The reasons for the fall of the Tu-154 crashed in Sochi became known.

As the newspaper "Gazeta. Ru ", experts involved in the investigation of the crash of the Tu-154 military aircraft flying to Syria on December 25, 2016 in Sochi, came to the conclusion that the aircraft was overloaded: instead of the standard 98 tons, the take-off weight was more than 110 tons. At the same time, the crew was not aware of the overload and took off, proceeding from the permissible take-off weight of the manned vehicle.

To calculate the mass of the crashed aircraft, special techniques were applied, including using data from a parametric recorder lifted from the bottom of the Black Sea.

As a result, it became known that on December 24, taking off from the Moscow airdrome Chkalovsky, where the Tu-1542B-2 began its route, the take-off weight of the aircraft, together with 24 tons of fuel filled in it, was 99.6 tons. This exceeded the standards, but the deviation of 1.6 tons was insignificant. At this weight the aircraft usually takes off without much trouble.

In Adler from Tu-154B-2, no one left, except for the commander and co-pilot. The plane was not additionally loaded, but the liner was refilled to the maximum. In its tanks was 35.6 tons of fuel.

According to experts, as a result, the takeoff weight of the liner instead of the standard 98 tons was about 110 tons.

Early on the morning of December 25, the Tu-154B-2 took off along a large runway (there are two of them in Adler). After that, the plane should be turned off first to the right, then to the left, and then take a course for Latakia, at the airbase Khemeymim. However, the problems began during the rise.

The separation of the aircraft from the Adler runway occurred only at the 37th second after the start of the takeoff, at a speed of 320 km / h, the angle of the pitch was from 4 to 6 degrees. All these parameters indicate that the aircraft was hardly able to get into the air. The rate of climb was 10 m / s instead of the usual 12-15 m / s.

Two seconds after take-off, the commander of the crew pulled the helm over himself, lifting the nose of the plane so that the pitch was already 10-12 degrees. For the manager of an overloaded aircraft this was a very rash action. The crew began to clean the flaps at an altitude of 150 m and at a speed of 345 km / h. Given the significant excess of the standard take-off weight of the Tu-154, these actions should be performed at a higher speed.

The stall speed of the aircraft (low flight speed, when the attack angle reaches a critical value, and the aircraft becomes uncontrollable) increases with mass, and also depends on the position of the flaps (the more they are released, the less it is). Therefore, at a certain weight, the speed can be such that before the flaps are cleaned, it will be greater than the stall speed, and after - less.

On the records of the voice recorder you can hear how the co-pilot asked the commander for permission to harvest the mechanization, but the latter did not reply. The co-pilot, apparently, regarded his silence as a sign of agreement. The lifting force since the beginning of the harvesting of the mechanization naturally began to fall sharply.

The plane managed to reach the height of 200 m, when the commander again made an unexpected move - gave the steering column from himself and then suddenly took it upon himself, having lost in maneuver an already small height.

The flaps have not yet been completely removed, as the system signaling a dangerous rapprochement with the earth has worked in the cockpit of the Tu-154. The flap inclination angle was 5-7 degrees when the commander made a motion with the steering wheel and the rudder pedals to the left. In the planned mode, he had to do the opposite. The plane fell into a roll of 30 degrees.

At that moment, a dangerous bank signal sounds, to which no one is paying attention anymore. "We are falling! "- screams the second pilot.

The commander makes movement with the wheel and pedals in the opposite direction and takes the steering wheel on himself. At this moment, the angle of attack was 10 degrees. At the same time, the aircraft continued to accelerate to 500 km / h. The speed increased, the roll increased, and the lifting force fell. There was practically no stock in the Tu-154 altitude.

A few seconds later, already with a roll of 50 degrees and at a speed of 540 km / h, the plane left wing touched the water. Under such conditions, a collision with the water surface is equivalent to a collision with a rock. The plane collapsed, its fragments scattered over a large area.

In total, the last Tu-154 flight lasted only 74 seconds.

Before the impact on the water the plane was completely operational. Weather conditions at the Adler airfield at the time of takeoff were favorable: the ambient air temperature was 5 degrees above zero, the humidity was 76%, the pressure was 763 mm Hg. Art.. , Side wind - 5 m / s. Dangerous meteorological observations were not observed.

It was also found out that the dead crew, together with experienced commander Roman Volkov, took off on the crashed car from the same runway in Adler just two months before the disaster - October 1, 2016.

Then the separation from the runway was made at a speed of 310 km / h. With a climb rate of 12-15 m / s, the crew proceeded to climb. At an altitude of 450 m, a right turn was made to the right with a right bank of 20 degrees, then the plane made a left turn, and then, at an altitude of 450 m, flaps were removed for 13-14 seconds, before standing in the take-off position - 28 degrees.

The actions of the experienced crew and the behavior of the serviceable vehicle during its next take-off in Adler can only be explained by the fact that the commander of the Tu-154 did not know the character or the exact weight of the cargo on board, and therefore also about the reloading of its aircraft. Therefore, in Adler on the plane and fueled. Probably, it would be flooded less if they knew the exact weight of the property that was loaded on the plane in Chkalovsky.

Perhaps, the aircraft was placed something relatively small in volume, but significant in its specific gravity.

If the commander of the crew knew about exceeding the standard take-off weight by more than 10 tons, he would either refuse the flight, or take off taking into account the fact that the aircraft is overloaded.

The last actions of the crew can be explained by the fact that the pilots guessed that there was something wrong with the plane and tried to return to the departure aerodrome in order to take another smaller runway in Adler. However, there was not enough height.

Not the best part was played by the dark time of the day:

there was not a visual impression that there was very little left of the water surface, the crew did not have.

On the plane Tu-154, crashed early in the morning on December 25, flew the artists of the Ensemble of Song and Dance named after Alexandrov, who were supposed to give a New Year's concert at the Russian base of Khmeimim in Syria. They were accompanied by the film crew of the First Channel, NTV and "Stars". A total of 92 people died - 84 passengers and 8 crew members.