The case of an attempted hijacking by the Ovechkin family is the loudest and most resonant in the late 80s of the last century. It was widely covered in the press, discussed in every Soviet family. Ordinary citizens were outraged not so much by the audacity of the hijackers as by their very personalities. If Ovechkin were recidivists, hardened criminals, the case would not have received such publicity.

Jazz Ensemble "Seven Simeons"

The hijackers turned out to be the most common Soviet “cell of society”. Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina was a heroine mother of many children, raising 11 children almost alone. Her husband, Dmitry Dmitrievich, drank heavily during his lifetime and paid little attention to his offspring. He died 4 years before the events described and left his wife to cope with a huge family.

Ninel Sergeevna performed this role well. Moreover, many of the children were already adults and actively helped her raise the kids. By Soviet standards, the Ovechkins lived mediocre lives. They had 2 three-room apartments in Irkutsk itself and a house with a plot in the suburbs, but the mother's pension and the salaries of older children were very small.

The sons of Ninel Sergeevna were incredibly musical and therefore organized a jazz ensemble called "Seven Simeons". About them was filmed documentary. "Simeons" were very proud and even sent on tour to Japan. This rare success was a turning point in the fate of the Ovechkins themselves and many people who found themselves on board the plane they hijacked in 1988.

The desire to break out of an impoverished country of total scarcity

During the tour, a very tempting offer was made to young musicians from a London record company. "Seven Simeons" even then could ask for asylum from Great Britain and stay abroad forever, but they did not want to leave their mother and sisters in the USSR. They would never have been released abroad; Yes, and they would have persecuted at home.

Returning home after the tour, the boys offered their mother to flee the USSR. There must have been stories about beautiful life Abroad. That's when the plan to hijack the plane matured. Ninel Sergeevna not only supported this idea, but also fully supervised the preparation. The plan was implemented on a holiday - March 8, 1988.

How did the capture

The Ovechkins prepared very carefully for the hijacking. Cases for musical instruments were specially reshaped so that weapons could be carried in them. Already after the tragic events on board the TU-154 (tail number 85413, flight Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad), 2 sawn-off shotguns, about a hundred rounds of ammunition and several improvised explosive devices were found.

It was easy for the Ovechkins to carry such an arsenal. The musicians were well known in hometown and were practically ignored. All Ovechkins participated in the capture, except for the eldest daughter Lyudmila. She was married, lived in another city (Cheremkhovo) and did not know about the impending escape from the USSR.

When the Ovechkins, led by their mother, were on board, they waited for the intermediate landing of the plane in Kurgan for refueling. Then they demanded that a course be set for London. At first, the pilots took the demand as a joke. The situation immediately changed when sawn-off shotguns appeared in the hands of the older Ovechkins. "Simeons" threatened to blow up the plane in case of disobedience.

Outcome of the case

No one was even going to let the hijackers go abroad. The plane was landed at a military airfield in Veshchevo, after which they took it by storm. During the capture, 9 people were killed (five of them were terrorists), 19 were injured. The failed hijackers were determined. In case of failure, they decided to commit suicide so as not to be judged as traitors to the Motherland. The eldest son Vasily (26 years old) shot his mother, after which he committed suicide.

24-year-old Dmitry did the same, having previously killed the flight attendant T. I. Hot. Oleg and Sasha (21 and 19 years old) passed away in a similar way. At the trial, 17-year-old Igor was sentenced to 8 years in prison. His pregnant 28-year-old sister Olga is 6 years old. She was the only one against the hijacking of the plane and until the last she tried to dissuade her relatives from the criminal undertaking.

Ludmila, eldest daughter Ninel Sergeevna, became the guardian of her younger sisters and brothers. She also adopted a newborn niece, whom Olga gave birth to in prison. Thus ended the case of the first hijacking in the USSR in order to escape abroad.

On March 8, 1988, a bloody drama broke out at the Veshchevo military airfield, located near the Soviet-Finnish border. The family of musicians named Ovechkin, who hijacked the liner, demanded a flight abroad. What made the family, which enjoyed the favor and support of party officials, decide on such a crazy step? Life remembered the story that shocked Soviet Union exactly 30 years ago.

The Ovechkins, by the standards of the USSR of that time, were a very unusual family - 11 children in a cell of society was a huge rarity even then. Ninel Ovechkina, the head of the family, quite officially bore the title of mother-heroine and had the appropriate benefits.

The Ovechkins had 7 boys and 4 girls. Moreover, the difference between the older and younger children was 17 years. last child Ninel gave birth when she was over forty. The father of the family was distinguished by a bad temper and a penchant for drinking alcohol. In this state, he sometimes threatened with a close gun. Later, when the eldest sons grew up, they were beaten by them as part of self-defense. In 1984 he died.

Ninel Ovechkina cannot be called a darling of fate. Her father died at the front, her mother was shot dead by a watchman when she tried to dig up a few potatoes on a collective farm field during famine war times. At the age of 6, Ninel was orphaned and brought up in an orphanage. Shortly before adulthood, she was taken in by her cousin, who was older than her. And soon she got married.

In the future, Ninel worked as a saleswoman in wine and vodka stores, sometimes she traded in the market. She also oriented all her daughters to trade, while her sons early age occupied with music.

In fact, Ninel was the head of the family even with her living husband, who often drank. The main concerns for the arrangement of children lay on her shoulders. All Ovechkin's neighbors later noted that she was a very demanding woman, but by no means cruel. She never raised her voice to the children, but at the same time her orders were carried out implicitly.

The Ovechkins kept themselves apart, did not invite anyone to visit, did not go to anyone themselves. But none of the children sat idle, free time they either worked for personal plot or practiced playing musical instruments. By the standards of the provincial urban outskirts of the 80s, they were, in general, a prosperous family. Bad companies and alcohol lay in wait for teenagers from such families at every turn. But at the Ovechkins, no one walked with bad companies, did not get into the police and did not drink.

"Seven Simeons"

Three older brothers have been studying at the music school since childhood. However, the idea of ​​creating a family musical ensemble arose after the youngest sons of Ovechkina were enrolled in the school. It is believed that the eldest of the brothers, Vasily, was the first to propose creating an ensemble, who shared the idea with the teacher. The name was taken from one of the children's fairy tales, which was recently read by one of the younger Ovechkins. At the time of the group's creation, the eldest of the brothers was 21 years old, and the youngest two were 8 and 4 years old. At the same time, according to the teachers, Mikhail, one of the younger brothers, was really a real talent and showed great promise.

The peculiarity of the ensemble was that each of the brothers played his own instrument. 21-year-old Vasily on drums, 19-year-old Dmitry on trumpet, 16-year-old Oleg on saxophone, 14-year-old Alexander on double bass, 12-year-old Igor on piano the talent of the group along with Mikhail), 8-year-old Mikhail on trombone and 4-year-old Sergey on banjo.

The youngest of the Ovechkin brothers plays the banjo. Photo: © RIA Novosti / Petr Malinovsky

Such family ensembles were once very popular in Western countries, but in the USSR they were still a curiosity. Of course, the smallest members of the group were the main stars of the team. Perhaps, from a musical point of view, "Seven Simeons" did not stand out against the background of many other ensembles, but their unusual composition attracted attention and distinguished them from other VIA and jazz bands.

As was often the case in the Soviet Union, the regional leadership provided them with patronage. In those days, many secretaries of regional committees or district committees patronized local talents in order to brag to Moscow, and at the same time glorify the region throughout the country. And the seven musician brothers were perfect for that.

It is unlikely that without this support, "Simeons" could have been promoted within the framework of the Soviet Union. They were helped with venues, organized performances at major and popular festivals. Young musicians were even invited to shoot the most popular TV show "Wider Circle". They performed at the XII International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in 1985. The "Seven Simeons" gained some notoriety, now performing for foreign delegations at the famous Sovincenter, also known as the "Hammer Center". They helped two older brothers with admission to the prestigious Gnesinka.

Frequent guests of the Ovechkins were journalists who interviewed them and made films about an unusual family. The Irkutsk leadership, in gratitude for the glorification of the region, provided the family with two neighboring three-room apartments - in addition to the house she had.

In general, by Soviet standards, the Ovechkins lived quite well. Of course, they were not millionaires, and they cannot be called rich people, but they did not beg. In 1987, they even organized foreign tours in Japan. It was very difficult for musicians (if they were not world-famous classical musicians) to go on tour to a capitalist country at that time. And it is absolutely impossible without active help. government agencies. But just then, perestroika began and the USSR began to lift the curtain. The Simeons were sent to Japan as a Soviet curiosity.

In Japan, they experienced a real culture shock. The assortment of stores in the capitalist countries has always amazed Soviet citizens, but here the youth and inexperience of the musicians became additional factors. In addition, the brothers managed to notice that labor in the capitalist countries is paid at completely different rates. After hearing about the sky-high fees of famous jazzmen, they began to dream of tens of thousands of dollars for a performance. In a word, the young Ovechkins began a real psychosis, caused by the desire to stay in a capitalist country at all costs.

In principle, the brothers could have stayed in Japan without any problems. Whoever wanted to run away while on tour abroad always found a way to do it. In addition, it was 1987 in the yard, they were not following the guest performers so strictly, and the Simeons were not first-rank stars in the USSR. Of course, their escape would be unpleasant, but nothing more.

However, the brothers did not take advantage of the opportunity, not wanting to leave the family. After all, all the sisters remained in the USSR, and in the Ovechkin family, family ties have always been placed above all else. At the family council, it was decided: if they run to a capitalist country, then all together.

capture

In any case, the option of escaping during foreign tours fell away, since the whole family did not go on them. The sisters were not included in the ensemble and could not travel with him. It was also impossible to simply emigrate, such an option simply did not exist in the USSR (only citizens of Jewish nationality could repatriate, but this was not always easy). The family did not even think about contacting the OVIR.

There was only one option left - to break through with a fight. That is, to seize the plane, take passengers hostage and demand to fly to capitalist country. Although there is a popular belief that Ninel Ovechkina was the mastermind and organizer of the escape, all the surviving children later claimed that this was not the case. The main initiator of the escape was the third oldest brother - Oleg. He was supported by the rest of the older brothers, followed by his mother. Of course, if she had not approved the idea, then there would have been no theft, the brothers would not have dared to act contrary to her word.

It is worth noting that the Ovechkins had a somewhat misconception about hijacking, as did most other Soviet air pirates. In fact, even if the hijackers were lucky not to die during the assault and not fall into the hands of law enforcement officers (which happened most often) and still get to the coveted abroad, they were greeted there by no means with bread and salt. All countries in the world considered air piracy a serious crime, and the hijackers faced prison terms, regardless of their political opinions and aspirations. So, even if the Ovechkins' plan had succeeded, they would have been in serious trouble. Adult family members would most likely end up behind bars, and the youngest would be given to guardians.

However, the escape of the Ovechkins would have failed in any case, since they chose the wrong plane for this (more on that later). Nevertheless, they prepared for the crime seriously. They sold most of their belongings, bought smart suits, got several guns through acquaintances - under the pretext of a desire to hunt. The band's sound engineer helped them with ammunition and gunpowder. The brothers also made some weak explosive devices. Nevertheless, these were real bombs, not dummies - the Ovechkins were extremely serious.

It was decided to hide the weapon in a double bass case. During the tour, they noticed that the case does not fit into the frames of introscopes at airports and is allowed to be carried with little or no inspection. Especially since we are talking about children. The case was equipped with a second bottom, in which the brothers put sawn-off shotguns made from guns and homemade bombs.

At the family council, it was decided that all 11 family members would flee abroad. The twelfth - the eldest daughter Lyudmila - was already married by that time and had long lived her life separately from her family.

On March 8, 1988, the Ovechkins, together with their mother, boarded a Tu-154 aircraft flying along the route Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad. As expected, there were no problems during the search, the security officers were satisfied that they asked to open the case, and the double bottom was not noticed.

On board, in addition to the Ovechkins, there were 65 more passengers. After refueling in Kurgan, when the plane gained altitude, one of the older brothers handed the flight attendant Vasilyeva a note addressed to the crew commander. It contained a demand to immediately change course and fly to London, otherwise they threatened to blow up the plane.

While the foreman of the flight attendants conveyed the message to the captain of the ship, the Ovechkins staged a small traffic jam at the toilet in the tail section of the aircraft, after which they took out weapons and announced to the passengers that they were now hostages.

The commander of the aircraft, in general, was not going to persist and agreed to fulfill the requirements of the criminals so as not to put the lives of passengers at risk. But their wish was unfulfilled for two reasons. Firstly, the aircraft's fuel was only enough for a flight to Leningrad. At best, one could reach Helsinki, but certainly not London. Secondly, the crew of the plane had no experience in international flights. The pilots simply did not know the routes and air corridors in other countries and, most importantly, did not speak English. From the outside, it would look like this: an unknown aircraft invaded Finnish airspace, behaves inappropriately, does not respond to requests.

The flight engineer went to the cabin to convince the crime family of the need to change the route. He was able to explain very clearly that the plane would certainly not make it to London, but it was possible to land it in Finland. On reflection, the Ovechkins agreed to a change in course.

The pilots turned to ground services for instructions. The authorities on the ground demanded, under the guise of Finland, to land the plane at the Veshchevo military airfield and began to prepare an assault.

The commander announced that the plane would now land in Finland, but the aircraft landed at a Soviet airport. However, the Ovechkins immediately realized that they had been tricked after seeing Russian inscriptions on a fuel tanker. They tried to break into the cockpit by breaking down its door and threatening to start killing the hostages.

With great difficulty, the flight attendants managed to convince the Ovechkins that refueling would now be carried out and the plane would fly further. In hysterics, Dmitry Ovechkin shot one of the flight attendants. But in the end, the criminals took control of themselves for a while and heard arguments about the need to refuel.

Nevertheless, the tension was the highest. Ground services deliberately played for time, waiting for the arrival of an assault group of Leningrad policemen. The first tanker arrived only an hour after landing. But the pilots asked for a second. While he was driving, while filling the tanks, another hour passed. The Ovechkins at that time were on edge and were about to break loose, every now and then one of the older brothers began to rush around the cabin, threatening to start shooting the hostages if the plane did not immediately take off.

Failed Assault

Finally, the plane was refueled, but still did not budge. The Ovechkins again began to get nervous and put forward an ultimatum: if the plane does not take off in five minutes, the passengers will not be in trouble. The ship's captain convinced them that a tractor was about to arrive to tow them to the runway. Five minutes pass, ten, fifteen, the tractor does not appear, but the Ovechkins have not yet carried out their threat.

In the meantime, under the cover of refueling the aircraft, two armed policemen made their way into the cockpit unnoticed. Finally, a tractor pulls up, the plane moves off. At the same moment, police officers burst into the salon.

Apparently, they thought that the Ovechkins, due to their youth, would not dare to use weapons and that they could be easily neutralized. But they miscalculated. An insane firing started. The policemen, having received an unexpected rebuff, began to shoot blindly at the tail section of the aircraft. At the same time, they did not make out who they were shooting at, and their bullets flew not at the Ovechkins, but at the passengers, four of whom received gunshot wounds. Only by incredible luck none of them died.

While the shootout was going on, help arrived to the policemen, who tried to break through the hatch in the tail section. The Ovechkins fired back, wounding two policemen (the wounds were not life-threatening), but they were running out of ammunition, which they had only in small quantities. Realizing that their escape plan had failed, they decided to commit suicide. One of the sisters was sent to get out of the plane with underage participants in the attack, because they were still beyond jurisdiction.

The older brothers, with the exception of 17-year-old Igor (who did not want to die and hid, taking advantage of the turmoil), gathered in the tail section to blow themselves up. However, homemade bombs were too weak and only set the cabin on fire. Then the elder brothers Vasily (26 years old), Dmitry (24 years old), Oleg (21 years old) and Alexander (19 years old) shot themselves. However, some sources state that the last one died as a result of the explosion. Previously, one of the brothers shot and killed the mother on her orders.

Because of the smoke, passengers rushed out of the plane, saving their lives. But as soon as they jumped out of the trap, policemen grabbed them on the ground and began to beat them severely. Later, they justified themselves by the fact that fugitive terrorists could be among the passengers, so it was decided to harshly arrest everyone.

As a result of the unsuccessful assault, three passengers died, suffocated by smoke. Another victim, stewardess Tamara Zharkaya, was killed by the Ovechkins. The remaining five dead are four older brothers and Ninel Ovechkina, who committed suicide. As a result of shooting, jumping from a height and a brutal detention on the ground, 15 passengers were injured and injured. Also, when trying to get out of the plane, 9-year-old Sergei Ovechkin was shot in the leg. There were two wounded on the side of the militiamen.

Such catastrophic losses as a result of the assault are explained by the fact that the capture group consisted of ordinary policemen who were completely unprepared for such operations. It was pure improvisation. In the USSR, there was a group "Alpha", prepared specifically for such situations. And, when in 1983 a group of Georgian golden youth tried to hijack a plane abroad, as a result of the competent actions of Alpha, not a single passenger was injured during the assault. However, she was in Moscow, and while she was flying to Veshchevo, the assault had already begun by the police. When the fighters elite unit arrived at the place, the plane was already burning down.

The fact that the assault was carried out very unsuccessfully was recognized even at that time. However, it is not the policemen who are to blame for this, who in such situations could hardly have jumped above their heads, but those who gave the order to use them. Of course, "Alpha", most likely, would have coped with the invaders of the ship much more professionally and with fewer victims. The failed assault at that time caused even more resonance than the Ovechkins' crime itself.

Further fate

Of the six surviving Ovechkins, only two have reached the age of criminal responsibility. 17-year-old Igor and 28-year-old Olga, who at that time was expecting a child. They were found guilty and sentenced to 8 and 6 years in prison respectively.

The fate of almost all the surviving family members was very tragic. Igor continued to study music in the colony, created a prison orchestra. After four s small years he was released on parole. After that, he worked as a musician in various restaurants, drank a lot, and later became addicted to drugs. After the release of the film "Mom" in 1999, based on their story, he threatened to sue, but soon he himself ended up behind bars and died in a pre-trial detention center under unclear circumstances.

Olga was released from prison after four years. She worked as a saleswoman in the market, also had problems with alcohol. At the beginning of the 2000s, she got along with a certain tire shop worker named Vitaliy Mikhalenya, who killed her in a drunken stupor. This happened in 2004. The killer was sentenced to 9 years in prison.

Olga Ovechkina in court. Photo: © wikipedia.org

The youngest of the Ovechkins, Sergei, who was 9 years old at the time of the hijacking, tried three times to enter a music school in his hometown, but could not. According to him, he was refused because of his surname, but the teachers later assured journalists that it was all about lack of talent. For some time he worked as a musician in restaurants, at the very end of the 90s he "disappeared from the radar" and no longer made himself felt.

Ulyana, who was 10 years old at the time of the capture, also did not settle down in life. She had problems with alcohol, made attempts to settle scores with life. After one of these attempts, when she threw herself under a car, she became disabled.

Tatyana (aged 14 at the time of capture) married and lived ordinary life. Occasionally met with journalists.

The only one who managed to fulfill a family dream and go abroad was Mikhail, who was considered the most talented member of the ensemble (by the way, his classmate at the Irkutsk School of Arts was the world famous Denis Matsuev, who also noted the undoubted talent of Mikhail). He moved to St. Petersburg, graduated from the Institute of Culture, collaborated with many jazz bands. At the beginning of the 2000s, he moved to Spain, where he became a member of the fairly well-known jazz band Jinx Jazz Band, famous for its street performances in Barcelona. A few years ago, he suffered a stroke, after which he lost the opportunity to play and lives in a local nursing home.

The oldest sister, Lyudmila, who did not participate in the capture and did not even know about it, took over the upbringing of the remaining younger brothers and sisters, as well as Olga's child. Currently retired.

Just three years after the bloody events iron curtain collapsed and leaving the country became free. However, it is unlikely that Ovechkin would have been able to become stars and receive huge fees for performances in Western countries. If in the USSR they were provided state support as a provincial curiosity (and at the same time they were not pop stars anyway), then in Western countries such family ensembles could not surprise anyone. Rare club gigs and little interest in the fugitives in the first few months - that's the maximum that could be counted on. And this is provided that they managed to escape without committing crimes. But, since the Ovechkins hijacked a plane to break out to the West, upon arrival at their desired destination, the older family members would almost certainly have been waiting for a prison instead of concert halls.

I tried London...
(C) Bulldog Kharlamov


8 Martha 1988 years, the Ovechkin family took the passengers of the Tu-154 hostage and tried to escape from the USSR.
The mother and 11 children successfully hijacked the plane, but the escape failed, and the stupid assault on the plane led to human casualties. Only three years remained before the collapse of the USSR ... but the Ovechkins were impatient. There was a hype around this family in the USSR for a long time, because they were exemplary Octobrists, pioneers and Komsomol members. A year after the tragic events, the documentary "Once Upon a Time There Were Seven Simeons" was released. And in 1999 - the art picture "Mom". Further, how they were able to capture the plane and how the police freed the hostages...

In that ill-fated year The Ovechkin family consisted of a mother, Ninel Sergeevna (pictured), and 11 children aged 9 to 32.

There was another, the eldest daughter, Lyudmila, but by that time she had already married and lived separately from her relatives, and therefore did not participate in the hijacking of the plane.

There was once a father in the family, but he died back in 1984 from severe beatings, which were awarded to his eldest sons (for which, it is still unknown).

They lived in Irkutsk, which was not sugar and there were few gaps. The head of the family was the mother, who tried to make money on everything. For a long time she worked as a seller of wine and vodka products and was engaged in speculation in alcoholic beverages, including at home, in the presence of her children, for which she was prosecuted.

Like any mother, she wished her children a better life and managed to discern the extraordinary musical talent of her sons: Alexander, Dmitry, Igor, Vasily, Oleg, Mikhail and Sergey. In 1983 they became the Seven Simeons ensemble.

It is generally accepted that their successful and famous jazz ensemble decided to escape from the Union after performing in Japan, where everyone was delighted with them. There is still an unconfirmed version (one of the Ovechkins told about this during interrogation) that they were offered a lucrative contract in England. So they decided to run away to London. Then no one knew that only three years were left before the collapse of the Union ... and fly wherever you want ...

The Ovechkins had been planning the capture of the plane for more than six months, carefully considering every little thing. They even tested an improvised explosive device in the forest. Ninel Sergeevna herself and her ten children had to escape to London. Only daughter Lyudmila, who lived separately, was not initiated into the plan.

The main "militants" during the capture were the brothers Vasily, Dmitry, Oleg and Igor. Three of them had already passed by then. military service in Soviet army, and they served in Irkutsk, in the Red barracks, which were occupied by the air defense division. So what is a weapon they knew well. They asked a neighbor for one gun for a couple of days (allegedly they called for hunting). They took two other guns under the same pretext from another neighbor and from an officer of the unit where the older brothers served. The kind officer gave the brothers equipment for reloading cartridges and poured out shots.

A gang of Ovechkins with homemade bombs and weapons got on the plane of the Irkutsk-Leningrad flight without any problems. Weapons and pipe bombs were hidden in musical instruments. The double bass did not pass through the interscope (which they knew about), so the control officer examined it on the table, opened it and even shook the instrument doubtfully (it was too heavy).

But she did not dare to conduct a more thorough examination of the instruments of children famous throughout the USSR.


Misha Ovechkin's drawing, in which he showed how the older brothers hid weapons in the double bass.


Misha Ovechkin.

Moreover, by the time the plane was hijacked, the Ovechkin family had already managed to sell all the things from the house and buy new clothes to pass for their own abroad.


The Ovechkins' apartment after a failed escape. they had no intention of returning.

The Ovechkins immediately sat in the tail of the plane and showed all the flight attendants cards of their performances. At first everything was quiet. Passengers even joked: they say, we will fly with music. The terrorists decided to act only after refueling the aircraft in Kurgan. According to the standard scheme, they handed over a note demanding that the pilots go to London through a flight attendant. Those who contacted the land and began to wait for instructions from the KGB. They tried to negotiate with Semions, but the Ovechkins refused to make concessions. In the end, flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov managed to reasonably convince Ninel Sergeevna and her children that the plane would definitely not reach London and that it needed one more refueling. The terrorists set a condition - to refuel the plane not on the territory of the USSR. And the pilots headed for the city of Kotka in Finland. But fly to neighboring country no one was going to. On instructions from the ground, the plane flew over Vyborg, allegedly over a Finnish city, and then went to land at a military airfield near the border with Finland.

Veshchevo airport at that time was military unit. Its commander, having received an alarm signal and a warning about terrorists, ordered his personnel to cordon off the runway. If he had not withdrawn the soldiers, perhaps the Ovechkins could have been eliminated without casualties, but he was not warned of anything and he took the initiative.

The Ovechkins saw Soviet soldiers taking off through the windows of the plane and guessed that this was not Finland. But they did not open fire even when they heard that someone was walking along the body of the aircraft. It was preparation for the assault. The plane was stormed not by special services, but by ordinary local policemen, some of whom never took part in skirmishes at all.

The storm itself was simply monstrous. Several police officers (according to various sources from 2 to 4) managed to get into the cockpit through the windshield, armed with Makarov pistols and bulletproof shields. The signal for the start of the assault was to be the start of the aircraft's movement along the runway.

The Ovechkins warned that there would be many victims, but few believed them. Negotiations continued until 18:32. During this time, tankers with imitations of refueling drove up to the plane three times, and under their cover, police officers approached, who simply gathered in a blind zone at the tail of the plane. 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, all this was well heard by the Ovechkins, who themselves were sitting in the tail.

When the plane began to move, the police officers in the cockpit opened the door to the cabin and opened fire along the aisle. At the same time, the police began to fire from under the carpet in the aisle of the aircraft. As a result of the shooting, the police accidentally hit the passengers sitting in the front rows and wounded Igor Ovechkin, who was standing at the door, in the leg.

Mother hysterically yelled: "Kill!" Vasily and Dmitry returned fire from hunting sawn-off shotguns and wounded both policemen. After that, the police closed the door to the cockpit. The terrorists tried to break into the cockpit, but they failed and shot the flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya.

As a result of this stupid "assault", three passengers and a flight attendant were killed, who was executed by the terrorists in retaliation for the assault. The policemen only managed to wound one of the brothers in the leg and anger them. In addition, negotiations were out of the question, as the Ovechkins were well aware of.

In total, nine people died in this tragedy: the mother, Ninel Sergeevna, and her four sons were soon added to the three passengers and the stewardess. Moreover, the Ovechkins did not fall from the bullets of intelligence officers, but committed suicide. First, they tried to commit suicide by detonating a homemade bomb. Adult brothers stood in the ring and blew it up. But by some miracle, only one Alexander died from the explosion, the plane's window was shattered and it caught fire. The rest were only injured. Then Vasily shot in turn at his mother’s temple (at her request), then shot two brothers and shot himself ... this is how the path of the “heroine mother” ended, who raised terrorist children and so mediocrely and stupidly killed herself and her children and not in than innocent compatriots.


The Tu-154 aircraft, which collapsed after a fire.

After the explosion, a fire started on board and other passengers ran to the exits. The flight attendants were able to deploy two emergency slides, but some of the passengers jumped out onto the wing through the emergency exit and fell down, getting injured. One of the first to go down the inflatable ladder was Olga Ovechkina and the very first to get on the bus, like an ordinary passenger.

All men were held at gunpoint and placed on the take-off. It was dark. According to the testimony of one of the passengers and the stewardess, a policeman seriously wounded a passenger who did not follow his instructions with a shot in the back. It happened on the runway. The identity of this policeman could not be established.

Of the surviving Ovechkins, only Olga and Igor were put on trial, the rest were too young. Adults were given six and eight years, respectively. And the little children were taken into care by sister Lyudmila, who knew nothing about the capture. Olga, who already had a daughter in prison (pictured right) and Igor, served only half of their terms and were released.

In 2004, Olga was killed by a cohabitant in a drunken quarrel, and after his release, Igor lived in St. Petersburg for some time, earned his living by playing music (played in restaurants), but became a drug addict and received a sentence again. In 1999, he was killed in a cell by another detainee.

The talented Misha lived in St. Petersburg, where he worked in various jazz bands. In 2002 he moved to Spain. But he was kicked out of the band for drinking and he became a street musician. In 2012, he suffered a stroke, becoming disabled. Until 2013, he lived in a hospice in Barcelona, ​​now his fate is unknown. Sergei is missing. The younger sister of the Ovechkins suffers from alcoholism... such is the fate.

Info and photo (C) internet. The materials of the criminal case were used.

On March 8, 1988, passengers of a Tu-154 flying from Irkutsk to Leningrad were in good mood. Climbing on board, many of them made plans for the evening: someone was flying home, someone was visiting or on business. Ninel Ovechkina and her children also had their own special plan, for which the exemplary family had been preparing for almost half a year - an airplane hijacking and a daring escape from the Soviet Union.

"Poor" Ovechkins

The Ovechkins lived modestly, their father liked to drink, so the mother, Ninel Sergeevna, was mainly involved in raising 11 children. A woman has always been an authority for all members of a large family, but becoming a widow in 1984, she further strengthened her influence on her family. It was she who noticed that her boys - Vasily, Dmitry, Oleg, Alexander, Igor, Mikhail and little Sergey - are incredibly musical. In 1983, the sons organized the Seven Simeons jazz ensemble. The success was enormous. A documentary film was made about gifted musicians. The state, from whose strong embrace they later want to escape, gave the mother of many children two three-room apartments. The talented seven were accepted out of competition at the Gnessin School, but due to tours and constant rehearsals, the Simeons left their studies after a year.

In 1987, Ovechkin had an incredible chance for those times - a trip to Japan, where young talents had to perform in front of a huge audience. Perhaps it was these tours that subsequently pushed the brothers to a terrible crime. Having escaped from the Union, they no longer wanted to live "in a country of queues and shortages." Later, one of the surviving Ovechkins will tell the investigation that during the tour abroad, young people were made a profitable offer - a good contract with an English recording company. Even then, the brothers were ready to say yes and stay in a foreign land. But having done this, they could forever say goodbye to their mother and sisters, who would never have been released from the Soviet Union. Then the musicians decided that in the near future they would leave the Scoop at any cost, and began to prepare to escape from the country.

Seriously

The flight on the route Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad passed smoothly. But when the aircraft landed in Kurgan for refueling and took off again, it became clear that the plane would not reach the northern capital that day. The Ovechkins began to act quickly, according to the previously worked out scheme. Through the stewardess, the brothers gave the pilots a note in which they demanded to change the route abruptly and fly to London. Otherwise, the invaders promised to blow up the plane. At first, the pilots thought that the musicians were joking. However, when the older Ovechkins took out the sawn-off shotguns and began to threaten the passengers, it became clear that the criminals were determined. It was necessary to neutralize the armed terrorists as soon as possible before they killed someone, but how was this done? The second pilot offered the commander to deal with the invaders on his own. The crew had a personal weapon - Makarov pistols. In case of danger, the pilots had the right to shoot to kill. However, fearing the consequences, they decided to abandon the risky plan and wait for instructions from the ground. There, the KGB officers took over the operation. At first, they tried to negotiate with the young terrorists: they were offered to disembark all the passengers in exchange for refueling the plane and a guaranteed flight to Helsinki. But the Seven Simeons, led by their mother, did not want to make concessions. Then the flight engineer of the aircraft, Innokenty Stupakov, entered into negotiations with the armed criminals. The man was given clear instructions - to convince the Ovechkins that the fuel was running out, which means that they urgently needed to land. The young people believed Stupakov and were ready to land anywhere. Anywhere but outside the Soviet Union. After some conferring, the invaders gave the command to head for Finland. Flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya was next to negotiate with the brothers. She told the frantic criminals that the plane would soon land in the Finnish city of Kotka. From now on the task flight personnel was to simulate a flight to Finland. It was decided to land at the Veshchevo military airfield, near Leningrad, the crew hoped that the Ovechkins would not notice the deception and, as soon as the aircraft landed, the terrorists would be neutralized.

Ninel Ovechkina

At 16:05 the plane landed safely in Veshchevo, everything was going well. The newly minted terrorists did not suspect that they were still in their homeland. But then something happened that broke the coup of the entire capture operation. Suddenly, the Soviet military began to approach the aircraft from all sides. It dawned on the Ovechkins - all this time they remained in the "fucking Sovka", the stories about Finland were lies! In anger, 24-year-old Dmitry immediately shot at point-blank flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya. At the same moment, Ninel Ovechkina gave the command to storm the cockpit. But the attempt to break through to the pilots failed, then the brothers threatened to start shooting the passengers if the plane was not refueled and would not be allowed to take off safely. The terrorists flatly refused to let even the women and children go. When the family saw the tanker, they let the flight engineer outside to open the fuel tanks. In fact, there was a gas station, but it worked as a kind of screen - a whole performance was taking place outside. Everything was subordinated to one goal - to play for time until two capture groups approached the plane. According to the plan, several armed fighters of the special group were supposed to get on board the Tu-154 through a window in the cockpit, others through the entrance in the tail. When the plane took off and began taxiing to the runway, the operation to capture and neutralize the Ovechkins began.

Terrorist back-up plan

In 1988 the system law enforcement The USSR was not yet designed to counter terrorists, whose targets are civilians. Simply because the attacks themselves or attempts to carry them out were extremely rare one-time actions. Accordingly, the mechanisms for capturing terrorists and releasing hostages were not developed. There were no units specially trained for such actions in each major city, regional center. Patrol officers acted as special forces. This explains how they acted in an attempt to neutralize the Ovechkin brothers.

The fighters in the cockpit were the first to launch the attack. They opened fire, but the unfortunate arrows did not hit the brothers, but managed to injure four passengers. The Ovechkins turned out to be much more accurate; in the return firefight, the terrorists wounded the fighters, who eventually disappeared behind the armored door of the cockpit. The assault from the tail was also unsuccessful, opening the hatch, the special forces began to shoot at the legs of the invaders, but everything was in vain. According to eyewitnesses, the terrorists rushed around the cabin like animals driven into a cage. But at some point, Ninel gathered four sons around her: Vasily, Dmitry, Oleg and Alexander. The passengers did not immediately understand what these people were trying to do. Meanwhile, the Ovechkins said goodbye to each other and set fire to one of the pipe bombs. It turns out that even before the hijacking of the plane, the family agreed in case of failure of the operation to commit suicide. A second later, an explosion thundered, from which only Alexander died. The plane caught fire, panic began, a fire broke out.

But the terrorists continued their work. Ninel ordered her eldest son Vasily to kill her, he shot at his mother without hesitation. Dmitriy was next at the barrel of the sawn-off shotgun, then Oleg. 17-year-old Igor did not want to say goodbye to life and hid in the toilet - he knew that if his brother found him, he would not survive. But Vasily had no time to look, there was very little time left. Having dealt with Oleg, he shot himself. In the meantime, one of the passengers opened a door not equipped with a ladder; fleeing from the fire, people began to jump out of the plane, all of them received serious injuries and fractures. When the capture group finally got on board, the fighters began to take people out. At eight o'clock in the evening, the operation to free the hostages was completed. As a result of the hijacking attempt, four civilians died - three passengers and a flight attendant. 15 people received various injuries. Of the seven Ovechkins, five died.

This dramatic story happened in the Soviet Union on March 8, 1988. symbolic numbers. The large family Ovechkina committed a real terrorist act - she hijacked a passenger plane in order to leave home country. It is also noteworthy that the leader of the gang was the mother of the family. Let's try to reconstruct the picture of what happened.

The Ovechkins lived in a suburb of Irkutsk and played in a family jazz ensemble led by the mother of the family, Ninel Ovechkina. Her husband and father of children, Dmitry Ovechkin, died in 1984, and their mother carried all family worries. As they would say now, she was the main sponsor, creative director and producer of her team. Needless to say, the woman was imperious, despotic and ambitious. The ensemble was called "Seven Simeons" and seven brothers aged 8 to 26 played music in it - Vasily, Dmitry, Oleg, Alexander, Igor, Sergey, Mikhail. The family was very famous in Irkutsk.

Local television even made a film about them (which, however, the mother did not like). Newspapers and radio also regularly reported on the talented family ensemble. There were eleven children in the family. Ninel Ovechkina received the Mother Heroine order, as well as two three-room apartments in a new house on the same floor, while retaining the old one. private house. It would seem that life is getting better. A unique family in the midst of Glasnost and Perestroika can become a new creative star of the national stage. "Seven Simeons" achieved victories in music competitions in different cities of the USSR, and in 1987 they were even invited on tour to Japan. But everything was not so rosy.

Ovechkin family

The father of the family drank alcohol until his death. In a drunken stupor, he liked to chase children with a gun in his hands. Mother is a pupil of an orphanage who lost her parents in her childhood. According to the recollections of the neighbors, the family was not friends with anyone, they lived apart. The children did not seem to be hooligans - music lessons took a lot of time, but they did not communicate with their peers, they were always gloomy and unfriendly.

Neighbors also spoke of them as proud and narrow-minded people, for whom the jazz orchestra was not an end in itself, but only a way to break out "into the people." Need forced the Ovechkins to lead natural economy- in their house in the suburbs of Irkutsk, they kept pigs and even cows. After the death of her husband, Ninel still sold vodka. big family out of 12 people (there were also sisters) it was necessary to survive, and the musical instruments of the sons were not cheap.

It was on tour in Japan that the family (and Ninel Ovechkina in particular) realized that they wanted to leave the Soviet Union. The children noticed that in the Country rising sun even in the toilets there are flowers, and such Japanese aesthetics made them think that they had the misfortune to be born in the USSR. Their mother supported them. It seems like some American producer even approached them, who promised to record their compositions in an album and release it in thousands of copies. But this is fame and big money.

The family had already rushed to the USA straight from the Japanese tour, but there was not enough money for a taxi to get to the American embassy. However, upon returning to the USSR, the Ovechkins did not give up on the Western dream. They, on the contrary, began to prepare a plan for a daring escape. The next foreign tour did not turn up, and nothing better musicians
did not figure out how to hijack a passenger plane from the territory of the USSR. They apparently did not think much about the consequences of such an action and what awaits them both in their homeland and in the dream country.

Ovechkins - plane hijacking

The Ovechkins picked up a western flight Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad. To capture the eldest sons, they acquired two sawn-off shotguns from a single-barreled and double-barreled guns, and also made improvised explosive devices. During previous flights, they noticed that the double bass that was in their orchestra does not fit into the security scanner and airport employees check it manually. This is what the Ovechkins decided to take advantage of. In the double bass case, they made a double bottom, where they hid sawn-off shotguns, 100 cartridges for them and bombs. Played into the hands of their fame.

Before the ill-fated departure, the popular family was practically not inspected. They planned to fly to London, although they were ready for any other western country. In addition to the mother and seven brothers, three more daughters from the Ovechkin family went on board - the eldest has already acquired own family, lived separately and did not participate in terms of mother and brothers.

Already after refueling in Kurgan, flying in the Vologda region, the commander of the ship Kupriyanov receives a note with the following content: “Proceed to England (London). Don't go down. Otherwise, we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control."

The commander transmits this information to the ground. Fuel remained for an hour and a half of the flight, the plane would not have reached London under any circumstances, not to mention the fact that the crew had no experience in international flights. They tried to explain this fact to family terrorists. Flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov went into the cabin and, as a result of negotiations, managed to explain to the Ovechkins that there was not enough fuel to fly to the UK, after which he managed to convince the terrorists to allow the landing
for aircraft refueling in Finland.

Then they ordered to land in the nearest "abroad" for refueling. "Earth" at first gave the go-ahead, but it was impossible to fly even to Finland with Sweden, and the criminals could recognize Tallinn from the air. It was decided to send the plane to an alternate airfield near Vyborg in the hope that the Ovechkins would not recognize it. But for the landing approach, the Tu-154 crew has to make a noticeable maneuver - a 180-degree turn. The terrorists notice this and start to panic. Flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya tries to reassure them that the plane is maneuvering before landing in the Finnish city of Kotka.

Already on the ground, the Ovechkins notice that “Flammable” is written in Russian on the approaching refueling car, and then they also noticed the fighters with Kalashnikovs surrounding the plane. Then the second son - Dmitry Ovechkin - kills the stewardess Tamara. The nerves of all family members fail, the passengers then describe them as having lost their minds. They did not go to negotiations, they refused to let passengers go. In addition, there was a bomb threat. Well, then the capture group acts completely unprofessionally.

First, one machine gunner bursts into the salon, makes a line and leaves the salon. After a while, a full-fledged assault begins. The terrorists fire back and manage to detonate the bomb, but it does not kill anyone, but only starts a fire. The result - 9 dead, 30 wounded, the plane was engulfed in flames and subsequently completely burned down.

Passengers jumping out of a burning plane in a panic were surrounded on the ground and beaten with rifle butts, “what if there were terrorists among them” - that was the justification of the security forces. In case of failure, Ninel's mother left clear instructions to the children: kill her, shoot themselves and detonate the bomb. Dmitry Ovechkin shot himself after the murder of a flight attendant, followed by Oleg and Alexander. The eldest son, Vasily Ovechkin, fulfilled his mother's request - he killed her and shot himself. Igor Ovechkin got scared and hid in the toilet, later appearing in court along with older sister Olga, who in the family played the role of a servant and also flew on this flight.

The case got loud. The prosecutor's office was inundated with angry letters from citizens, and the case materials eventually consisted of six volumes. The dead stewardess Tamara Zharkaya was buried by the whole city. Trial was held openly, so many people gathered in the hall that there were not enough seats for everyone. Passengers of the hijacked liner, as well as crew members, acted as witnesses at the trial. The younger brothers, Misha and Seryozha, were too small to bear criminal responsibility, so Igor and Olga Ovechkin, who received 8 and 6 years in prison, respectively, ended up in the dock.

The terrorists of the 1960s and 1980s are generally often idealistic romantics, which, of course, does not in the least justify their actions. And law enforcement agencies were just learning to neutralize them, they learned, among other things, from their bloody mistakes. Well, the number "7" was definitely unlucky for the seven brothers from the "Seven Simeons". But the language does not turn to call them romantics, led by the mother-heroine ...