The famous Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin woke up on the morning of March 27, 1968, in an excellent mood. The 34-year-old pilot was finally allowed to resume his work piloting a MiG.

Gagarin (March 9, 1934-March 27, 1968) was so tired of playing the hero of the Soviet Union, of touring around the world, always giving the same speech and receiving hugs from thousands of strangers, and after 7 years of waiting, he received the green light for rehabilitation.

Gagarin is the first person to fly into outer space and orbit the Earth on April 12, 1961, aboard a Soviet spacecraft) according to Wikipedia.

A report published by the French newspaper "Le Point" (lepoint) by writers Frederic Luino and Gwendolyn dos Santos says that that morning, Gagarin prepared for his 17th flight with his coach Vladimir Serugin, and at about 10 am, the two men took off on a MiG-15 plane, and was The weather was cloudy but it wasn't a cause for concern, but the air traffic controller forgot to tell Gagarin and his coach that the height of the clouds was dropping rapidly, and after half an hour of the quiet flight, Gagarin called the control tower to ask permission to land again.

hairpin

A few seconds later, an air traffic controller who was tracking the plane on his radar screen saw the plane take a sharp turn before disappearing for good.

By radio, he tries to call the crew, who is no longer answering, the alarm is quickly triggered, and helicopters take off to search for the MiG.

Then a hole 6-7 meters long was seen in a wooded area containing the plane, and the ground was covered with a meter of snow, and a team that was lowered immediately went ashore in search of the two men, and when the search was resumed at dawn the next day, one of the rescuers discovered Gagarin's empty suit hung on top of a tree, then finally saw the two bodies in horrific condition.

Poster with the image of Gagarin during Russia's celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight (European)

what happened?

The authors point out that the report of the state commission responsible for the investigation was kept secret for several decades, which unleashed speculation that each one was more bizarre than the other, as there were many possibilities such as that Gagarin was drunk, or there was a plot by the KGB, or there was a hatch in the plane Or that there is a terrorist act, or a political assassination.

Explosions

The authors show that the Russian administration declassified the report in 2011, revealing that the pilots wanted to avoid the weather balloon that was discovered at the last second, and because Gagarin and Vladimir were flying at a very low altitude without realizing it because of the cloudy sky, they would have hit the ground .

But not everyone agrees with this scenario. In 2005, the lead investigator indicated the presence of a vent during the flight, and in 2004, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first cosmonaut, revealed in his memoirs that at the same moment the plane crashed he was piloting a nearby helicopter, and reported that he He heard two loud explosions in the distance.