In Siberia, the aircraft was found 70-year-old C-47
In Northern Siberia, near the Arctic circle a few hundred miles from the nearest settlement, the aircraft was found 70 years ago in America.
In August, an international expedition organized by the Russian geographical society went from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk to hold a rather unique rescue operation in one of the most remote places on Earth.
To tell this story we must travel back in time to 1943. The world was at war, and American factories were working at full capacity, stamping all types of aircraft for the allies.
It was a C-47 aircraft manufacturer Douglas in the United States (serial number 42-32892) and transferred to the Soviet Union in Fairbanks, Alaska, March 12, 1943. It was one of the more than 7, thousand aircraft, which was in transit through the air the way the Alaska-Siberia during the war. The supply route that stretched thousands of miles from the continental United States, Northern Canada, Alaska, and from there, across the Bering Strait down to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Most of these aircraft then continued on his way to the front, but it was not to be the case with our C-47. Instead, he was in the rear guard and was assigned to fly for supplies and razvedyvatel in the Siberian Arctic.
In 1946 the aircraft was transferred to civil duties and perform flights from Krasnoyarsk to several remote outposts in the North of Siberia. And this is before April 23, 1947. On the same day, Douglas C-47 flew from Kozhevnikova Bay on the Arctic coast roads, through the town of Dudinka, with 26 passengers, three of them children.
The left engine failed in flight and stopped. The plane was flying with the rest of the engine, but after 4 hours in the air, it overheated and refused me, too. The pilot had no choice but to perform an emergency landing in the middle of the desert.
No one was hurt, but it soon became clear that the chances of rescue were small.
Three days later, they were hiding in the plane, the captain, along with flight engineer, radio operator and six passengers, decided on a daring hike to find help.
In 1953, local hunters found the body in the swamp, about 120 km (74,5 miles) South-West of the wreck Douglas. From documents and other personal items found with the body, it was found that it was the remains of the pilot of Maxim Tyurikova. The other two crew members and 6 passengers were missing.
11 may, after the victims have spent nearly 20 days in the tundra, the transport aircraft Li-2 noticed the plane and managed to sit next to him to pick up survivors. All crew and passengers who remained inside the C-47 survived.
in early August, a team of 15 people was collected to go to Taimyr and try to take the ship to the Museum. Within five days, the team worked feverishly to prepare the ship for transportation.
Douglas was cut to pieces - the fuselage, wings, engines and the center section - so that the Mi-8 helicopter could lift and put them on a barge, which was delivered to the nearby river of the Pyasina river. Geographical society, explains that waiting for a C-47 in the near future: "the Plane will have pride of place in the future, the research Museum of the Russian North, in Krasnoyarsk," he says.
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