A Plane Went Underwater But 45 Passengers Survived

when planes have to land on water in an emergency it's an extremely rare and dangerous situation it takes a skilled pilot and just the right conditions but what's worse is when the aircraft just falls apart after ditching it was August 21st 1963 when the then Soviet airline Aeroflot was about to perform its regular flight from Tallinn Estonia to Moscow there were 45 passengers and 7 crew members onboard the aircraft their pilot was 27 year old Captain Viktor mostovoi his copilot was Vasily Chechen F this wasn't the first time these two Airmen were flying together in other words everything was totally routine and normal except for the fact that the plane was a brand-new tu 124 model but hey new is good right at 8:55 a.m. the plane took off from Tallinn Zula misty Airport and headed for Moscow's new Cova but very soon it became apparent that the plane along with all those who were on board was experiencing serious problems the aircraft's nose gear wouldn't retract besides that during the takeoff one ball screw got lost and was later found on the runway the cockpit crew faced a dilemma they needed to get the plane down but by that time it was already impossible to return to Tallinn due to a thick fog that had covered the airport that's why ground control decided to divert the flight to Leningrad present-day st. Petersburg there the pilots could perform an emergency belly landing on a dirt runway at pole covo airport the pilots confirmed that they understood the task at hand and led the plane toward their destination at a low altitude at the airport all emergency services were at the ready fire trucks and ambulances were waiting next to the dirt runway where the plane was supposed to land everything seemed to be going more or less smoothly considering the critical situation however first the plane had to reduce the amount of fuel that was carrying that would make the aircraft lighter and minimize the risk of a fire during the crash landing so at approximately 11 a.m. the plane began to circle the city at an altitude of fourteen hundred eighty feet with each circle taking about 15 minutes to complete following the captain's order the cabin crew tried to distract the passengers with funny stories and air tales to prevent a panic from ensuing meanwhile the crew repeatedly tried to push the nose gear with a pole they found in a closet to make it lock in the fully extended position unfortunately all of their attempts failed but that wasn't the worst news that fate had in store for the unfortunate plane at about 12:00 p.m. the pilots were performing the eighth and last circuit over the city and were already less than 12 miles away from the airport the fuel gauge clearly showed that there was still almost a ton of fuel on board the plane which was more than enough to reach the airport that's why you can imagine how shocked the pilots were when engine one suddenly went out because of fuel starvation apparently the pilots had burned more fuel than they'd initially planned however there was another theory later that the plane was carrying enough fuel but for some unclear reasons it wasn't getting to the engines something had to be done and immediately that's when air traffic control made a grave mistake they allowed the plane to take a shortcut and fly to the airport through the city center but as soon as the pilots had changed course and turned toward downtown dead silence fell over the flight deck the second and last engine shut down as well the 40-ton plane was careening toward the famous st. Isaac's Cathedral in the city center at a blistering speed at the same time air traffic controllers couldn't see the plane on their radars anymore because its altitude was too low to be registered that's why at the airport they were sure that the plane had already crashed but as it turned out the pilots were still hanging on the only chance of survival was to ditch in the neva river the captain passed control over to the co-pilot because Chechen eff had served in Naval Aviation and had some experience in landing on water the plane glided over the bullshit in ski bridge steel structures with a mere 100 feet of clearance and barely missed the Alexander Nevsky bridge which was under construction at that time luckily Chechen eff managed to ditch the plane perfectly and neither dived into the water nor hit the fuselage tail section against the river surface the crash landing took place just fourteen seconds after the second engine had flamed out that's how incredibly quickly the cockpit had reacted but even the copilot's unsurpassed skills couldn't make the landing completely smooth as soon as the hanging nose landing gear touched the surface of the water it got torn away then the plane started to drift slowly toward the supports of the Finland railway bridge miraculously all of the passengers and crew members not only stayed alive but they were completely unharmed I'm sure everyone on board let out a sigh of relief at that moment but little did they know that the danger was far from over the planes ripped fuselage started to gulp down the river water the neva is 1,300 feet wide in more than 40 feet deep in that particular spot so there was a very real risk that the aircraft would sink bringing all the people down with it luckily there was a steam tug boat moving on the river not far from the place of the emergency landing only thanks to the boat captain's fast react the plane didn't flood too fast for the people trapped inside to leave it the tugboat darted to the plane propped up one of its wings and started to push the aircraft toward the riverbank the tugboat captain had to break the plane's windshield to fasten the tow rope to the cockpits control wheel while the boat was towing the aircraft all the people remained on board and then evacuated through an access hatch in the roof when the passengers and crew stepped on land all of them were safe without a scratch or bruise inside unfortunately despite all the efforts to keep the plane afloat the water from the holes in the fuselage was flooding the aircraft too fast and by morning its sank the next day the plane was raised from the bottom of the neva and taken to a military base it was written off and would never fly again but after being restored the TU 124 did become a training simulator for flight academy students but how on earth did the pilots managed to land the plane safely on the water with no losses or even injuries experts are sure that there were several lucky factors that helped them at high speeds water feels as hard as concrete but unlike the airport runway its surface isn't smooth because of the waves that's why if a plane is an amphibious its frame simply can't stand such pressure that's where the TU 124 got lucky the first time there were no waves on the neva that day secondly Chechen s water landing experience played a huge role in the lucky outcome besides it took the cockpit crew mere seconds to come to the only correct decision to ditch the plane in the river otherwise the aircraft would have fallen on the city and you can imagine the loss of life that would have caused and finally without the tugboat that happened to be passing by and came to the rescue the plane wouldn't have got to the shore so fast people would have still escaped the aircraft but they probably wouldn't have known what to do there would have been a panic and who knows how many casualties that could have caused on top of that there was one woman who did a lot to prevent panic on board 41 year old Alexandra mikhailova didn't lose her bearings in an emergency situation with a cool head and plenty of experience she encouraged the passengers and the cabin crew thanks to her efforts the people stayed calm and there was no hysteria in the cabin interestingly enough most eye witnesses of the accident didn't even realize what was happening some of them later admitted that they thought someone was making a movie well and what would you think if you saw a plane quietly rocking on the water and crowds of people swarming the riverbanks hopefully if you do ever see such a thing it really is just a movie have you heard about other cases of successful crash landings on water let me know down in the comments if you learned something new today then give this video a like and share it with a friend but hey don't go anywhere just yet we have over 2,000 cool videos for you to check out all you have to do is pick the left or right video click on it and enjoy stay on the bright side of life

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 486,373

Rating: 4.8865981 out of 5

Keywords: plane, amazing survival, plane landing, emergency landing, landing without engines, landing on water, everyone survived, miracle landing, true story, plane miracle, Tu-124, landing on the Neva, saving people, super pilot, engines went out, hero pilot, best pilot

Id: Qx8wXmb-x_4

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2019