Catastrophe 02/26/1988 Yelizovo airfield, Pacific Fleet aviation, Tu-16, ship commander Captain K.V. Efremov
February 26, 1988 Day, simple weather conditions, the ocean is calm, the air temperature at the scene of the tragedy was 17.4 degrees of frost at night. Performing a training flight over the Pacific Ocean, due to power failure and shutdown of both engines, the Tu-16RM 266 reconnaissance aircraft of the distant reconnaissance squadron (Elizovo, Kamchatka) of the Pacific Fleet Air Force was forced to land. This was the first splashdown of the Tu-16 in the entire history of operation. In 7 - 8 minutes after splashdown, the plane sank off the coast of Kamchatka at a depth of 180 m.
According to the ship's commander, the engines stopped after descending to the calculated point. Attempts to launch continued almost until landing. There was no result. It helped a lot when landing on the water that during the 4th year internship, the ship's commander flew on a Be-12 seaplane and landed on the water.
Crew: Commander of the ship Efremov Konstantin, right pilot Kazimirov Yuri, Navigator of the Ship Le Afanasy, second navigator Pyatkov Alexander, Ivaschenko Vladimir, gunner radio operator Blokhin Vadim. Two Ivashchenko and Blokhin could not get out of the aft compartment of the sinking plane and drowned along with the plane. Through the emergency exit hatches, three of the head cabin and one of the central compartment got out, later, one of them survived - the commander (17 hours he fought for life in icy water and was rescued by the crew from the submarine).