Pulkovo on the day of disaster A321

Relatives and rescuers: what happened at the airport. Report "Medusa"

On Saturday, October 31, the Airbus A321 aircraft owned by Metrojet (formerly Kogalymavia), crashed in the north of the Sinai Peninsula. The plane flew from the Egyptian Sharm El Sheikh to St. Petersburg. 224 people were on board. At the request of Medusa, the journalist of the local Echo of Moscow Valery Nechai spent a day at Pulkovo Airport, where relatives until the last hoped to meet a flight from Sharm El Sheikh.

11 in the morning: A plane with a schedule for schedule should fly to the Petersburg airport in an hour in the Egyptian Sharm-El-Sheikh. At the entrances to the airport - a truck with the inscription "Operational headquarters of the Ministry of Emergencies" and two riot police cars. At the entrance to the building - nobody; On -duty inspection with the guards. In the arrival hall - only police officers walking from side to side, who usually do not happen here. After some time, the first journalists appeared in the arrival hall.

The scoreboard still reported that the plane was delayed and arrived at 12:20. In the registration hall there was a huge line of those who were supposed to fly to Sharm El-Sheikh from St. Petersburg on this day-it was on this plane.

- They already told you - will they change the plane or not? -I ask someone in line.

- No, no one came up. We stand here like rams. I generally think - why fly there, probably knocked out, ”the man replies. At that moment, a line with their flight disappeared from the departure board.

Only closer to noon people began to come - close passengers of the Sinai Peninsula of the aircraft that broke in the north. There were those meeting with flowers who still knew nothing. Those who heard the news in the morning already cried. Citizens were sent to the information on the information, but there they simply asked to stand and wait.

“We have nothing for you yet,” they said at the rack, “according to our information, he had to fly at 12:20.” Expect. Nothing else.

- And what should I do? - asked almost every second; The answer, as a rule, should not.

Relatives were surrounded by employees of television channels, poking on their faces with cameras; They asked to tell, “who died with them,” and whether you can look at their last photos.

“Mom was there! Can you hear? My mother was on that plane, ”a woman cried into a pipe with a bouquet of flowers in her hands,“ I'm trying to call her, but she doesn’t take everything. ” The phone must catch there. ”

An airport employee approached her in a jacket and tie, hugged, said something in his ear and led him off. Somewhere in the distance, hugging, two more women cried.

- Do not despair. There is still no official confirmation, ”a tall man with glasses said on the other side. - Maybe everything worked out. Just don't despair!

- Already everyone reported. There is confirmation: found debris, there are on the Internet. And they are there, ”they answered him through crying.

Everyone was at a loss - and journalists, airport employees, and relatives. Someone looked to the floor, someone went from side to side, someone sat in a cafe, buried in the phone. The first lists merged to the Internet appeared.

The scoreboard in Pulkovo was still shown by the flight of a crashed aircraft as a “lingering”-arrival at 12:20. Everyone froze when the announcer announced: “He landed a plane ...”-but it was not a side of Sharm El Sheikh.

Buses drove up to one of the exits. “Here everyone! To the hotel! " - shouted a mustachioed man with a badge on the phone. "I don't understand anything where?" - shouted a woman with her eyes red from tears; She was almost picked under her arms and put on a bus. They decided to take relatives to the Crown Plaza hotel, located next to Pulkovo - there are doctors and psychologists of the Ministry of Emergencies.

Journalists were sent to the briefing of representatives of the operational headquarters, where the press finally reported that "in touch was lost." Meanwhile, Reuters reported that an operation to extract the bodies of the dead began at the crash site.

The operational headquarters is located in the same hotel. Relatives were brought into a separate room and closed the doors; Each of them was put up by OMON employee so that none of the journalists could get inside.

An hour later, the head of the St. Petersburg Committee on Social Policy, Alexander Rzhannkov (for him, this is already the second plane crash: in August 2006, the aircraft of Russia, which flew to Peter from Anapa, crashed near Donetsk). “We are working on the procedure,” said the official, “we reassure, if I may say so, psychologists, doctors work. We will bury and pay compensation. Now they will collect DNA. ”

During a briefing behind the glass - in a room with relatives - the waiters scurried about: they covered tea and coffee for those who were probably not at all up to it. Someone was taken out into the air. “The wife and children flew to rest. He and her grandmother had returned before, and she wanted to rest. I rested, ”said the man, trying to smoke.

Later, employees of the Ministry of Emergencies came to journalists. Several aircraft with rescuers were sent to the place of plane crash. They will collect fragments and control the process of identifying bodies. Participants in the special group flew there, which conducts an investigation of the causes of the tragedy.

“He [the plane] was clogged to the eyeballs. Full. My wife wrote to me before take -off, ”the man said near the glass door. “They bought a very cheap ticket and so rejoiced at this.”

Relatives were escorted to the room where they took DNA samples. Each was accompanied by two employees of the Ministry of Emergencies.

The head of the city Legislative Assembly, who arrived at the hotel, Vyacheslav Makarov said that the identification procedure will be held in St. Petersburg: there is everything necessary for this. “There is no talk about sending relatives to the place of the tragedy, but if necessary, this problem will be solved,” he said. “So far we find out the wishes about the funeral.”

Relatives began to withdraw one at a time from the hotel. One of them remained to spend the night here, others decided to return home.

Valery Nechai

Saint Petersburg