"People in civilian clothes ran up and exposed the films": in 1976, a plane rammed a residential building in Novosibirsk

On September 26, 1976, at about 8:15 am, the emergency services of Novosibirsk received the first messages - a plane crashed into house number 43/1 on Stepnaya Street.

At first, the officer on duty took the information about the plane crash for a ridiculous rally.

But when the calls were repeated, it became clear that this was no joke - the plane really rammed the building. 

“At eight in the morning we were still asleep when I heard the explosion.

I thought that the war had begun, - recalls Boris Suleev, who lived in the same house.

- I look out the window - there are debris, tarpaulin.

At first I decided that the guys blew up the car.

And this, it turns out, the plane has arrived. "

His neighbor Olga Yurova still recalls with horror the events of 45 years ago: “I was in school then, and that morning I was still in bed.

We had an aunt with a little nephew, and so they were the first to hear the hum, and then from the kitchen window they saw an airplane fly past, made a circle over the house and headed straight for us.

Then I remember a strong blow under our apartment and a lot of smoke. "

Last flight

At the helm of the An-2 at the time of the crash was 23-year-old pilot Vladimir Serkov.

Later, the investigation found out that the collision with the house was not accidental.

Vladimir deliberately rammed his father-in-law's apartment, where at that moment, according to the pilot, his wife Tatyana with her two-year-old son Roman was supposed to be.

He did not know that Tatyana, Roman and his father-in-law and mother-in-law were at the dacha at that time.

Old residents of the house who knew the family told RT that the relationship between the spouses was difficult.

Tatyana divorced Vladimir, left with her son to her parents, and, as neighbors say, she had already met with a certain captain, who was allegedly stripped of his rank and kicked out of the party for an affair with a married woman.

Vladimir, according to family acquaintances, asked Tatyana to postpone the divorce.

He wanted to go to work in the Arctic Circle, and one of the conditions necessary for this was the appropriate marital status.

The pilot's wife insisted on a divorce, her mother supported her in this. 

Two days before the disaster, Olga Yurova heard a quarrel coming from the apartment of Serkova's parents, and then saw how Vladimir measured the distance from the booth to the house in steps.

She is sure that even then the pilot was calculating his last flight.

• Plane An-2.

At 8:06 on September 26, the commander of the 116th flying squadron Vladimir Serkov, without the controller's permission, took the An-2 into the air from the Novosibirsk Severny airfield. 

Ten minutes later, the plane crashed into the wall between the third and fourth floors of the first entrance of the house on Stepnaya.

Olga Yurova believes that the house survived only by a miracle: “The plane hit the stairwell.

If I got into the apartment of Serkov's mother-in-law, I would fly right through and there would be nothing left of the house. "

The wrecked plane crashed at the entrance, the engine was thrown inside the house, and fuel from the tank splashed out onto the stairwell and caught fire.

A fire started in the house.

Fire brigades arrived at the scene five minutes later.

“They have arrived - and they have no water, they say, we have already had their fourth fire in the morning,” recalls Boris Suleev.

"But they found a hydrant and quickly put out the fire, in general, they did everything they could, considering that the fuel flared up instantly."

Since the staircase was engulfed in flames, people were rescued through the windows, eyewitnesses of the tragedy recall.

Residents of neighboring houses came to the rescue of the firefighters: they held blankets on which the fire victims jumped. 

“We jumped from the fifth floor,” says Olga Yurova.

- I left my nephew, my aunt jumped herself, but unsuccessfully, got injured.

And the firemen were filming my mother: she wanted to leave the apartment, opened the door - and all the fire, of course, flashed in her face.

She was burnt. "

Boris Suleev adds: "Anyutka, Vova Pushhenko's daughter from the fifth floor, was lowered on a rope, but his wife and son Yegorka burned down."

In total, the incident claimed the lives of five people: the pilot himself died on the spot, three residents, including two children of six and four years old, burned down in the apartment.

Another four-year-old died a week later in the hospital from burns.

According to Boris Suleev, the two dead children were nephews of one of the residents of the house and at the time of the incident were visiting their aunt.

Their own mother died after them from a heart attack, she is not among the victims of the disaster. 

"The apartments were looted"

Alexey Batyaev, a fifth grade student in 1976, lived in the third entrance of this house.

That morning, she and her mother drove to the city center: “We come back - and everything is cordoned off by the police at the house, firemen are working, no one is allowed in, unless you show a passport with a residence permit that you live here.

I took up an observation post on the third floor: from there I could see the tail of the plane lying at the first entrance, then they brought a tarpaulin and covered everything with it from prying eyes. "

• The yard of the house number 43/1 on Stepnoy street in Novosibirsk.

  March 2021.

When everyone had dispersed, a curious fifth-grader with friends entered the damaged entrance: “The engine from the plane hung right in the wall.

A wheel and a walkie-talkie were lying nearby in an apartment.

We, boys, of course, were incredibly interested. "

The first two entrances of the house were badly damaged.

In total, about 30 apartments were damaged by the crashed plane and the fire, which in the ensuing turmoil were then robbed, Batyaev describes: “Nothing of value was left.

Someone even cut off the fur collar from the coat.

Boris Suleev also says about the looters, who, in particular, took things out of the apartment of a neighbor who had lost his wife and child: “We got off lightly, only the kitchen burned out a little: cabinets, a refrigerator.

Nonsense compared to what the others had. " 

• The yard of the house number 43/1 on Stepnoy street in Novosibirsk.

  March 2021.

The local authorities immediately took up the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.

According to the recollections of Alexei Batyaev, the beginning of the house was surrounded by a board fence, the injured two entrances were dismantled, the engine was pulled out, and the overlap was dismantled.

People from the surviving part of the house were not relocated anywhere during the renovation.

“While the renovation was going on, it was very cold in the house: when I slept in my room, I had a layer of frost on the wall.

During the winter, two entrances were repaired and populated with people: both those who lived in the house before the tragedy, and new ones, ”he says.

The residents of the house have no information about where the pilot's wife and son moved after the disaster.

Vladimir Serkov's father-in-law and mother-in-law did not return to their apartment either.

Vladimir Pushhenko and his daughter, who survived, also preferred to leave that house on Stepnaya Street.

According to Boris Suleev, now his former neighbor is happily babysitting his granddaughter.

"Apartment with a balcony"

Now in apartment number 9 live the Andjanov spouses - Nikolai and Nadezhda.

In 1976, they lived in the same first staircase, in a third apartment on the first floor.

Then they exchanged their apartment for this one due to the presence of a balcony. 

• Windows of apartment No. 9 of house No. 43/1 on Stepnoy Street in Novosibirsk.

  March 2021.

Nikolai was then 27 years old, his wife - 25. On Friday evening he went hunting - "to shoot ducks."

The wife persuaded him to take his six-year-old daughter with her.

Andzhianov recalls how he and his daughter "roasted ducks, ate, returned, and then the plane arrived."

When they approached the house, they saw that the perimeter was cordoned off by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The daughter was frightened, she began to call her mother.

And then they saw Nadezhda leaving the entrance with pans in her hands.

Nikolai knew Samuil Kotov, the pilot's father-in-law.

Kotov was the head of the police department, then went to work in the house administration.

I gave my daughter an apartment where she lived with her husband, because he had another one: a "kopeck piece" on Stepnaya. 

“A good person, he helped me with work and practical advice.

Thanks to him, my life took a different course, ”says Nikolai Andzhianov.

According to him, the residents of the affected apartments were not given any compensation: “They didn’t pay us anything, they didn’t help us.

Firefighters flooded our apartment, spoiled everything, turned it into trash.

And we were left as it was.

My wife is still sick after this plane - she can't come to her senses, she doesn't get out of hospitals. "

Aleksey Batyaev says that the KGB became interested in the incident: “I myself saw that some onlookers were filming the whole thing with cameras.

But then people in civilian clothes ran up and exposed the films. " 

• The yard of the house number 43/1 on Stepnoy street in Novosibirsk.

  March 2021.

RT sent a request to the FSB with a request to familiarize itself with the archives on this case.

The reply said that the materials were lost and this story remained only in the category of “urban legends”.

Since the folders with the testimony have been lost, eyewitness testimonies, although not supported by documents, remain the only trace of history forgotten over the years.