set it on fire. They called Igor with them, so that he would also blow himself up with them, but he did not answer, and the guys thought that they had killed him. When the explosion was heard, none of the guys were hurt, only Sasha's trousers caught fire. In addition, the upholstery of the seat caught fire from the explosion and the glass of the porthole was shattered. A fire started, then Sasha [committed suicide]. Then Oleg [committed suicide]. When Oleg fell, my mother asked Vasily to shoot her. Vasily took a single-barrel sawn-off shotgun from Dima's hands and shot his mother in the temple. After mom fell, Vasya told us to all run away. All this happened at the very tail of the plane. At that time, I was sitting in a chair in the last row on the right side of the plane and saw how the guys [committed suicide].”
Leningrad Regional State Archive in Vyborg
Items belonging to the Ovechkins, found during the inspection of the scene and in the military hospital where the survivors were taken.
As a result of the incident, five criminals were killed, two more were injured; three passengers and one crew member were killed, 14 passengers received injuries of varying severity. The plane burned down completely. The first and only official announcement appeared only a day later, on the afternoon of March 9th.
In addition, the Ovechkins bought new clothes, in which they changed clothes in order to look more impressive abroad. Dmitry Ovechkin made sawn-off shotguns from guns, and also assembled three pipe bombs, one of which was detonated in order to evaluate the effect of the explosion. He also made a double bottom in the double bass and secured weapons, bombs and a hundred rounds of ammunition there.
Plane hijacking
| Aeroflot Flight 3739 | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| date | March 8, 1988 |
| Place | |
| dead | 9 |
| Wounded | 19 |
| Aircraft | |
| Model | Tu-154B-2 |
| Airline | |
| Departure point | |
| Stopovers | |
| Destination | |
| Flight | 3739 |
| Side number | CCCP-85413 |
| Date of issue | 1980 |
| Passengers | 76 (including 11 hijackers) |
| Crew | 8 |
| dead | 9 (including 5 hijackers) |
| Wounded | 17 (including 2 hijackers) |
| Survivors | 75 |
Since there were a lot on the plane free places, Ovechkin moved to the rear of the cabin. The older brothers showed the flight attendants a photograph of the Seven Simeons ensemble to convince them that they were artists. At 14:53, when the plane was flying in the Vologda region, two older Ovechkin brothers got up and forbade the rest of the passengers to leave their seats, threatening with sawn-off shotguns. At 15:01, Vasily Ovechkin handed over a note to flight attendant Irina Vasilyeva demanding to change course and land in London or another city in the UK under the threat of an aircraft explosion. At 15:15, the board reported that there was fuel left for 1 hour and 35 minutes of flight.
In accordance with the Air Code of the USSR, under the circumstances, the aircraft crew had the right to make their own decisions. In order not to put passengers at risk, the crew initially decided to fly abroad. However, there were not enough fuel supplies on the liner to the nearest Finnish or Swedish airfield. In Kurgan, the plane was refueled, but just enough to fly to Leningrad, on extreme case- to the alternate airfield in Tallinn. If you follow to Finland, then at an unknown airfield you would have to maneuver, study approaches. The situation was complicated by the fact that the Tu-154 crew had no experience and was not prepared for international flights: they did not know the location of the air corridors and the foreign flight separation system; on domestic aircraft there were no necessary reference books on radio communications, landing approaches, etc. Under these conditions, the appearance in the airspace foreign country an aircraft that does not comply with the established rules of behavior in the air and does not execute commands given in the established manner from the ground could lead to catastrophic consequences. Another problem was the language barrier - on the Tu-154, which was performing a domestic flight English language only the navigator knew.
At 15:30, flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov went into the cabin and, as a result of negotiations, managed to explain that there was not enough fuel to fly to the UK, after which he managed to convince the terrorists to allow the plane to refuel in Finland. At 16:05, the aircraft landed at the Veshchevo military airfield near the Finnish border. It was announced over the loudspeaker in the cabin that the airliner was landing for refueling at the airport in the Finnish city of Kotka.
Seeing through the windows Soviet soldiers The Ovechkins realized they had been duped. The Ovechkin brothers demanded to take off immediately, tried to break down the cockpit door, threatened to start killing passengers. Dmitry Ovechkin shot and killed flight attendant Tamara Hot. According to the memoirs of a participant in the events, police major I. Vlasov, the Ovechkins did not go to negotiations in principle, a categorical refusal followed the proposal to release at least women and children: “no conditions!” . At the request of the terrorists, the plane was refueled.
At 19:10, the assault on the aircraft began. The assault was carried out by employees special unit patrol police service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Leningrad Region Executive Committee, commanded by police lieutenant colonel S. S. Khodakov. The assault on the aircraft was carried out by a group under the command of Art. militia lieutenant A. I. Lagodich from 10 people, police officers from the Vyborg GOVD were in the cordon. Both units were completely unintended for anti-terrorist operations, and, as it turned out later, this attack was the first case for their members. The capture group entered the plane through the cockpit.
The terrorists offered armed resistance, opening fire on the employees of the capture group and hitting some of them, while the capture group itself, starting to shoot from the cab, managed to hit four passengers. After the Ovechkins discovered they were running out of ammo, they made the decision to detonate the improvised explosive device they had and commit suicide. The whole family gathered together, but Igor changed his mind at the last moment and hid. The explosion, however, only punched a hole in the fuselage and a fire started on board the aircraft, but the fragments went up and to the sides, which is why the Ovechkins survived. Panic arose in the cabin, someone managed to open the emergency hatch, and the passengers began to jump onto the concrete of the runway, being, according to their testimony, beaten by police officers, who later justified their actions by the fact that, in their opinion, the terrorists could be hiding among the passengers . Then Vasily ordered Olga to take Tatyana, Mikhail, Ulyana and Sergey out of the plane, saying that nothing would happen to them, since they were not the perpetrators of the terrorist act. After that, Ninel ordered Vasily to shoot her, herself and the older children. Dmitry was killed first, then Alexander, and then Oleg, after which Vasily shot his mother and himself. Igor saw all this and, fearing that Vasily would kill him too, hid in the restroom in front of the plane
background
In 1988, the Ovechkin family consisted of mother Ninel Sergeevna (51 years old) and her 11 children (father, Dmitry Dmitrievich, died on May 3, 1984): 7 sons - Vasily (26 years old), Dmitry (24 years old), Oleg (21 years old ), Alexander (19 years old), Igor (17 years old), Mikhail (13 years old) and Sergey (9 years old), - and 4 daughters - Lyudmila (32 years old), Olga (28 years old), Tatyana (14 years old) and Ulyana (10 years). The family also had a twelfth child, daughter Larisa, who was born after Lyudmila, but died in infancy.
All Ovechkins studied at school number 66, but they never took part in public school affairs, because household(the family had livestock and a garden) took away all their free time. The family lived rather closed and did not have close friends. In the mid-1980s, Vasily, Dmitry and Oleg alternately served in the so-called Red Barracks in Irkutsk.
Ninel Sergeevna, who, thanks to the ensemble, received the title "mother-heroine", at the age of 5 she lost her father, who died in the Great Patriotic War, and a year later, her mother was killed by a drunken watchman while trying to steal from a potato field. After that, Ninel ended up in an orphanage, from where she was taken by her cousin at the age of 15, whose wife became Ninel's godmother. At the age of 20, she married the driver Dmitry Vasilyevich Ovechkin, from whom she gave birth to all 12 children. From the executive committee they received a private house in the Rabochy suburb at 24 Detskaya Street, with a plot of eight acres, where the Ovechkin children lived most of their lives before the terrorist attack.
For most of her life, Ninel (neighbors, however, mostly called her Nina) worked as a seller in a wine and vodka store, and then she traded in the market. In 1985, when another anti-alcohol campaign began in the USSR, Ninel secretly traded in cheap vodka. Despite this, Lyudmila recalled that their family was never especially poor, and although Ninel established a rather strict discipline in the family, at the same time she always treated them with kindness and never raised her voice to them. None of the Ovechkin children led an idle life and was left to his own devices, all problems were solved collectively.
However, Dmitry Sr. was an alcoholic and, in a rage, often grabbed a gun, as a result of which all the children immediately lay down on the floor or the ground so as not to get a bullet wound. In 1982, Dmitry Sr.'s leg was paralyzed, but this did not stop him, and on May 3, 1984, he died from beatings that Dmitry and Vasily had inflicted on him a few days before. The investigation qualified their actions as forced self-defense and did not bring any charges.
When Vasily, Dmitry and Oleg began to show interest in musical instruments, Ninel enrolled them in the Irkutsk Regional Music College in the department of wind instruments, where she later enrolled Alexander, Igor, Mikhail and Sergey. In the same place, at the end of 1983, with the support of the head of the department, Vladimir Romanenko, the ensemble "Seven Simeons" was organized, named after the Russian folk tale. Vasily played the drums, Dmitry - the trumpet, Oleg - the saxophone, Alexander - the double bass, Igor - the piano, Mikhail - the trombone, Sergey - the banjo. The debut of the ensemble took place in April 1984 on the stage of the Gnessin School. Soon "Seven Simeons" won a series music competitions in various cities of the USSR and became widely known: they wrote about the Ovechkins in the press, made a documentary film, etc. However, according to the head teacher of the school Boris Kryukov and the same Romanenko, of all 7 Ovechkin boys, only Igor and Mikhail were talented musicians, in while their older brothers in terms of musical data were frankly weak. Officially, the members of the ensemble were listed as musicians at the association of city parks "Leisure".
The popularity of the ensemble slightly tweaked financial position family and at the time of the attack, the family, by the then Soviet standards, belonged to the middle class. In addition to the house on Detskaya Street, they had two adjacent three-room apartments on Sinyushina Gora, which they received at the end of 1986.
The further fate of the surviving Ovechkins developed in different ways.
Igor played in restaurant bands and cafes, but had problems with alcohol and ended up in bad company. He was married and lived for some time in St. Petersburg. In the summer of 1999, he was arrested for drug distribution and on August 16 died in a pre-trial detention center under unclear circumstances (presumably he was killed by a cellmate). Communicating shortly before death with a newspaper correspondent "Moscow's comsomolets " Igor said that Ninel did not know anything about the attack and only found out on the plane.
Sergey played for some time (becoming older, he learned to play the saxophone) in restaurants with Igor and in 1999 lived with Lyudmila. For three years he tried to enter the Irkutsk Musical College (where his older brothers used to study), but the rectors refused him every time, referring to the fame of his surname and the fact that he simply lacked potential. According to 1999 data, a bullet remained in his thigh, but after the terrorist attack, due to his young age, they did not remove it from him, as the doctors considered that his body itself would eventually reject the bullet. His current fate is unknown.
Olga lived in Irkutsk and worked in the market selling fish. After leaving prison, she took Larisa to her, but she could not properly educate her and the girl later again ended up with Lyudmila. On the night of June 8-9, 2004, she was killed by her partner during a domestic drunken quarrel. Born shortly before this, the son of Olga was also taken to be raised by Lyudmila.
A. Kuznetsov: In 1988, the Ovechkin family consisted of a mother and 11 children (7 boys and 4 girls). The fate of the mother, Ninel Ovechkina, was difficult from the first days of her life. She was born before the war. Her father died at the front, and her mother was shot dead by a watchman when she tried to pick up a couple of potatoes in the field to feed her hungry daughter. The girl ended up in an orphanage. After the orphanage, she found herself a husband. Despite the fact that Ninel bore him 11 children, he drank heavily. It is clear that in such conditions the family lived rather poorly, although the state, as a large family, gave her two three-room apartments on the same site of a house in her native Irkutsk.
The father of the family Dmitry died in 1984. Mother, a rather tough and ambitious woman, replaced her father's children. Tatyana Ovechkina, who was 14 at the time of the hijacking, later said: “We were good kids, we never drank or smoked, we never went to discos.”
“Wolves in the shoes of the Ovechkins” - this is how the Soviet press later wrote about them
And yet, despite a number of difficulties, the children received a normal upbringing and education by Soviet standards. The family created the Seven Simeons jazz ensemble, which included seven brothers. Mikhail Ovechkin studied at the same course at the Irkutsk Music College with the future star Denis Matsuev, who later highly appreciated his abilities.
The uniqueness of the ensemble was obvious to the authorities, who helped increase its popularity. In 1987, a decision was made upstairs to take the children on tour to Japan. Although on such trips there was always a person from the special services who counteracted unwanted contacts, someone still came out to the boys. There is no specific information about who it was - apparently, they were offered a solid contract if they stayed to work abroad.
The brothers did not dare to make such a decision on their own (and their mother was not with them on the trip) and returned to the USSR.
S. Buntman: However, the living conditions and the wages offered could not be compared with what they could get at home, and doubts settled in their souls.
A. Kuznetsov: Yes. In the end, the Ovechkins decide to escape.
S. Buntman: It is worth noting that a very non-trivial way of escape was chosen - to hijack a plane.
A. Kuznetsov: What a preparation! What is the increase in the dimensions of the double bass case worth?!
S. Buntman: What is this for?
A. Kuznetsov: In order to bring weapons and explosives on board the aircraft through an interscope. Several times with this case, the brothers went on tour to Leningrad to see what the reaction would be.
S. Buntman: Well?
A. Kuznetsov: Everything went as they planned. On March 8, 1988, when the Ovechkins were on their way to the landing of the Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad flight, no one began to closely inspect the case (after all, they were local celebrities). Later against an airport employee who neglected official duties filed a criminal case. He will be investigated in parallel with the case of the terrorist attack.
After a trip to Japan, the Ovechkins wanted to try foreign life
S. Buntman: So, the Ovechkins flew out of Irkutsk.
A. Kuznetsov: Yes. The first part of the journey they behaved cheerfully and peacefully. But when the plane was already flying up to Leningrad, the Simeons, through the stewardess, handed over to the pilots a note demanding that they be delivered to London.
From the ground, the crew was ordered to convince the terrorists that without another refueling, the plane would not be able to reach England. Then the brothers demanded that the refueling be made in some capitalist country, and they were promised that the plane would be landed in Finland.
S. Buntman: But in fact, they were not going to let anyone go to Finland?
A. Kuznetsov: Of course. Moreover, by order of the commander of the North-Western Air Defense, the aircraft was accompanied by a military fighter. As is clear from a number of publications on the subject, the fighter pilot was ordered to destroy a passenger plane, along with all passengers, if only he tried to make an attempt to take off from the country.
I don’t know what the command was guided by in this case (perhaps they were trying to scare them so that the rest would be discouraged), but, in general, the plane was doomed. That is, either an assault (which, in fact, happened), or destruction.
The Ovechkin Family Jazz Ensemble in 1986. Photo: Roman Denisov
S. Buntman: How many passengers were on board?
A. Kuznetsov: About a hundred people, including the crew.
S. Buntman: What kind of plane?
A. Kuznetsov: Tu-154.
For the operation to neutralize terrorists, the operational headquarters chose a military airfield in the village of Veshchevo near Vyborg. It was starting to get dark. The crew was told that in order to bring the capture group to full readiness, they needed to drag out a little time. The Ovechkins were approached by flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya, who began to reassure them and convince them that the plane had landed in Kotka, Finland. The brothers practically believed it, but then they saw that a cordon of soldiers was being led along the runway to the landing site.
Naturally, the terrorists realized that they had been deceived. Out of desperation and rage, Dmitry Ovechkin shot the stewardess. As a result, Tamara Zharkaya became the only victim of the invaders. All other people were killed and maimed by those who came to save them.
The commandos, called upon to neutralize the terrorists, were in fact completely untrained in actions in such operations. They were ordinary police officers who knew how to deal with street hooligans, but did not know the specifics of working in the narrow space of an aircraft. They didn't work well. Very bad. Opening the cockpit door, two policemen started shooting at the invaders, wounding instead of them a man sitting in the front row. Three other passengers were subsequently injured.
Oddly enough, the Ovechkin brothers turned out to be much more accurate than the special forces - they wounded both of them with return fire.
A group entered the battle, penetrating the plane through the tail. The policemen began to shoot through the floor, but these shots did not cause any harm to the armed Simeons.
The criminal actions of the Ovechkin family led to the death of many people
Realizing that their situation was hopeless, the Ovechkins decided to commit suicide by detonating an explosive device. However, the bomb did not work the way they expected - only 19-year-old Alexander died, the rest were not even injured. Then the brothers began to shoot at themselves. Dimitri killed himself first. Then Oleg. And Vasily first shot his mother, then he shot himself.
One of the younger brothers, Misha Ovechkin, the same one who was a classmate of Denis Matsuev, will later say in court: “Vasya wanted to shoot me, looked for cartridges in Dima’s clothes, but did not find them, and he had only one cartridge left, and he decided spend it on yourself."
S. Buntman: How many victims were there?
A. Kuznetsov: As a result of the terrorist attack, nine people were killed, including five members of the Ovechkin family. 19 people, including two police officers and two Ovechkins, were injured and various injuries. In particular, this was due to the fact that when a bomb exploded and a fire started on board, the passengers managed to break one of the emergency exit doors, which, unfortunately, was not equipped with a ladder. And the people were jumping with pretty high altitude on the ground, while receiving very severe injuries of the spine, fractures and everything else.
S. Buntman: The verdict of the court stated that, in addition to the death and injury of people, damage to the state amounted to 1,371,000 rubles.
A. Kuznetsov: Yes.
S. Buntman: It turns out that of the direct participants in the crime, only 17-year-old Igor, 28-year-old Olga and four very young children, two girls and two boys, survived?
A. Kuznetsov: Quite right. The investigation went on for five months. The criminal case consisted of several dozen volumes. In the end, two people were brought to criminal responsibility - Olga and Igor. Olga was sentenced to six years in prison, and Igor to eight. Olga was pregnant at the time of the attack. She gave birth in the colony.
In 1999, based on the story of the Ovechkin family, the film "Mom" was filmed.
S. Buntman: How did further fate Ovechkins?
A. Kuznetsov: In different ways. Igor and Olga served four years each and were released. In freedom, life did not work out for either one or the other. Igor served his second term for drugs and was soon killed. Shortly before his death, he performed in one of the restaurants in Irkutsk. Olga died during a drunken quarrel in 2004. Sergei played in restaurants with Igor for some time, then traces of him are lost. At the age of 16, Ulyana, who at the time of the events described above was only 10, gave birth to a child, led an antisocial lifestyle, tried to commit suicide, and became disabled. Michael for a long time lived in St. Petersburg, took part in various jazz bands, then moved to Spain. Tatyana, who was 14 in 1988, lives near Irkutsk with her husband and child. In 2006, she took part in the release of the documentary series "The investigation was conducted ...", which was dedicated to the hijacking of the aircraft.
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