How did Gagarin perish and who is to blame for this?

March 27, 1968 the whole world was shocked by the death of the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. His charming smile did not leave anyone, regardless of political views, attitude to the Soviet Union and socialism indifferent. He was the first Earthman to be in orbit, everyone loved him.

To this day, differ opinions about how Gagarin died and who is guilty of this. A thorough investigation into the circumstances of the disaster resulted in the fact that the wreckage of the aircraft was sealed in sealed containers and sent to perpetual storage. The official conclusion consisted of many dozens of volumes, and in fact did not explain anything. The MiG-15UTI was serviceable, no special atmospheric phenomena were observed in the flight zone, no extraneous aircraft were present. Rumors spread throughout the country that the pilots were drunk. Perhaps this version was spread deliberately to hide the true true for a few people.

The commissions, trying to understand how Yuri Gagarin died, investigated many circumstances of the events that preceded the collision of the aircraft with the ground. Weather conditions were not ideal, almost all the time in the air the plane was flying in the clouds, and piloting was done "blindly", that is, according to the readings of the instruments. As of 1968, the MiG-15UTI (a double-variant version of the MiG-15 fighter) was not considered obsolete, it was used to restore flight skills of pilots after leave or illness, at least until the mid-1970s. Another thing is that this aircraft had some control features: a long glazing lantern deteriorated aerodynamic characteristics and reduced lateral stability. But it's hard to imagine that the experienced pilot Seryogin was not aware of this.

The instrument base of that time consisted of so-called alarms, that is, mechanical indicators. With the rapid rise or fall, the altimeter was late, and this could mislead the pilots who performed the aerobatics figures, in particular, the horizontal corkscrew or the barrel, but this should not confuse the instructor.

The investigation established that a few minutes before Gagarin died, another military fighter entered the airspace allocated for the training flight-the modern Su-15. Unlike the subsonic MiG-15, it could develop a speed of over 2200 km / h, had a high rate of climb and maneuverability. With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that his presence could fatally affect the outcome of the flight. With a close passing near a relatively slow MiG, Sukhoi could create turbulent air currents that overturned the "spark". However, such a version does not provide an exhaustive explanation, because during the Korean War, the "fifteenth" fell into such hardships, and even under heavy fire.

In the place where Gagarin died, a commemorative stele with profiles of crashed pilots was installed. Today it is precisely known that they did not drink alcoholic beverages on the eve of their death. Thus, many years later, the injustice of the human rumor was blamed, accusing the pilot Vladimir Seryogin of a catastrophe, because he was responsible for the life of his famous student in this training flight.

It is possible that the explanation, as in most tragic cases, should not be sought for any one reason, but in their combination. Flight instructions were violated and before Gagarin died, and almost everywhere. The Investigative Commission proved the fact of ten deviations from the norms adopted to ensure the safety of flights in the USSR Air Force. Continuous cloudiness contributed, worsening the orientation of the pilots, who until the last second tried to level the plane. The readings of the instruments did not give an objective idea of the spatial position relative to the surface of the earth. If to these factors, each of which in itself did not represent a mortal danger, add unexpectedly arisen eddy currents, it becomes clear that the pilots simply did not have a hundred meters of altitude. The reasons for hiding the truth about how Gagarin died were probably purely departmental.