Stars scattered in the sky - 47 years since the Pakhtakor-79 plane crash
**Stars Scattered in the Sky: 47 Years Since the Pakhtakor-79 Plane Crash**
It has been 47 years since one of the largest plane crashes of the 20th century, a terrible event that deeply saddened the entire Uzbek people and football fans. On August 11, 1979, as a result of the tragedy that occurred in the air, members of the Pakhtakor team, the pride of Uzbek football, lost their lives untimely. "Daryo" recalls the details of the tragedy and its causes on this sad date.
**Chronology of the Collision: The terrible mistake of the dispatchers**
On August 11, 1979, the sky was covered with thick clouds, and visibility at an altitude of 8-9 kilometers was very low. The TU-134 aircraft with the number 65735 (77 passengers) flying on the Tashkent-Guryev-Donetsk-Minsk route, carrying the Pakhtakor team, and another TU-134 with the number 65816 (88 passengers, including 16 children) flying from Chelyabinsk to Chisinau were flying in the same area.
That day, at the Kharkov air traffic control center, where the most aircraft fly in the former Soviet Union, the head of the department Sergeyev assigned the inexperienced young dispatcher Nikolai Zhukovsky to the southwest direction. He entrusted the control of his movements to the first-class dispatcher Vladimir Sumskoy.
At 13:17, the Moldovan TU-134 contacted the center and requested an altitude of 9,600 meters, but Zhukovsky refused, citing the busy route. Later, a Minsk-based plane (the airliner carrying Pakhtakor) also requested to climb to the same altitude. The courses of both planes were to intersect at right angles in the sky over the Dneprodzerzhinsk (now Kamenskoye) district. Zhukovsky made a mistake in his calculations, setting the difference in the time between the two planes passing the intersection point to 3 minutes instead of 1 minute, and ordered the Minsk crew to stay at 8,400 meters.
Noticing that the situation was becoming dangerous, the experienced Sumskoy took control. At 1:34 p.m., he went on the air and ordered another IL-62 plane on the same route to go to 9,600 meters, and the Chisinau plane to go to 9,000 meters. The answer came from the air: "Understood, 8,400." But Sumskoy's biggest mistake was that he forgot to confirm which plane's commander had given the answer and to check their movement using the locator.
At 1:35 p.m. Tashkent time, 38 seconds after the collision, two TU-134 aircraft collided at an angle of 95 degrees in thick clouds at an altitude of 8,400 meters. The Chisinau plane hit the wing of the Pakhtakor airliner. The Minsk crew commander Komarov, despite the pressurization being broken, managed to keep the plane at an altitude of 4,500 meters, but then the airliner began to fall sharply. A total of 178 people died as a result of the tragedy.
Nine months later, at a trial, dispatchers Zhukovsky and Sumskoy were sentenced to 15 years in prison. The other responsible persons escaped punishment. This plane crash is the deadliest in the history of the former Soviet Union, the second in the world, and the third in the number of plane crashes.
**The team left in mourning and the fans crying**
Most experts had no doubt that Pakhtakor would play very confidently that season and qualify for the European Cups. Having taken 6th place in the championship in 1962 and reached the cup final in 1967, the Uzbek football school was now living its true golden age. Match days would become a kind of celebration throughout the republic, and when the team lost, fans would break even the most cherished teapots and cups. After the crash, the hopes of an entire generation were shattered. Many fans completely lost interest in football after this tragedy.
Volunteer players from other clubs were quickly recruited to Tashkent, and the team continued the season. Pakhtakor was given the privilege of not being relegated from the top league for three years, but nothing could replace the golden generation that had passed away untimely.
**Memoirs of commentator Akhbor Imamkho‘jayev**
The founder of the Uzbek football commentator school, Akhbor Imamkho‘jayev, who commented on the team’s matches and became close friends with the players, recalled this tragedy as follows:
"On August 12, at four in the morning, a car on duty from the Sports Committee of Uzbekistan stopped in front of our house. They said that you are going to the Sports Committee immediately. On the way, my heart was pounding, and they answered me briefly, ‘a disaster’…
A lot of people had gathered in the building - everyone was discussing something. I asked Viktor Vyshinsky, the chairman of the Referees’ Board of Uzbekistan, what he was talking about. He said that two planes had collided on the way to Minsk, and one of them was carrying the main team of ‘Pakhtakor’. I looked "I became numb and black. It was forbidden to speak or write about this before, but the tragedy occurred during the holy month of Ramadan."
**Heroes immortalized in the sky:**
* Idgay Borisovich Tazetdinov (1933) – coach
* Vladimir Vasilyevich Chumakov (1932) – doctor
* Mansur Inomjonovich Tolibjonov (1944) – administrator
* Mikhail Ivanovich An (1952) – midfielder
* Vladimir Ivanovich Fyodorov (1956) – striker
* Olim Masolievich Ashirov (1955) – defender
* Ravil Rustamovich Agishev (1959) – defender
* Konstantin Aleksandrovich Bakanov (1954) – midfielder
* Yuri Timofeevich Zagumennikh (1947) – defender
* Alexander Ivanovich Korchyonov (1949) – midfielder
* Nikolay Borisovich Kulikov (1953) – defender
* Vladimir Vasilyevich Makarov (1947) – midfielder
* Sergey Konstantinovich Pokatilov (born 1950) – goalkeeper
* Viktor Nikolayevich Churkin (born 1952) – striker
* Sirojiddin Ahmadovich Bozorov (born 1961) – striker
* Shukhrat Musinovich Eshbutaev (born 1959) – striker
* Vladimir Valievich Sobirov (born 1958) – striker
**Fatal teams in the history of football**
Pakhtakor is not the only club in world football to lose its team due to a plane crash. Such terrible events have been observed several times in history:
* May 4, 1949: Torino, the core of the Italian national team, crashed. 31 people, including 18 players, died.
* February 6, 1958: Manchester United, an English club, crashed in Munich. Many talented footballers died.
* July 16, 1960: 8 players of the Danish national team lost their lives in an awkward landing at Kastrup Airport.
* April 3, 1961: The Chilean team "Green Cross" crashed in the Las Lastimas mountains.
Also, the "Strongest" (Bolivia), "Alianza" (Peru), the Zambian national team and the Brazilian team "Chapecoense", which made everyone cry in the recent past, were among those who became victims of plane crashes and lost their lives in the sky.
Uzbek football will never forget its heroic young men. Their brilliant games and services to Uzbek football will live forever in the memory of generations.