Military History
The meeting between the Pacific Fleet’s senior officers from Leningrad with Admiral Emil Spiridonov had gone well. The Soviet officer was pleased with the work of the naval command, and they now had to return to work. After the event wrapped up on February 7, 1981, the Admiral and 43 top-ranking Soviet Navy personnel boarded a Tu-104 airliner to be transported from Leningrad to their headquarters in Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast. The afternoon was snowy, but the conditions were good enough for takeoff. Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Inyushin then took the aircraft into the air, but suddenly it pitched abnormally, rolled to the right, nearly inverted, and plummeted to the ground. An immense fireball engulfed the scene. In a matter of seconds, the Soviet Navy had lost no less than 28 high-ranking officials, mainly from the Pacific Fleet. And to the remaining leaders of the crippled service, it seemed obvious what such a tragedy meant: it must have been an enemy attack…
Credit Dark Skies