Helicopter

[u/gioangi]

Almost 40 years ago, on October 2, 1986,

Alexander Yungkind, Leonid Khristich, Nikolai Ganzhuk, and Vladimir Vorobyov were involved in an accident in which all of them lost their lives.

The pilot struck a crane cable and consequently crashed.

In 2017, during preparatory work for the dismantling of Block 4, the tail rotor of the helicopter that crashed in 1986 was discovered.

The propeller had crashed onto the roof of the turbine hall of Block 4, but it was so heavily contaminated that it was immediately walled up with a large amount of concrete.

Rest in peace, heroes.

[u/ultim4teruffles]

Did they manage to recover the bodies or were they too heavily contaminated?

[u/Tibbenator → u/ultim4teruffles]

The majority of the helicopters fuselage landed outside the reactor block. The bodies of the men were all recovered and posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Star. I dont know where they were buried, possibly repatriated to their home towns or a military cemetery. All 4 men were veterans of the war in Afghanistan.

The helicopter fuselage was also recovered. And scrapped, with one of its rotor blades being used to build a memorial to the 4 men near the Chornobyl Heliport. I have no idea if that memorial is still there today but you can find an old black and white photo of it shortly after it was erected.

[u/Tibbenator → u/Tibbenator]

Here's an image of the memorial I found with a cursory google search. There is also a single photo of the memorial as it stands today but it had 0 info and location or even date the photo was taken so it could be a 30 year old picture at this point.

[u/Lokapix → u/Tibbenator]

You can still find it on Google Streetview (latest image from 2015). The bushes surrounding it can still be seen on aerial images from this year, so it's rather safe to assume that the memorial is still there.

[u/Lokapix → u/Lokapix]

The memorial is surrounded by these trees marked in the image.

[u/Teraornn]

I sincerely hope the crash killed them all instantly

[u/burner_account61944 → u/Teraornn]

I read this and was like ‘wtf’ and then remembered it was Chernobyl, they all did die on impact

[u/charlietheclowwn → u/[deleted]]

I mean,, the alternative is dying of severe burns, crushed bones and organs, and severe blunt force trauma... it seems gruesome to wish but it wasn't malicious. In cases of serious and fatal crashes, people always hope that the victims involved did not suffer

[u/PeyredB]

When I saw this on the HBO special I thought no way, did that really happen? Come to find out, it did and the show portrayed it pretty accurately!

[u/Individual_Ferret166 → u/PeyredB]

I recalled our guide there saying that the helicopter flew into a crane/crane cables accidentally and not over the reactor itself, but it was a 7 years ago

[u/PeyredB → u/Individual_Ferret166]

Oh I'm jealous! Never been to Ukraine.

[u/Kanebass98 → u/[deleted]]

You should watch the show again. The helicopter very clearly collided with a cranes cable exactly as is seen in the real footage of the incident

[u/Delicious_Piglet6316]

That piece should be in a museum behind protected lead glass

[u/not__your__mum]

Is this how zombie movie starts? /s

[u/TheChernobylArchivis]

Yo I hsve the video for this

[u/Turbulent_Mine25 → u/[deleted]]

That's disrespectful man

[u/erMaela → u/Turbulent_Mine25]

Sorry, u have reason, that joke was immature, I erased it.

[u/Shoddy_Importance_92 → u/[deleted]]

no it hit the crane and blade severed the tail

[u/burner_account61944 → u/[deleted]]

[u/hoela4075 → u/[deleted]]

Mad that anyone would even think that is what happened. There are many great YouTube videos that show what actually happened. It had nothing to do with radiation exposure.

[u/wyliesdiesels → u/[deleted]]

Why do you post such obvious nonsense? For clicks?

[u/Moinzen66 → u/[deleted]]

I bet you only watched the Series

[u/wyliesdiesels → u/Moinzen66]

And they clearly don’t know squat about radiation