The most famous Soviet terrorists: how a family of musicians hijacked a plane. "Seven Simeons": the tragic story of the Ovechkin family Igor Ovechkin seven Simeons

"SEVEN SIMEONS": A TRAGIC HISTORY OF THE OVECHKINS FAMILY. It happened almost 30 years ago, on a holiday on March 8, 1988. The large and friendly Ovechkin family known throughout the country - the mother-heroine and 10 children from 9 to 28 years old - flew from Irkutsk to music Festival in Leningrad. They brought with them a bunch of instruments, from a double bass to a banjo, and everyone around them smiled happily, recognizing the "Seven Simeons" - Siberian nugget brothers playing incendiary jazz.

But at a 10-kilometer altitude, people's favorites suddenly took out sawn-off shotguns and a bomb from their cases and ordered to fly to London, otherwise they would start killing passengers and generally blow up the plane. An attempted hijacking turned into an unheard-of tragedy

“Wolves in the shoes of the Ovechkins” – 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 eldest sons as ambitious and cruel. Plus, a noisy glory somehow easily and immediately fell upon them, and it completely blew their heads off. But also, some saw Ovechkin as sufferers, victims of the absurd Soviet system, who went to crime just to "live like a human being." "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 eldest, Lyudmila, got married early and left; she had nothing to do with the story of the theft. The father died 4 years before these events - they say he was beaten to death by his grown-up sons Vasily and Dmitry for his drunken antics. From childhood, under the command of the mother "Lie down!" they hid from dad's gun, from which he tried to shoot at them through the window. Ovechkin 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. Mother - a woman "affectionate, but strict" (according to Tatyana) - enjoyed unquestioning authority. She herself grew up as an orphan: during the hungry war years, her own mother, the widow of a front-line soldier, was killed by a drunken watchman when she was secretly digging up collective farm potatoes. Ninel developed an iron character and raised her sons the same way, only with them all this turned into ruthlessness and unscrupulousness.

Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina The Ovechkins were not friends with their neighbors, they lived apart by their own clan, they led a subsistence economy. Later, their unanimity and self-isolation began to be compared with sectarian fanaticism.

Siberian nuggets All the guys in the family studied in music school, played instruments and in 1983 founded the Seven Simeons jazz ensemble, named after the Russian folk tale about twins-craftsmen. Two years later, after participating in the Jazz-85 festival in Tbilisi and the broadcast of the Central Television "Wider Circle", they became all-Union celebrities.

"Seven Simeons" on the streets of Irkutsk, 1986. About an amazing family, the pride of all Siberia, was filmed documentary. The guys behaved wonderfully, the film crew was delighted with them, but it was hard with their mother. One of the editors of the tape, Tatyana Zyryanova, later said that Ninel Ovechkina was already filled with pride at that time, she was indignant that the family was “showed as peasants” and not “artists” and decided that they wanted to humiliate them that way.

Ninel Sergeevna. Frame from the film. However, the adult sons also had pride. In her diary, the mother somehow gave them all characteristics, and so she wrote about the elder Vasily: “Proud, arrogant, unkind.” It was under his influence that the brothers contemptuously rejected their studies at the famous Gnesinka, where they were admitted without exams. "Simeons" imagined themselves as extraordinary talents, ready-made professionals who lacked only 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 degraded. The audience was rather impressed by their fraternal cohesion and touched by Seryozha, who was as tall as his own banjo.

Brilliance and poverty Discontent and anger accumulated among the Ovechkins for another reason: All-Union glory did not bring any money. Although the state allocated them two three-room apartments at once in good home, leaving the old suburban area, they did not heal, as in a fairy tale, happily ever after. The family quit agriculture, and it was impossible to earn money with music: they were simply forbidden to perform paid concerts.

"Seven Simeons" with his mother near his rural house

The 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 a couple of years, in the 90s, their dreams could come true, but for now private business in the USSR was impossible. The Ovechkins decided that they were born in the wrong country, and set about to leave forever for the “foreign paradise”, which they got an idea of ​​after having been on tour in Japan in 1987. Simeons spent three weeks in the city of Kanazawa, Irkutsk’s sister city, and received a cultural shock: shops are bursting with goods, shop windows shine brightly, sidewalks are illuminated from underground, vehicles drive silently, streets are washed with shampoo and even flowers in toilets, as their sons enthusiastically told mothers and sisters. Part of the family, according to the then principle, was not released, so that the guest performers would not think of running away to the capitalists, dooming those who remained in their homeland to shame and poverty. "We'll blow up the plane!"

Returning with a completely changed consciousness, the brothers started an escape, and their mother, impressed by the stories about a well-fed and beautiful foreign country, supported them. Decided that if you run, then all at once. The only way they saw the armed hijacking of the aircraft - by that time there were numerous stories of hijackings, including successful ones. In case of failure, there was a firm agreement - to commit suicide. Under their plans, the Ovechkins chose the flight Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad, the Tu-154 plane, departure on March 8. On board, in addition to 11 hijackers, there were 65 passengers and 8 crew members. The weapons - a pair of sawn-off hunting rifles with a hundred 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 into the metal detector, and that, having recognized the Simeons, the luggage is inspected superficially, just for show. And here - the checkers have a festive mood, and the youngest children, Seryozha and Ulyana, are trying with might and main, distracting them with ridiculous antics. The first part of the journey, the "artists" behaved cheerfully and peacefully. We made friends with flight attendants, especially with 28-year-old Tamara Zharka, showed them family photos. According to one version, Tamara was a friend of Vasily and for his sake she flew not on 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 go down or we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control,” she took it all for a joke and laughed lightheartedly. Then, until the very end, Tamara did everything possible to calm the terrorists, who every minute threatened to start killing passengers and blow up the cabin. She managed to convince them that the plane, which did not have enough fuel to London, would land for refueling in Finland, when in fact it landed at the Veshchevo military airfield near Vyborg, where the capture team was already ready. On the gates of one of the hangars, AIR FORCE was specially written in large letters, but the hijackers saw a fuel truck with the Russian inscription “Flammable”, they recognized Soviet soldiers and realized that they had been deceived. Enraged, Dmitry shot Tamara point-blank

Tamara the Hot Mother begins to command her sons: “Don't talk to anyone! Get a cab!" The older brothers unsuccessfully try to break open the armored door of the pilots with a folding ladder. Meanwhile, amateur attack aircraft - simple police patrols with no experience in dealing with hostage situations - penetrate through the observation windows and hatches into the front and rear of the aircraft and, shielding themselves with shields, open indiscriminate fire, falling into innocent passengers. Realizing that there is no way out of the trap, the mother resolutely orders to blow up the plane - to die for everyone and immediately, as agreed. But the bomb did not even hurt anyone, only caused a fire. Then the four older brothers take turns shooting from one sawn-off shotgun, before committing suicide, Vasily puts a bullet in his mother's head, again on her orders. All this is happening in front of the younger children, who, in horror and incomprehension of what is happening, cling to their 28-year-old sister Olga. 17-year-old Igor manages to hide in the toilet. Everything could have ended with the death of half the family of terrorists, but the assault squad aggravated the tragedy. Passengers who in panic jumped out of the burning plane onto the concrete runway were greeted with warning bursts of machine guns and indiscriminately beaten with rifle butts and boots. A dozen and a half people were injured and maimed, some were disabled. Four hostages were wounded by a special group during a firefight in the cabin. Three more died, suffocating in the smoke. The plane burned down. The remains of the stewardess Tamara were identified only the next morning by a melted wrist watch.

The result of the tragedy 9 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 survived - Olga and 5 of her underage brothers and sisters. Of the survivors, two went to court - Olga and 17-year-old Igor. The rest, by age, were not subject to criminal liability, they were transferred under the care of a married sister, Lyudmila, who was not involved in the capture. An open trial took place in Irkutsk that autumn. The hall was crowded, there were not enough seats. Passengers and crew were witnesses. Both defendants, testifying, stated that they "somehow did not think" about the passengers when they planned to blow up the plane. Olga admitted her guilt in part and asked for leniency.

Olga in court. She was 7 months pregnant at the time.

Igor sometimes recognized partially, then completely denied and asked to be forgiven and not 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 put all the blame for what happened on former leader ensemble, Irkutsk musician-teacher Vladimir Romanenko, thanks to which Simeons got to jazz festivals. Like, it was he who inspired the older brothers with the idea that there is no jazz in the USSR and that recognition can only be achieved abroad. However, the teenager could not stand the confrontation with the teacher and admitted that he had slandered him.

Vladimir Romanenko is rehearsing with his brothers. Igor is at the piano. 1986 The court received bags of letters from Soviet citizens who were eager for a show of punishment. “Shoot with the performance shown on TV,” writes a veteran Afghan. “Tie them to the tops of birches and tear them apart,” a woman teacher calls (!). “Shoot so that they know what the Motherland is,” advises the party secretary on behalf of the assembly. The humane Soviet court of the era of perestroika and glasnost decided otherwise: 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, she was also given to Lyudmila.

On March 8, 1988, the large Ovechkin family seized a passenger Tu-154 flying from Irkutsk to Leningrad, demanding to fly to London.

The Ovechkin family led a modest and quiet life. The head of the family liked to drink, and therefore 11 children were brought up by their mother, Ninel Ovechkina. After Ninel was widowed in 1984, her influence in the household increased. She noticed that her sons had musical talent, and in 1983 they organized the Seven Simeons ensemble. The efforts of the mother and sons were crowned with unprecedented success - the Simeons became a famous jazz ensemble, a documentary was made about them, the state gave the mother of many children two apartments, and the Ovechkin brothers, bypassing the competition, were admitted to the Gnessin school. However, a year later, due to constant rehearsals and touring, they dropped out of school.

Ninel Ovechkina

1987 gave the family the chance to travel to Japan to perform in front of a large audience. It was their first concert abroad, and it is possible that it was this trip that prompted the brothers to commit a terrible crime. Touring around the world, the Simeonov seven got a taste of freedom, they broke free from the shackles of a world in which there were only queues, shortages and strict control. During their time abroad, one of the brothers testified, they were offered a lucrative deal from an English record company. They were ready to stay in England without any doubt, but refused, as they could forever lose touch with their mother and sisters, because they would never have been released from Soviet Union. It was then that the Family decided to leave the hated country at all costs, and began to prepare an escape plan.

For about half a year, the family was preparing for the hijacking, working out the details and nuances. It was planned to carry explosive devices and a couple of sawn-off shotguns on board the aircraft. In order to carry weapons on the plane without hindrance, they changed the shape of the double bass case, and it would not fit on the X-ray machine. At the airport, luck smiled at them again and, since everyone knew the Ovechkin family by sight, they were not searched at all. According to official figures, the family was supposed to fly on tour to Leningrad, but they had completely different plans.

The aircraft followed the route Irkutsk - Leningrad, everything went smoothly. After landing at Kurgan for refueling, the plane took off, and the Ovechkins quickly began to operate according to a carefully worked out scheme. Through the stewardess, one of the brothers gave the pilot a note demanding to fly to London, otherwise they would blow up the plane. The pilot thought it was a joke, but when the Ovechkins took out the sawn-off shotguns and the lives of the passengers were in danger, it became clear that this was not a joke at all.

Realizing the danger of the situation, the co-pilot offered to neutralize the terrorists on their own, since they had a personal weapon with them - a Makarov pistol. But they were afraid of the consequences, and began to wait for instructions. On the ground, the KGB officers tried to negotiate with the young musicians through the pilot, but everything was in vain, the terrorists confidently wanted to achieve their goal. Soon, the ship's flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov took over the negotiations, he had to convince the criminals that the fuel was running out and refueling was necessary. The Ovechkins believed Stupakov and said that the plane would land, but only outside the USSR, and instructed the pilot to head for Finland. After some time, flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya came out to the terrorists and announced that the plane would soon land in the Finnish city of Kotka. The family was nervous, but still believed in their plan, but in the meantime the plane was actually not far from Leningrad, and the commander was going to land the ship at the Veshchevo airfield, where capture groups were already waiting for them.

The plane landed in Veshchevo at 16:05, the military began to rapidly approach the ship from all sides, and the Ovechkins realized that they had been deceived. Frightened and embittered older brother Dmitry at the same moment shot Tamara Zharkaya. The terrorists tried to storm the cockpit, but failed. When the Ovechkins saw the tanker, they let the flight engineer out to open the fuel tanks, but again they made a mistake. The refueling actually was, but served as the scenery for the unfolding spectacle from the outside: while the plane was refueling, several armed soldiers had to get on board through the tail of the plane and the window in the cockpit. The plane began to move towards the runway, and the group began to capture and neutralize the terrorists.

There was no clear plan and capture mechanism, and at that time patrol officers acted as special forces. Fighters from the cockpit were the first to start the capture, but their attempts were in vain, and all they managed to do was injure four passengers. Ovechkins were more accurate and injured opponents. The hatch from the tail of the ship opened, and the second group of fighters began to shoot at the legs of the terrorists, the invaders rebuffed them. Everything went badly for both the fighters and the Ovechkins. Witnesses say that the terrorists ran around the cabin like frightened animals and did not know what to do, but after some time Ninel gathered four sons around her. No one understood what was happening, but at this time the mother and sons said goodbye to each other.

The Ovechkin family's backup plan was suicide. They set fire to an improvised explosive device, and a moment later there was an explosion in which only one of the brothers died. Ninel told her eldest son Vasily to shoot her, which he immediately did. Then Dmitry fell under the barrel of a sawn-off shotgun, then Oleg. One of the brothers did not want to lose his life, and hid in the toilet. He understood: if his brother finds him, he will be finished. But Vasily did not have time to look for his brother. After killing Oleg, he pointed the muzzle of the sawn-off shotgun at himself and fired. After that, the capture group was able to enter the salon and began to evacuate people.

On March 8, 1988, seven civilians and a flight attendant died in this tragedy, 15 people were injured. Five of the seven Ovechkins died.

After the trial, the younger children were placed in the care of their sister Lyudmila, who was not involved in the terrorist act and did not know anything about the escape plan.

17-year-old Igor, who was hiding from his brother, was sentenced to 8 years, and his sister Olga (28) was sentenced to 6 years, both served half the term.

The further fates of Olga and Igor did not work out: Igor was detained for drug use, and he died in a pre-trial detention center, Olga drank herself and was killed by her roommate.

Two of Ninel's children became disabled, and the fate of the others is unknown.

A few years after the Ovechkins attempted to leave the country, the Scoop broke up. Perhaps, knowing this, Ninel would not have decided on such a desperate act and saved the lives of her children.

Hijacking in the USSR was an out of the ordinary event, especially since a large family turned out to be terrorists Ovechkin family, which organized Music band with a fabulous name "Seven Simeons". A jazz band of seven brothers, their mother and younger brothers and sisters planned to fly to London and make money there, but as a result, half of them died, the rest went to jail, and people on that flight were injured. Who were they really - victims of totalitarianism, dreaming of freedom, or brutal killers, ready to go to their goal over the corpses?

A few days after the beatings inflicted by the eldest sons), including 7 sons, were part of the family jazz ensemble "Seven Simeons".

Mother - Ninel Sergeevna (51 years old). Children - Lyudmila, Olga (28 years old), Vasily (26 years old), Dmitry (24 years old), Oleg (21 years old), Alexander (19 years old), Igor (17 years old), Tatyana (14 years old), Mikhail (13 years old) ), Ulyana (10 years old), Sergey (9 years old). (The age of all family members is indicated at the time of capture). The family lived in Irkutsk, on Detskaya street, house 24.

The eldest daughter Lyudmila lived separately from the rest of the family and did not take part in the hijacking of the plane.

The ensemble was organized at the end of 1983 and soon won victories on a number of music competitions in various cities of the USSR, became widely known: they wrote about the Ovechkins in the press, made a documentary, etc. At the end of 1987, after touring in Japan, the family decided to flee the USSR.

Plane hijacking

The assault on the aircraft was carried out by the forces of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs units, not intended for such tasks. As a result of the actions of the capture group, three passengers were killed, another 36 were injured. The capture group also failed to prevent the terrorists from detonating the explosive device with which they tried to commit suicide: when it became clear that the escape from the USSR had failed, Vasily shot Ninel Ovechkina at her request, after which the older brothers tried to commit suicide by blowing up bomb. However, the explosion turned out to be directed and did not bring the desired result, after which the Ovechkins took turns shooting themselves from one sawn-off shotgun.

According to the testimonies of the passengers, the treatment of the soldiers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the passengers who left the plane was rude and harsh. They wringed their hands and laid them face down on concrete. One of the passengers was shot in the back and was barely rescued by doctors. These actions were later explained by the fact that terrorists could be hiding among the passengers.

In total, 9 people died during the assault: a flight attendant, three passengers, Ninel Ovechkina and her four eldest sons.

Court

Olga Ovechkina in court

Ulyana gave birth to a child at the age of 16, led an asocial lifestyle. Tried to commit suicide, became disabled.

Sergei played in restaurants with Igor for some time, then traces of him are lost.

There is no publicly available information about the fate of Tatyana.

Reflection in culture

Links

• "SM Number One" - Ovechkins are tired of being living souvenirs
• Military History Forum - Material about the assault on the plane with the Ovechkins

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March 8, 30 years ago, in 1988, was not remembered at all festive events. The large Ovechkin family from Irkutsk - a mother and 10 children aged 9 to 28 - decided to hijack a plane to escape the Soviet Union to "any capitalist country." This family is also known for the jazz group "Seven Simeons", which consisted only of the Ovechkin brothers. Actually, it all started with success in music.

Ovechkin's mother Ninel Sergeevna herself was left without parents in early age. Her father was killed at the front during the Great Patriotic War when Ninel was 5 years old, and a year later her mother was shot dead in a potato field by a drunken watchman. The girl ended up in a shelter, and at the age of 15 she was taken to him cousin. At the age of 20, Ninel married driver Dmitry Ovechkin, from whom she gave birth to 12 children (one girl died as a baby). The young family was given a house in the Rabochey Suburb in Irkutsk and a plot of 8 acres.

Neighbors described Ninel Sergeevna as an imperious woman, the children obeyed her unquestioningly, although she was always affectionate with them, did not raise her voice. The head of the Ovechkin family often drank and rowdy, even took up a gun and shot. At such moments mother of many children commanded the guys to lie down on the floor or on the ground so that the father would not hit them. In 1984 he died.

Seven Brothers Musicians

All children went to the same school but did not participate in public life. In general, the family led a rather isolated lifestyle, everyone worked on eight acres, kept a small farm: pigs, chickens, a cow. As Ninel herself said, the children had no time for pranks, everyone was busy with household chores.

The mother noticed the musical abilities of the boys and enrolled everyone in the Irkutsk Regional Musical College in the department of wind instruments. In 1983, the family jazz group "Seven Simeons" appeared. The name was invented by one of the sons of Ovechkin, after reading a fairy tale about seven brothers. Vasily played the drums, Dmitry played the trumpet, Oleg played the saxophone, Alexander played the double bass, Igor played the piano, Mikhail played the trombone, and Sergey played the banjo. The boys were led by Vladimir Romanenko. He also noted that the most talented of the entire team were Misha, Igor and Sergey. He called Mikhail white on the outside and black on the inside, because the boy, according to him, had an unusual feeling for jazz and played beautifully.

The brothers rehearse at home. Stills from the film "Once upon a time there were seven Simeons" (1989)

Escape thoughts

In 1986, the city allocated large family two apartments. The Ovechkins sold their farm and finally became city dwellers. However, no one had any profession, they did not pay for performances in their homeland, thoughts of escaping began to emerge.

In 1987, the team was invited to Japan, and there they offered a contract. The brothers wanted to stay in the country, but were unable to get to the US embassy and did not want to leave their family in the USSR.

Oleg wrote to his family about Japan:

"We have good news. We visited Japan fairyland. We were traveling with an official delegation headed by the Chairman of the City Council. It's so unusual country unique, beautiful and amazing. As if these days have passed in some kind of dream.

Returning from the tour, the family decided that they needed to flee the Union. The way is to hijack a plane. The family did not make any attempts to officially go abroad.

Aircraft hostage hijacking

It all happened on March 8, 1988. The Ovechkin family of 11 people ( eldest daughter Lyudmila did not participate in the escape, she had previously married and moved to another city) boarded a Tu-154 plane on the Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad flight to go on tour in Leningrad. That was the official purpose of the trip. There were 8 crew members and 76 passengers on board.

The musicians were already well known at the airport and therefore were not carefully examined. Dmitry made a double bottom in a double bass case. Earlier, the brothers noticed that he did not pass through the metal detector and was examined only superficially. Two sawn-off shotguns, 100 rounds of ammunition and two pipe bombs were placed there.

When the plane was already in the air, two older brothers, at gunpoint, ordered the passengers not to leave their seats. Vasily gave the flight attendant a note for the pilots demanding to fly to London.

“Go to England (London). Don't go down. Otherwise, we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control,” the note said.

Flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov came out to negotiate with the invaders. He explained that there was not enough fuel to fulfill the requirement, refueling was needed. The crew managed to convince the brothers to land in Finland. However, it was a trick to divert attention, the plane landed at the Veshchevo military airfield in Leningrad region, and not at the airport of the Finnish city of Kotka.

When the brothers realized that they had been deceived, Dmitry shot the stewardess Tamara Zharkaya, who all the time tried to calm the invaders and urged them not to kill the passengers.

A few hours later, the assault on the plane began. Law enforcement officers tried to get on board through the cockpit, a shootout ensued, but the wounded policemen were forced to retreat. As it turned out later, it was the policemen who wounded most of the passengers.

When the brothers realized that the capture and escape had failed, they made the decision to blow up the plane and commit suicide. They all gathered around the bombs, but the explosion only damaged the plane's fuselage and caused a fire, no one was killed. Then the mother ordered Vasily to kill her and the older children, which was done. Survived 17-year-old Igor, who hid from his brother in the toilet. Before committing suicide, Vasily told his sister Olga to take minors Tatyana, Ulyana, Mikhail and Sergey out of the plane.

When a fire started on board, one of the passengers managed to open the hatch. People began to jump out of the plane. Passengers later said that when they landed on the ground, the capture group fired, hitting people on the heads.

Later, the actions of the capture group were assessed as completely illiterate.

As a result of the terrorist attack, 9 people were killed, including five Ovechkins (Ninel and her four eldest sons) and flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya. Two more women and a guy suffocated in the smoke during the fire. 19 people were injured. The aircraft was completely burned out.

The trial of the surviving Ovechkins

The investigation lasted for about six months. Igor and Olga, who at that moment was already in her seventh month of pregnancy, appeared before the court. She said that she wanted to go to the father of the child, but the brothers forbade it, because he was Caucasian. Olga pleaded guilty, and Igor constantly changed his testimony.

Stills from the film "Once upon a time there were seven Simeons" (1989)

From testimony passengers L. I. Korotovskikh about what is happening on board the Tu-154 during the capture:

“A little child shouted (one of the younger Ovechkin brothers. - Ed.): “Vasechka, Dimochka, just please don’t detonate the bomb.” And his mother covered his mouth with her palm and said: “Shut up, you brute, otherwise it will get worse.” And then, when they killed Zharkaya... a hysterical voice: "Don't look at us, we'll shoot." And they told the aircraft commander: “There is one corpse on your conscience, there will be more.” They demanded takeoff. Mother shouted: “In any capitalist country, but not in a socialist country.”

From the testimony Sergei Ovechkin, the youngest of the children:

“I sat and cried, and was afraid that they would blow it up,” this is how the boy answers the judge’s question about what he did on the plane. The boy remembered how he was wounded in the left thigh.

Testimony of Igor Ovechkin about how the brothers blew up the plane, and then committed suicide. Stills from the film "Once upon a time there were seven Simeons" (1989).

The older sister Lyudmila was not involved in the hijacking. She took her sisters from the boarding school, her younger brothers were also all with her. The daughter of Olga Larisa, born in the colony, who lived with her aunt until the release of her mother, also got into the family of Lyudmila.

The fate of the family members turned out differently: after their release, Igor and Olga never found their place in life, both abused alcohol, both died - a sister at the hands of a drunken cohabitant, a brother behind bars.

Mikhail moved to Spain, did not leave his passion for music, but after a stroke he became disabled. Ulyana drank, got hit by a car, became disabled. Tatyana got married, gave birth to a child, nothing is known about her fate after 2002.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources