March 27, 1968 the whole world was shocked by the death of the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. His charming smile did not leave anyone indifferent, regardless of political views, his attitude to the Soviet Union and socialism. He was the first earthling to find himself in orbit, everyone loved him.
To this day, opinions differ about how Gagarin died and who is to blame. A thorough investigation into the circumstances of the disaster ended with the wreckage of the aircraft sealed in airtight containers and sent for eternal storage. The official report consisted of many dozens of volumes, but in essence did not explain anything. The MiG-15UTI was serviceable, no special atmospheric phenomena were observed in the flight zone, and there were no extraneous aircraft . Rumors spread around the country that the pilots were drunk. Perhaps this version was deliberately distributed in order to conceal the true reason known to few.
The commissions, trying to figure out how Yuri Gagarin died, investigated many of the circumstances of the events that preceded the plane’s collision with the ground. The weather conditions were not ideal, almost all the time in the air the plane flew in the clouds, and the piloting was carried out “blindly”, that is, according to the readings of the instruments. As of 1968, the MiG-15UTI (two-seat training version of the MiG-15 fighter) was not considered obsolete, it was used to restore pilots' flight skills after a vacation or illness, at least until the mid-70s. Another thing is that this aircraft had some control features: a long glazing lamp worsened aerodynamic performance and reduced lateral stability. But it is difficult to assume that this was not known to the experienced pilot Seregin.
The instrument base of that time consisted of so-called alarms, that is, mechanical indicators. With a rapid rise or decrease, the altimeter was late, and this could mislead pilots performing aerobatics, in particular, a horizontal corkscrew or barrel, but this should not have confused the instructor.
The investigation established that a few minutes before Gagarin died, another military fighter, the modern Su-15, entered the airspace reserved for the training flight. Unlike the subsonic MiGa-15, it could reach speeds of over 2200 km / h, had high rate of climb and maneuverability. With a high degree of probability, we can assume that its presence could fatally affect the outcome of the flight. With close passage near a relatively slow-moving MiG, the Sukhoi could create turbulent air currents that overturned the spark. However, this version also does not provide an exhaustive explanation, because during the Korean War the “fifteenths” did not get into such troubles, and even under heavy fire.
In the place where Gagarin died, a memorial stele with profiles of crashed pilots was installed. Today it is precisely known that they did not drink alcoholic beverages on the eve of death. Thus, after many years, the injustice of human rumor accusing pilot Vladimir Seregin of a catastrophe was corrected, because it was he who was responsible for the life of his famous student in this training flight.
It is possible that the explanation, as in most tragic cases, should not be sought for any one reason, but in their combination. Flight instructions were violated even before Gagarin died, and almost everywhere. The Investigative Commission proved the fact of ten deviations from the norms adopted to ensure the safety of flights in the USSR Air Force. Overcast made its contribution, worsening the orientation of the pilots, who tried to level the plane to the last second. Instrument readings did not give an objective idea of the spatial position relative to the surface of the earth. If to these factors, each of which in itself was not a mortal danger, we add unexpectedly whirling flows, it becomes clear that the pilots simply did not have enough of a hundred meters of height. The reasons for hiding the truth about how Gagarin died were most likely exclusively departmental.