Did Improper Aircraft Storage Change The Course Of History?

The purpose of an aircraft hangar building and why kit-build designs are so important for private airfields is not just to keep aeroplanes secure, but to keep them safe and protected from the elements.

Passenger aircraft undergo a wide range of extreme weather conditions both on the ground and in the air, and without the types of exacting maintenance only possible in a controlled environment such as a hangar, weaknesses can exacerbate, and it becomes harder to follow vital safety protocols that cannot be ignored for safe flight.

In some cases, this can lead to an unsettling incident. In others, it causes an emergency landing. In one case, it might have changed the course of history.

Minutes After Takeoff

By the early 1980s, the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States had led to decades of tensions, some of which threatened to lead to all-out nuclear war.

Most of these were due to political decisions or proxy conflicts, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. However, because the tensions between the two superpowers were so strong, even the slightest spark could lead to the outbreak of war.

This meant that the sudden crash of a Tupolev Tu-104A military-owned jet, which caused the deaths of 28 high-ranking officials, was initially treated as sabotage or even the result of an attack by the United States, which could have sparked nuclear annihilation had cooler heads not prevailed.

The Final Flight Of The First Jetliner

The passengers of that flight were part of the Pacific Fleet, a critical part of the Soviet Navy, and they had made their way to Leningrad to receive recognition and credit for their hard work.

Being in the capital, the Pacific Fleet admirals and officers had the chance to spend some of their money that they could not otherwise spend on luxuries that they could not find anywhere else in the USSR.

Alongside 50 passengers, there was a huge cargo bed filled with clothes, fragrances and even food such as cheese and sausage. This caused the plane to be overloaded before the 12 admirals insisted that two huge rolls of printer paper be loaded as well.

This became a logistical nightmare, not helped when passengers refused to sit in their allocated seats, as this can cause problems with weight distribution during takeoff.

This was a particular problem for the Tupolev Tu-104A, one of the oldest jetliners ever made and one that had been withdrawn from civilian flights in 1979 following a major accident.

Once the flight took off at 18:00, the unsecured cargo rolled backwards, and this caused the plane to lift too high, stall and ultimately crash.

The Fall Of The Pacific Fleet

The consequences were sudden but took a few years to be ultimately felt. The Pacific Fleet’s celebrated leadership was suddenly gone, and the Soviet Navy was never the same afterwards.

Whilst not the direct cause of the fall of the Soviet Union, it led to many of the fractures within the Soviet Union that would lead to glasnost and perestroika, changes to the structure of the USSR that would ultimately lead to the end of the Cold War.