TB-7 crash near Kanash

The TB-7 crash near Kanash occurred on 13 November 1941. The TB-7 bomber with tail number 42056 was built at Plant No. 124 named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze (Kazan) on 5 August 1941 and was fitted with four M-40F engines. The crew commander on the day of the crash was the head of the flight test station of Plant No. 124, 3rd class test pilot Ludwig Oygetovich Nemet. The crew consisted of ten people in total. The purpose of the 13 November flight was to test the new M-40F diesel engines: the crew was to fly over Chistopol, Yoshkar-Ola and Kanash and return to Kazan. The aircraft took off from the plant airfield at 11:45 local time. Until 15:00 the flight proceeded without incident; after 15:00 severe vibration began in engine No. 2, which spread to the whole aircraft. A fire broke out on board, and crew commander Nemet ordered an evacuation by parachute. The aircraft began to break up and fell into a forest three kilometres from the village of Shakulovo and eight kilometres east of the town of Kanash. Four people were killed, including the crew commander.

After the crash, by order of the director of Plant No. 124, an accident commission headed by Iosif Nezval was formed in Shakulovo to investigate the causes of the crash. The commission concluded that the fire on board and the fall of the aircraft were caused by technical malfunctions of engine No. 2: the separation of connecting rod parts, which pierced the crankcase (engine casing), and the heating of the crankshaft journal, which ignited the oil in the engine. The deceased crew members were buried at the Arskoe Cemetery in Kazan.

Timeline of events

On 13 November 1941 the crew of TB-7 bomber No. 42056 was to perform the second flight since the engines had been replaced, the purpose of which was to test the new M-40F diesel engines. The planned flight duration was five hours. According to the assignment received, the aircraft was to take off from the plant airfield, head towards Chistopol, climb to an altitude of 5000 metres, continue the flight to Yoshkar-Ola via Kazan, fly in the Kanash area and return to the airfield. According to the assignment, the aircraft was to remain for extended periods at altitudes of two, four and five kilometres. After the test flight the TB-7 was to be sent to the 433rd Aviation Regiment stationed near Moscow in order to take part in bombing the German rear.

Originally the aircraft's navigator was to be Rogozeev, a serviceman of the 433rd Aviation Regiment, but he did not turn up at the airfield because he had no flight clothing. As a result, the take-off was postponed by 1 hour 45 minutes, and Rogozeev was replaced by Nikolai Zhuravlev. At 11:20 the crew members put on their parachutes and took their places in the bomber on the command of engineer Yakov Osokin. At 11:45, under the control of crew commander Ludwig Nemet, the TB-7 took off from the airfield of Plant No. 124. At 11:55 the aircraft reached an altitude of 4000 metres; radio operator Semyon Blinov contacted the ground radio station and reported that the flight was proceeding without problems. At 13:00 it was transmitted to the ground radio station that the flight was continuing without incident. At 14:00, in the Chistopol area, the aircraft began to climb, after which it reached an altitude of 5000 metres. At 15:00 the aircraft flew over the plant airfield and headed towards Yoshkar-Ola. According to the radio operator's report, the landing was to take place at around 16:20. After 15 o'clock, presumably in the interval from 15:20 to 15:30, when the aircraft was in the Kanash area, the crew felt a strong jolt from engine No. 2, after which severe vibration of the entire bomber began.

As surviving crew member Yakov Osokin recalled, 5–10 minutes before the jolt the engine power setting had been set to 160. Osokin noted that because of the strength of the vibrations he thought a shell had exploded under the aircraft. Smoke appeared in the cockpit, after which all the engines were shut down, and the pilot began an emergency descent, first to an altitude of 4000 metres, then to 3000 metres. After the engines were shut down, Osokin noticed fire spreading from engine No. 2 towards the underwing gunner's compartment. Flight engineer Ivan Shitov set the aircraft's propellers to coarse pitch, closed the fire cocks of the left wing, closed the radiator shutters of all the engines, activated the fire extinguishing system and lowered the landing gear. According to Shitov's recollections, at that moment the aircraft was at an altitude of 3000 metres and moving at a speed of 400 km/h. Commander Ludwig Nemet ordered the crew members to begin evacuating by parachute. Initially five people jumped out of the aircraft: four at a considerable altitude, the fifth at a lower one. The fifth was Osokin, who lingered because he "gave some trim forward" to help Nemet control the bomber, and also suggested that the commander leave the aircraft.

After the first parachutists bailed out, fire appeared on the outside of the aircraft, which entered a steep spiral and began to break up at an altitude of 500–600 metres. At an altitude of 600 metres Nemet also …