On March 8, the large Irkutsk Ovechkin family, consisting of a mother and 11 children, attempted to hijack a Tu-154 plane with the aim of escaping from the Soviet Union abroad. However, their idea failed: after the aircraft landed in the wrong place, it was stormed. At the same time, five newly minted terrorists died: mother, Ninel Ovechkina, and her four eldest sons. A show trial was held over the surviving children. We would like to highlight this topic and tell how the Ovechkin family hijacked the plane. COMMAND STRUCTURE
In that ill-fated year, the Ovechkin family consisted of a mother, Ninel Sergeevna, and 11 children aged from 9 to 32 years. There was one more, the most eldest daughter Lyudmila, but by that time she had already married and lived separately from her relatives, and therefore did not participate in the hijacking of the plane. There was once a father in the family, but he died back in 1984 from severe beatings inflicted on him by his eldest sons. However, then there was no evidence, and if there was such an incident in the biography of the Ovechkins, then why did the sons beat own father- unclear. 
From left to right: Olga, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ninel Sergeevna with Ulyana and Sergey, Alexander, Mikhail, Oleg, Vasily
The male Ovechkin family consisted of seven brothers, who early years studied music. Even in 1983, they turned to a teacher at the Irkutsk School of Arts for help to help them create a family jazz ensemble, the so-called jazz band. The teacher was not averse to it, and as a result, the jazz group “Seven Simeons” appeared.
Gradually, the newly formed group began to gain popularity. The brothers began to be invited to play at local events held in Irkutsk. They even performed in the city park during the holidays. But truly great success came to them in 1984, when they took part in the “Jazz-85” festival at the national level. After him, “Seven Simeons” began to be invited to film television programs and were even filmed about them documentary. In 1987, the Ovechkin family, consisting of mother and sons, was invited to tour to Japan. It was then that the head of the family, Ninel Ovechkina, having been on the other side iron curtain, came to the conclusion that they were very unlucky to be born and live in the Soviet Union. That's why the idea of fleeing the USSR came up.
LONG PREPARATION
While touring Japan, everyone came to the conclusion that with such talent and success they could achieve real glory abroad. After returning home, the Ovechkin family, led by Ninelya Sergeevna, began to hatch an escape plan. Since in the USSR everyone would not be allowed abroad, the family decided to hijack a plane on domestic airlines and then fly it to another country. 
The implementation of the plan was scheduled for March 8, 1988. That day, the entire Ovechkin family, except for the eldest daughter Lyudmila, who was not in the know, bought tickets for a Tu-154 plane flying Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad. Friends and airport employees were told that the Ovechkins were going on tour and therefore were taking a lot of musical instruments with them. Naturally, they were not given a thorough search. As a result, the criminals managed to smuggle two sawn-off shotguns, one hundred rounds of ammunition and homemade explosives on board the aircraft. All this stuff was hidden in musical instruments. Moreover, by the time the plane was hijacked, the Ovechkin family had already managed to sell all the things from the house and buy new clothes in order to pass as one of our own abroad.
PLANE hijacking
Nine-year-old Sergei Ovechkin
Already at the very end of its journey, when the plane was approaching Leningrad, the Ovechkins, through a flight attendant, passed a note demanding to fly to London or any other capital of the country. Western Europe. Otherwise they threaten to blow up the plane. However, the crew of the aircraft decided to cheat and told the terrorists that the plane would not have enough fuel and would therefore need to be refueled. It was stated that the plane would be refueled in Finland, but the pilots who contacted ground services landed the plane at a military airfield near the Soviet-Finnish border.
TRAGEDY ON BOARD
Olga Ovechkina at trial
Noticing at the airport Soviet soldiers, The Ovechkins realized that they had decided to deceive them, and opened fire. One of the older brothers shot the flight attendant, after which they all tried to break down the door to the cockpit. Meanwhile, the assault began. Realizing that they had failed, Ninel Sergeevna demanded to be shot, after which the plane was blown up. One of the older brothers shot his mother, but the bomb explosion was targeted and the desired effect could not be achieved. But as a result, three passengers were killed and 36 more were injured. After this, the older brothers - Vasily, Oleg, Dmitry and Alexander - took turns shooting themselves with a sawn-off shotgun. The explosion started a fire, as a result of which the plane was completely burned out.
CONSEQUENCES
On September 8, 1988, the trial of the surviving Ovechkins was held. Older brother Igor and sister Olga received eight and six years in prison, respectively. The minor Ovechkins were initially sent to Orphanage. However, then their older sister Lyudmila took them under her wing. Olga, whose daughter was already born in prison, and Igor served only half of their sentences and were released.
The case of the attempted hijacking of a plane by the Ovechkin family is the loudest and most resonant case in the late 80s of the last century. It was widely covered in the press and discussed in every Soviet family. Ordinary citizens were outraged not so much by the audacity of the hijackers, but by their very personalities. If the Ovechkins had been repeat offenders, seasoned criminals, the case would not have received such publicity.
Jazz ensemble "Seven Simeons"
The hijackers turned out to be the most common Soviet “cell of society.” Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina was a heroine mother with many children, raising 11 children almost single-handedly. Her husband, Dmitry Dmitrievich, drank during his lifetime and paid little attention to his offspring. He died 4 years before the events described and left his wife to cope with a huge family on her own.
Ninel Sergeevna performed this role well. Moreover, many of the children were already adults and actively helped her raise the kids. By Soviet standards, the Ovechkins lived an average life. They had 2 three-room apartments in Irkutsk itself and a house with a plot in the suburbs, but the mother’s pension and the salaries of the older children were very small.
Ninel Sergeevna’s sons were incredibly musical and therefore organized a jazz ensemble called “Seven Simeons”. A documentary was made about them. They were very proud of “Simeons” and even sent them on tour to Japan. This rare luck became a turning point in the fate of the Ovechkins themselves and many people who found themselves on board the plane they hijacked in 1988.
The desire to escape from the impoverished country of total shortage
During the tour, the young musicians were given a very tempting offer from a London record company. Even then, the “Seven Simeons” could have asked for asylum from Great Britain and stayed abroad forever, but they did not want to leave their mother and sisters behind in the USSR. They would never be released abroad; and they would have hunted him down at home.
Returning home after the tour, the boys suggested that their mother flee the USSR. There were probably stories about beautiful life Abroad. That’s when the plan to hijack the plane matured. Ninel Sergeevna not only supported this idea, but also completely supervised the preparation. The plan was implemented on a holiday - March 8, 1988.
How the capture took place
The Ovechkins prepared very carefully for the hijacking of the plane. The shapes of cases for musical instruments were specially changed so that weapons could be carried in them. Already after tragic events On board the TU-154 (tail number 85413, flight Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad) 2 sawn-off shotguns, about a hundred rounds of ammunition and several improvised explosive devices were found.
It was easy for the Ovechkins to carry such an arsenal. The musicians were well known in their hometown and were practically not inspected. All the Ovechkins took part in the capture, except for the eldest daughter Lyudmila. She was married, lived in another city (Cheremkhovo) and did not know about the impending escape from the USSR.
When the Ovechkins, led by their mother, were on board, they waited for the plane to make an intermediate landing in Kurgan to refuel. Then they demanded that a course be set for London. At first, the pilots took the requirement as a joke. The situation immediately changed when sawn-off shotguns appeared in the hands of the older Ovechkins. The Simeons threatened to blow up the plane if they did not comply.
Summary of the case
No one was even going to let the hijackers go abroad. The plane was landed at a military airfield in Veshchevo, after which it was stormed. During the capture, 9 people were killed (five of them were terrorists), 19 were wounded. The would-be hijackers were determined. In case of failure, they decided to commit suicide so as not to be tried as traitors to the Motherland. The eldest son Vasily (26 years old) shot his mother and then committed suicide.
24-year-old Dmitry did the same, having previously killed the flight attendant Zharkaya T.I. Oleg and Sasha (21 and 19 years old) passed away in a similar way. At the trial, 17-year-old Igor was sentenced to 8 years in prison. His pregnant 28-year-old sister Olga is 6 years pregnant. She was the only one against the hijacking of the plane and until the very end tried to dissuade her relatives from the criminal undertaking.
Lyudmila, Ninel Sergeevna's eldest daughter, became the guardian of her younger sisters and brothers. She also adopted a newborn niece, whom Olga gave birth to in prison. Thus ended the case of the first hijacking of an airplane in the USSR with the aim of fleeing abroad.
Climbing aboard the Tu-154, which was flying on the route Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad, many passengers made plans for the evening: some were flying home, others on a visit or on business. U Ninel Ovechkina and her children also had their own special plan, for which the exemplary family had been preparing for almost six months - hijacking a plane and daring escape from the Soviet Union.
"Poor" Ovechkins
The Ovechkins lived modestly, their father liked to drink, so their mother, Ninel Sergeevna, was mainly involved in raising 11 children. The woman has always been an authority for all members of a large family, but after becoming a widow in 1984, she further strengthened her influence on her family. It was she who noticed that her boys - Basil, Dmitriy, Oleg, Alexander, Igor, Michael and small Sergey- incredibly musical. In 1983, the sons organized the jazz ensemble “Seven Simeons”. The success was colossal. A documentary was made about the gifted musicians. The state, from whose strong embrace they would later want to escape, gave the mother of many children two three-room apartments. The talented seven were accepted into the Gnessin School without competition, but due to tours and constant rehearsals, the “Simeons” left their studies after a year. In 1987, Ovechkin had an incredible chance for those times - a trip to Japan, where young talents had to perform in front of a huge audience. Perhaps it was these tours that subsequently pushed the brothers to commit a terrible crime. Having broken away from the Union, they no longer wanted to live “in a country of queues and shortages.” Later, one of the surviving Ovechkins would tell investigators that during a tour abroad, the young people were profitable proposition- good record deal English company. Even then the brothers were ready to say yes and stay in a foreign land. But by doing this, they could forever say goodbye to their mother and sisters, who would never have been released from the Soviet Union. Then the musicians decided that soon they would leave Sovk at any cost, and began to prepare to escape from the country.
Amateur jazz orchestra of the Ovechkin brothers on the street hometown. Photo: RIA Novosti / Petr Petrovich Malinovsky
I will move to London
For about six months, the exemplary family developed an escape plan and honed the details. They planned to board the plane with several homemade bombs and sawn-off shotguns. To transport the latter, the enterprising Ovechkins specially changed the shape of the case for the double bass - so much so that it could not fit on the X-ray machine during inspection. But their efforts turned out to be unnecessary. Many of the airport workers knew the Seven Simeons by sight, so on March 8, 1988, when the musicians decided to commit a crime, no one thought of checking their luggage. A family of eleven people boarded the Tu-154 without any hindrance. According to the official version, the ensemble was flying on tour to Leningrad. In fact, the Ovechkins were going to London.
Amateur orchestra of the Ovechkin brothers. Photo: RIA Novosti / Petr Petrovich Malinovsky
Jokes aside
The flight on the route Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad went smoothly. But when the aircraft landed in Kurgan to refuel and took off again, it became clear that the plane would not reach the Northern capital that day. The Ovechkins began to act quickly, according to the previously worked out scheme. Through the flight attendant, the brothers gave the pilots a note in which they demanded that they abruptly change the route and fly to London. Otherwise, the invaders promised to blow up the plane. At first the pilots thought the musicians were joking. However, when the senior Ovechkins took out sawed-off shotguns and began to threaten the passengers, it became clear that the criminals were determined.
It was necessary to neutralize the armed terrorists as quickly as possible before they killed someone, but how could this be done? The second pilot suggested that the commander deal with the invaders himself. The crew had personal weapons - Makarov pistols. In case of danger, pilots had the right to shoot to kill. However, fearing the consequences, they decided to abandon the risky plan and wait for instructions from the ground. There, KGB officers took over the leadership of the operation. At first they tried to come to an agreement with the young terrorists: they were offered to disembark all passengers in exchange for refueling the plane and a guaranteed flight to Helsinki. But the “Seven Simeons”, led by their mother, did not want to make concessions. Then he went out to negotiate with armed criminals aircraft flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov. The man was given clear instructions - to convince the Ovechkins that fuel was running out, which meant they needed to land urgently. The young people believed Stupakov and were ready to land anywhere. Anywhere, but outside the Soviet Union. After some consultation, the invaders gave the command to set course for Finland. The next one to negotiate with the brothers was flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya. She told the criminals who were beginning to get nervous that the aircraft would soon land in the Finnish city of Kotka. From that moment on, the flight crew's task was to simulate a flight to Finland. It was decided to land at the Veshchevo military airfield, near Leningrad, the crew hoped that the Ovechkins would not notice the deception and, as soon as the aircraft landed, the terrorists would be neutralized.The play is over
At 16:05 the plane landed safely in Veshchevo, everything was going well. The newly minted terrorists had no idea that they were still in their homeland. But then something happened that broke the successful course of the entire capture operation. Suddenly, Soviet military personnel began to approach the aircraft from all sides. It dawned on the Ovechkins - all this time they remained in the “fucking Sovka”, the stories about Finland were a lie! In anger, 24-year-old Dmitry immediately shot flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya at point-blank range. At the same moment, Ninel Ovechkina gave the command to storm the cockpit. But the attempt to break through to the pilots was a fiasco, then the brothers threatened to start shooting passengers if the plane was not refueled and allowed to take off calmly. The terrorists flatly refused to release at least the women and children. When the family saw the tanker, they sent a flight engineer outside to open the fuel tanks. In fact, there was a gas station, but it worked as a kind of screen - a whole performance was taking place outside. Everything was subordinated to one goal - to stall for time until two capture groups approached the plane. According to the plan, several armed fighters of the special group were supposed to get on board the Tu-154 through the window in the cockpit, others through the entrance in the tail. When the plane took off and began to taxi onto the runway, the operation to capture and neutralize the Ovechkins began.Terrorists' backup plan
In 1988 the system law enforcement The USSR was not yet designed to counter terrorists whose targets were civilians. Simply because the terrorist attacks themselves or attempts to carry them out were extremely rare one-time actions. Accordingly, mechanisms for capturing terrorists and releasing hostages were not developed. There were no units specially trained for such actions in each big city, regional center. The patrol service officers acted as special forces. This explains how they acted when trying to neutralize the Ovechkin brothers. The first to attack were the fighters in the cockpit. They opened fire, but the unfortunate shooters did not hit the brothers, but managed to wound four passengers. The Ovechkins turned out to be much more accurate; in the return firefight, the terrorists wounded the fighters, who eventually disappeared behind the armored door of the cockpit. The assault from the tail was also unsuccessful; after opening the hatch, the commandos began shooting at the legs of the invaders, but it was all in vain. According to eyewitnesses, the terrorists rushed around the cabin like animals driven into a cage. But at some point, Ninel gathered four sons around her: Vasily, Dmitry, Oleg and Alexander. The passengers did not immediately understand what these people were trying to do. Meanwhile, the Ovechkins said goodbye to each other and set fire to one of the homemade bombs. It turns out that even before the plane was hijacked, the family agreed to commit suicide if the operation failed. A second later, an explosion occurred, from which only Alexander died. The plane caught fire, panic began, and a fire broke out. But the terrorists continued the work they had started. Ninel ordered her eldest son Vasily to kill her, he shot his mother without hesitation. Dmitry was the next to stand under the barrel of the sawn-off shotgun, then Oleg. 17-year-old Igor did not want to say goodbye to life and hid in the toilet - he knew that if his brother found him, he would not survive. But Vasily had no time to search, there was very little time left. Having dealt with Oleg, he shot himself. Meanwhile, one of the passengers opened a door that was not equipped with a ladder; fleeing the fire, people began to jump out of the plane, all of them received serious injuries and fractures. When the capture group finally got on board, the fighters began to take people out. At eight o'clock in the evening the operation to free the hostages was completed. As a result of the hijacking attempt, four civilians died - three passengers and a flight attendant. 15 people received various injuries. Of the seven Ovechkins, five died.
Retribution
The investigation into the plane hijacking case lasted almost 5 months. The younger children were given to sister Lyudmila, who did not participate in the capture and did not even know about it, since she and her husband had long lived separately from the whole family. 28-year-old Olga was sentenced to 6 years in prison, and 17-year-old Igor to 8. But in fact, both served only half of their sentences and were released. However, life did not work out for both of them. Soon Igor was arrested for drug distribution, he died in a pre-trial detention center strange circumstances. Olga became an alcoholic and died at the hands of her drunken partner. The youngest of Ninel’s daughters, Ulyana, also started drinking. While drunk, she threw herself under the wheels of a car several times and eventually became disabled. Mikhail did not give up his passion for music, he moved to live in Spain, but after suffering a stroke he also became disabled. Tatyana got married, but today her traces, like her brother Sergei, are lost.
From the moment the plane was hijacked until the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were only a few years left. Perhaps, if Ninel Ovechkina had known this, she would not have decided on such a desperate act and would not have crippled the lives of her own children. But the thirst for fame and a good life turned out to be stronger for her common sense and more important than the lives of other people.
"Wolves in Ovechkin's shoes"– this is how the stunned Soviet press later wrote about them. How did it happen that sunny, smiling guys turned into terrorists? From the very beginning, the mother was blamed for everything, allegedly raising her older sons to be ambitious and cruel. Plus, noisy fame somehow fell on them easily and immediately, and it completely blew their minds. But some also saw in the Ovechkins sufferers, victims of the absurd Soviet system, who committed crimes just to “live like human beings.”
"Family-sect"
A huge family lived in a small private house on 8 acres on the outskirts of Irkutsk: mother Ninel Sergeevna, 7 sons and 4 daughters. The oldest, Lyudmila, got married early and left; she had nothing to do with the theft story. The father died 4 years before these events - they say he was beaten to death by his grown-up sons Vasily and Dmitry for their drunken antics. From childhood, under the mother’s command “Get down!” they were hiding from dad's gun, from which he tried to shoot at them through the window. Ovechkins in 1985.
From left to right: Olga, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ninel Sergeevna with Ulyana and Sergey, Alexander, Mikhail, Oleg, Vasily. The seventh brother Igor with a camera remained behind the scenes.
The mother, an “affectionate but strict” woman (according to Tatyana), enjoyed unquestioning authority. She herself grew up an orphan: during the hungry war years, her own mother, the widow of a front-line soldier, was killed by a drunken watchman while secretly digging up collective farm potatoes. Ninel developed an iron character and raised her sons the same way, only for them it all developed into ruthlessness and unprincipledness.
Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina
The Ovechkins were not friends with their neighbors, they lived separately as their own clan, and conducted subsistence farming. Later, their unanimity and isolation from themselves began to be compared with sectarian fanaticism.
Siberian nuggets
All the guys in the family studied at a music school, played instruments, and in 1983 they founded the jazz ensemble “Seven Simeons”, named after the Russian folk tale about twin craftsmen. Just two years later, after participating in the Jazz-85 festival in Tbilisi and the Central Television program “Wider Circle,” they became all-Union celebrities.
“Seven Simeons” on the streets of Irkutsk, 1986
A documentary was made about this amazing family, the pride of all Siberia. The guys behaved wonderfully, the film crew was delighted with them, but it was difficult with the mother. One of the editors of the tape, Tatyana Zyryanova, later said that Ninel Ovechkina was already filled with pride, was indignant that the family was “showed as peasants” and not “artists” and decided that this was how they wanted to humiliate them.
Ninel Sergeevna. Still from the film.
However, the adult sons also had pride. In her diary, the mother once gave characteristics to all of them, and so about the eldest Vasily she wrote: “Proud, arrogant, unkind.” It was under his influence that the brothers contemptuously rejected studying at the famous Gnesinka, where they were accepted without exams. The “Simeons” imagine themselves to be extraordinary talents, ready-made professionals who only need world recognition.
They actually played very well - for amateur performances, but over time, without experienced guidance, under the tutelage of their mother, who already considered them geniuses, they inevitably degenerated. The audience was rather impressed by their brotherly cohesion and touched by Seryozha, who was as tall as his own banjo.
A video excerpt where you can hear the orchestra playing:
Brilliance and poverty
The Ovechkins accumulated dissatisfaction and anger for another reason: all-Union glory did not bring any money. Although the state allocated them two three-room apartments in good home Having left the old suburban area, they did not live happily ever after, as in a fairy tale. The family quit studying agriculture, but there was no way to make money from music: they were simply banned from giving paid concerts.
“Seven Simeons” with his mother near his rural house
Abandoned Ovechkin house today
The Ovechkins dreamed of their own family cafe, where the brothers would play jazz, and the mother and sisters would be in charge of the kitchen. In just a couple of years, in the 90s, their dreams could come true, but for now private business was impossible in the USSR. The Ovechkins decided that they were born in the wrong country and were inspired by the idea of moving forever to a “foreign paradise”, which they got an idea of when they went on tour in Japan in 1987.
The “Simeons” spent three weeks in the city of Kanazawa, a sister city of Irkutsk, and received a culture shock: shops are bursting with goods, shop windows are shining brightly, sidewalks are illuminated from underground, transport drives silently, the streets are washed with shampoo and there are even flowers in the toilets, as the sons excitedly told mother and sisters. Part of the family, according to the principle of that time, was not released, so that the guest performers would not think of running away to the capitalists, dooming those remaining in their homeland to shame and poverty.
“We’ll blow up the plane!”
Returning with a completely changed consciousness, the brothers started to escape, and their mother, impressed by the stories about a well-fed and beautiful foreign country, supported them. We decided that if we run, we should all run at once. The only way they saw an armed hijacking of a plane - by that time there were numerous stories of hijackings, including successful ones. In case of failure, there was a firm agreement - to commit suicide.
For their plans, the Ovechkins chose the Irkutsk – Kurgan – Leningrad flight, Tu-154 aircraft, departure on March 8. On board, in addition to the 11 hijackers, there were 65 passengers and 8 crew members. The weapons—a couple of sawn-off hunting rifles with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and homemade bombs—were carried in a double bass case. From previous trips, the brothers learned that the tool does not pass through the metal detector, and that, having recognized the “Simeons,” the luggage is inspected superficially, just for show. And here the inspectors are in a festive mood, and even the youngest children, Seryozha and Ulyana, are doing their best, distracting them with funny antics.
For the first part of the journey, the “artists” behaved cheerfully and peacefully. We made friends with the flight attendants, especially 28-year-old Tamara Zharka, and showed them family photos. According to one version, Tamara was Vasily’s friend and for his sake she flew outside her shift. When, on the second leg of the route, 24-year-old Dmitry Ovechkin handed her a note: “Go to England (London). Don't descend, otherwise we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control,” she took it all as a joke and laughed lightheartedly.
Then, until the very end, Tamara did everything possible to calm down the terrorists, who threatened every minute to start killing passengers and blowing up the cabin. She managed to convince them that the plane, which did not have enough fuel to reach London, would land for refueling in Finland, when in fact it landed at the Veshchevo military airfield near Vyborg, where a capture group was already ready. AIR FORCE was specially written in large letters on the gate of one of the hangars, but the hijackers saw a fuel tanker with the Russian inscription “Flammable”, recognized the Soviet soldiers and realized that they had been deceived. Enraged, Dmitry shot Tamara at point-blank range.
Tamara Zharkaya
The mother begins to command her sons: “Don’t talk to anyone! Take the cabin! The older brothers unsuccessfully try to break down the pilots' armored door with a folding ladder. Meanwhile, amateur attack aircraft - simple police patrolmen who do not have the slightest experience in dealing with hostage situations - penetrate through the viewing windows and hatches into the front and rear parts of the aircraft and, blocking themselves with shields, open indiscriminate fire, hitting innocent passengers.
Realizing that there is no way out of the trap, the mother decisively orders the plane to be blown up - everyone will die at once, as agreed. But the bomb didn't even hurt anyone, it only caused a fire. Then the four older brothers take turns shooting with the same sawn-off shotgun; before committing suicide, Vasily shoots a bullet into his mother’s head, again on her orders. All this happens in front of the younger children, who, in horror and lack of understanding of what is happening, huddle close to their 28-year-old sister Olga. 17-year-old Igor manages to hide in the toilet.
It could have ended with the death of half the terrorists’ family, but the assault squad aggravated the tragedy. Passengers who jumped out of the burning plane onto the concrete runway in panic were met with warning bursts of machine gun fire and indiscriminately hit with rifle butts and boots. A dozen and a half people were injured and maimed, some were left disabled. Four hostages were wounded by the special group during the shootout in the cabin. Three more died from smoke suffocation. The plane burned down. The remains of flight attendant Tamara were identified only the next morning by the melted wristwatch.
All that remains of the charred human bodies:
The result of the tragedy
Nine people died - Ninel Ovechkina, four eldest sons, a flight attendant and three passengers.
19 people were injured - 15 passengers, two Ovechkins, including the youngest, 9-year-old Seryozha, and two riot police.
Only six of the 11 Ovechkins who were on board remained alive - Olga and her 5 minor brothers and sisters.
Of the survivors, two went to trial - Olga and 17-year-old Igor. The rest were not subject to criminal liability due to their age; they were transferred to the guardianship of Lyudmila’s married sister, who was not involved in the seizure.
An open trial took place in Irkutsk that same fall. The hall was packed seating wasn't enough. Passengers and crew acted as witnesses. Both defendants testified that they “didn’t think about” the passengers when they planned to blow up the plane. Olga partially admitted her guilt and asked for leniency.
Olga in court. At that moment she was 7 months pregnant.
Igor sometimes he admitted it partially, sometimes he completely denied it and asked to be forgiven and not to be deprived of his freedom.
Moreover, at the trial, Igor, whom his mother described in his diary as “too self-confident and roguish,” tried to place all the blame for what happened on former leader ensemble, Irkutsk musician-teacher Vladimir Romanenko, thanks to whom “Simeons” got to jazz festivals. Like, it was he who instilled in his older brothers the idea that there was no jazz in the USSR and that recognition could only be achieved abroad. However, the teenager could not stand the confrontation with the teacher and admitted that he had slandered him.
Vladimir Romanenko rehearses with his brothers. Igor is at the piano. 1986
The court received bags of letters from Soviet citizens who longed for demonstrative punishment. “Shoot with the performance shown on TV,” writes an Afghan veteran. “Tie to the tops of birch trees and tear them into pieces,” calls the female teacher(!). “Shoot so that they know what the Motherland is,” advises the party secretary on behalf of the meeting.
The humane Soviet court of the era of perestroika and glasnost decided differently: 8 years in prison for Igor, 6 years for Olga. In reality, they served 4 years. Olga gave birth to a daughter in the colony, and she was also given to Lyudmila.
Olga with her child in prison
The further fate of the Ovechkins
The last time journalists inquired about them was in 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. This is what was known at that time.
Olga I sold fish at the market and gradually became an alcoholic. In 2004, she was beaten to death by her drunken partner during a domestic dispute.
Igor played the piano in restaurants in Irkutsk, got drunk. In 1999, a journalist from MK talked to him - he was then indignant at the recent film “Mama” with Mordyukova, Menshikov and Mashkov, based on the story of the Ovechkins, and threatened to sue director Denis Evstigneev. He eventually received a second sentence for selling drugs and was killed by a fellow inmate.
And finally Michael, the most talented of all, who played the trombone, according to the teacher, “like a real Negrito,” is the only Ovechkin who managed to escape abroad. In Spain he performed in street jazz bands and lived on alms. Later he suffered a stroke and ended up in wheelchair. As of 2013, he lived in rehabilitation center in Barcelona and... dreamed of returning to Irkutsk.
As the years pass, one thing is clear. Whether out of pride, lack of intelligence or lack of information, the Ovechkins sincerely believed that they would be welcomed abroad with open arms, and not considered dangerous terrorists who took innocent people hostage. The "Simeons" were dazzled by the reception in Japan - sold-out crowds, standing ovations, promises of fame and fortune from local journalists and producers... They did not realize that they aroused the interest of foreigners more as circus monkeys, a funny souvenir from a closed country with its Siberia and "gulags" than like musicians. As one Irkutsk publication concluded, “these were simple, rude people with simple, rude dreams of living like human beings. This is what destroyed them."
This dramatic story happened in the Soviet Union on March 8, 1988. Symbolic numbers. The large family Ovechkina committed a real terrorist act - she hijacked a passenger plane in order to leave her native country. It is also noteworthy that the leader of the gang was the mother of the family. Let's try to reconstruct the picture of what happened.
The Ovechkins lived in the suburbs of Irkutsk and played in a family jazz ensemble led by the mother of the family, Ninel Ovechkina. Her husband and children's father, Dmitry Ovechkin, died in 1984, and their mother carried all family concerns. As they would say now, she was the main sponsor, creative director and producer of her team. Needless to say, the woman was powerful, despotic and ambitious. The ensemble was called “Seven Simeons” and seven brothers aged from 8 to 26 years played music in it - Vasily, Dmitry, Oleg, Alexander, Igor, Sergey, Mikhail. The family was very famous in Irkutsk.
Local television even made a film about them (which, however, the mother did not like). Newspapers and radio also regularly reported on the talented family ensemble. In total there were eleven children in the family. Ninel Ovechkina received the “Mother Heroine” order, as well as two three-room apartments in a new building on the same floor, while maintaining the old one a private house. It would seem that life is getting better. A unique family at the height of Glasnost and Perestroika can become a new creative star of the domestic stage. “Seven Simeons” achieved victories in music competitions in different cities of the USSR, and in 1987 they were even invited to tour to Japan. But everything was not so rosy.
Ovechkin family
The father of the family drank until his death. In a drunken stupor, he loved to chase children with a gun in his hands. The mother is an orphanage student who lost her parents during her childhood. According to the recollections of neighbors, the family was not friends with anyone and lived separately. The children did not seem to be hooligans - music lessons took a lot of time, but they did not communicate with their peers, they were always gloomy and unfriendly.
Neighbors also spoke of them as proud and narrow-minded people, for whom the jazz orchestra was not an end in itself, but only a way to get out among the people. Need forced the Ovechkins to conduct subsistence farming - in their house in the suburbs of Irkutsk they kept pigs and even cows. After her husband's death, Ninel still sold vodka. Big family out of 12 people (there were also sisters), it was necessary to survive, and the sons’ musical instruments were not cheap.
It was on tour in Japan that the family (and Ninel Ovechkina in particular) realized that they wanted to leave Soviet Union. The children noticed that in the Country rising sun There are even flowers in the toilets, and this Japanese aesthetic made them think that they had the misfortune of being born in the USSR. Their mother supported them. It seems that they were even approached by a certain American producer, who promised to record their compositions in an album and release it in thousands of copies. But this is fame and big money.
The family had already rushed to the USA straight from the Japanese tour, but did not have enough money for a taxi to get to the American embassy. However, even upon returning to the USSR, the Ovechkins did not abandon the Western dream. They, on the contrary, began to prepare a plan for a daring escape. There were no upcoming foreign tours, and nothing better musicians
did not figure out how to hijack a passenger plane from the territory of the USSR. They apparently didn’t think much about the consequences of such an action and what awaited them both in their homeland and in the land of their dreams.
Ovechkins - plane hijacking
The Ovechkins picked up a flight from the western direction Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad. For the capture, the eldest sons acquired two sawn-off shotguns from a single-barreled and double-barreled shotgun, and also made homemade explosive devices. During previous flights, they noticed that the double bass they had in their orchestra did not fit into the security scanner and airport employees checked it manually. The Ovechkins decided to take advantage of this. They made a double bottom in the double bass case, where they hid sawn-off shotguns, 100 rounds of ammunition and bombs. Their fame also played into their hands.
Before the ill-fated flight, the popular family was practically not inspected. They planned to fly to London, although they were ready for any other western country. In addition to the mother and seven brothers, three more daughters from the Ovechkin family came on board - the eldest has already acquired own family, lived separately and did not participate in the plan of her mother and brothers.
After refueling in Kurgan, flying in the Vologda area, the ship’s commander Kupriyanov receives a note with the following content: “Proceed to England (London). Don't go down. Otherwise we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control."
The commander transmits this information to the ground. There was fuel left for an hour and a half of flight; the plane would not have reached London under any circumstances, not to mention the fact that the crew had no experience in international flights. They tried to explain this fact to family terrorists. Flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov went into the cabin and, as a result of negotiations, managed to explain to Ovechkin that there was not enough fuel for the flight to the UK, after which he managed to convince the terrorists to allow landing
to refuel the aircraft in Finland.
Then they ordered us to land at the nearest “abroad” to refuel. “Earth” initially gave the go-ahead, but it was impossible to fly even to Finland and Sweden, and the criminals could recognize Tallinn from the air. It was decided to send the plane to an alternate airfield near Vyborg in the hope that the Ovechkins would not recognize it. But to land, the Tu-154 crew has to make a noticeable maneuver - a 180-degree turn. The terrorists notice this and begin to panic. Flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya tries to calm them down, assuring them that the plane is making a maneuver before landing in the Finnish city of Kotka.
Already on the ground, the Ovechkins notice that “Flammable” is written in Russian on an approaching refueling truck, and then they noticed soldiers with Kalashnikovs surrounding the plane. Then the second son, Dmitry Ovechkin, kills the flight attendant Tamara. All family members lose their nerves; passengers later describe them as having lost their minds. They did not negotiate and refused to let the passengers go. In addition, there was a bomb threat. Well, then the capture group acts completely unprofessionally.
First, one machine gunner bursts into the salon, takes a burst and leaves the salon. After some time, a full-fledged assault begins. The terrorists fire back and manage to detonate the bomb, but it doesn’t kill anyone, it only starts a fire. The result was 9 dead, 30 wounded, the plane was engulfed in flames and subsequently completely burned out.
Passengers on the ground who jumped out of the burning plane in panic were surrounded and beaten with rifle butts - “what if there were terrorists among them” - this was the justification of the security forces. In case of failure, Ninel’s mother left clear instructions for the children: kill her, shoot themselves and detonate a bomb. Dmitry Ovechkin shot himself after killing a flight attendant, followed by Oleg and Alexander. The eldest son, Vasily Ovechkin, fulfilled his mother’s request - he killed her and shot himself. Igor Ovechkin got cold feet and hid in the toilet, later appearing in court along with older sister Olga, who played the role of a servant in the family and also flew on this flight.
The case turned out to be loud. The prosecutor's office was inundated with angry letters from citizens, and the case materials ultimately consisted of six volumes. The entire city buried the deceased flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya. Trial It was held openly, and so many people gathered in the hall that there weren’t enough seats for everyone. Passengers of the hijacked airliner, as well as crew members, acted as witnesses at the trial. Little brothers, Misha and Seryozha, were too young to bear criminal responsibility, so Igor and Olga Ovechkin were in the dock, who received 8 and 6 years in prison, respectively.
The terrorists of the 1960s-1980s were generally romantic idealists, which, of course, in no way justifies the actions they committed. And law enforcement agencies were just learning how to neutralize them—learning, among other things, from their own bloody mistakes. Well, the number “7” became definitely unlucky for the seven brothers from the “Seven Simeons”. But it’s hard to call them romantics, led by their mother-heroine...
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