We all remember how the entire HC Lokomotiv (Yaroslavl) perished 10 years ago! This tragic day will always be remembered. The Lokomotiv players were supposed to play against Dynamo (Minsk). The entire main team went to the match, the coaching staff headed by Brad McCrimmon, doctor, 4th massage therapist, methodologist and administrator. In addition, there were 8 crew members on the plane.

Tragedy

The KHL draw match between Dynamo Minsk and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was to take place on 8 September. On the seventh, the team gathered for an away meeting. They boarded the Yak-42, which belonged to the Yak-Service company.

Immediately after takeoff, it becomes clear that the crew cannot raise the aircraft to the required altitude. They hit the beacon mast. Because of this, the plane begins to fall apart. He collapsed on the banks of the Tunoshonka River. The entire Lokomotiv hockey team was killed in this plane crash. These are 19 Russians and 7 legionnaires).

Immediately after the disaster, 2 people remained alive. Forward Alexander Galimov and flight engineer Alexander Sizov. The hockey player was taken to hospital with 80% body burns. It was not possible to save him. On the 5th day, from his injuries, he died.

Sizov underwent several operations. Doctors were able to save a crew member. After a relative recovery, he made several comments. After that, he retired and fell silent. He doesn't want to remember that tragic day.

How did the world know about the disaster?

The opening match of the new season of the KHL began in Ufa. Salavat Yulaev hosted Atlant. The meeting should take place on September 7th. After the starting whistle, the players began to implement the ideas of the coaches. But after 10 minutes, Alexander Medvedev (president of the KHL) came out on the ice. It was he who announced that the Lokomotiv team (Yaroslavl) had died in a plane crash. There are no survivors. The match was stopped. It was canceled.

The final conclusions of the investigation were announced on November 2. The crew is to blame for the crash. This is either the first or the second pilot. One of them involuntarily pressed the brake pedal during the takeoff of the aircraft. It was this reflex action that led to the terrible tragedy.

World public reaction

After the incident was reported on TV, thousands of people came out to the memorial action in Yaroslavl. According to some reports, there were more than 12 thousand people on the streets.

President Medvedev condolences to all the families of the victims.

All football matches of the 23rd round of the National Championship began with a minute of silence. The national basketball and volleyball teams took to the playgrounds with mourning bands. Several NHL meetings were timed in honor of the hockey players of the Lokomotiv team (Yaroslavl). Federations of most countries of the world expressed their words of sympathy. They tried to support everyone who found themselves in a very difficult situation. Before the match against Real Sociedad, the players of the Spanish "Sevilla" put on their T-shirts the emblem of "Lokomotiv" and the words: "Sevilla mourns together with the Russian people."

Soon it became known that the team would be revived. Tretyak said that the revived team will serve as a kind of reminder of those tragic events. 4 months after this incident, the new team took to the ice in the VHL draw. The following season, Lokomotiv returned to the KHL.

Ten years later

2021 marks the tenth anniversary of this terrible tragedy. In honor of the victims, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl played a match against Dynamo Minsk. Do not forget that it was for the KHL game that Lokomotiv flew to Minsk. It is very symbolic that 10 years later, on this very day (September 7), the players of the revived “locomotive” played against the Minsk “Dynamo”. The players staged a scoring extravaganza. The result of the KHL match "locomotive" (Yar) - Dynamo (Minsk): 3 - 4. The important thing is not the result of this meeting, but memory. The Sports World remembers those who died on that tragic day! Let the earth rest in peace!