One of the survivors of the L-410 crash in Tatarstan, Alexander Eremin, told what happened on board the plane after takeoff. According to him, the alarm began at the moment when the aircraft gained an altitude of about 100 m, as he informed Izvestia on Sunday, October 10.
“They said everyone should bend down, bow their heads. The height was 100 m. At the instructor’s command, everyone ducked and began to wait. So what to do? There are no other options. At an altitude of 100 m, we land in an airplane anyway. If it had been 800-900 m, then everyone would have come out, ”said the parachutist.
He does not remember the events after the crash, as he lost consciousness. The parachutist woke up in the aerocolub’s medical unit. Later he was taken to the hospital in Naberezhnye Chelny.
“Then I passed out. Either collided, or something. Because my left earlobe was torn off, sewn on, slightly torn, and an eyebrow was sewn over the right eye, ”added Eremin.
Alexander first came to this flying club when he was 35 years old. He has been practicing parachute jumping in the Menzelinsky district for 12 years. There have been no previous incidents with aircraft, he added.
On the morning of October 10, a light-engine L-410 aircraft crashed 6 km from the city of Menzelinsk immediately after takeoff. The plane belonged to the Menzelinsky flying club, there were 22 people in it – paratroopers and two crew members, 16 people were killed. A criminal case was initiated under Part 3 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport, resulting in the death of two or more persons by negligence”).
The REN TV channel has published a list of the victims of the crash.
According to preliminary data, the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction, said the Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation and Navy (DOSAAF) of Russia. The case of the L-410 plane crash on Sunday was transferred to the central office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
Let L-410 Turbolet is a light twin-engine aircraft for local airlines. Developed in the 60s in Czechoslovakia. Designed for operation on unprepared unpaved, grassy, snowy areas, as well as on airfields with short strips. It was released in April 1987 and was operated by the USSR Air Force. The plane got to DOSAAF in 1997.