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Aeroflot Flight 6833

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1983 aircraft hijacking

Aeroflot Flight 6833
A Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft similar to the aircraft involved in the incident.
Hijacking
Date18 November 1983
SummaryHijacking
SiteEn route from Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
to Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
41°40′8.82″N 44°57′17.96″E / 41.6691167°N 44.9549889°E / 41.6691167; 44.9549889
Aircraft
Aircraft typeTupolev Tu-134A
OperatorAeroflot
RegistrationCCCP-65807
Flight originTbilisi-Novo Alexeyevka Airport (TBS / UGGG)
DestinationLeningrad-Pulkovo Airport (LED / ULLI)
Passengers57
Crew7
Fatalities8
Survivors56

Aeroflot Flight 6833, en route from Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, to Leningrad, Russian SFSR, with an intermediate stop in Batumi, was the scene of an attempted aircraft hijacking by seven young Georgians on 18–19 November 1983. The crisis ended with a storming of the Tu-134A airliner by Alpha Group that resulted in eight dead. The surviving hijackers were subsequently tried and executed.

Incident

On 18 November 1983, seven young people, all sons of Georgian intellectual elite families – attempted to flee the Soviet Union by hijacking an airliner of the state-run Aeroflot company. Among the hijackers were the painters Gia Tabidze, Davit Mikaberidze, and Soso Tsereteli, the actor Gega Kobakhidze (who had just been selected to play a role in Tengiz Abuladze's subsequently famous film Repentance), and the physicians Paata and Kakhi Iverieli. They pretended to be a wedding party, boarded the airliner in Tbilisi, and tried to divert it to Turkey. There were 57 passengers and seven crew members on board.

The captain, Akhmatger Gardapkhadze, and the co-pilot, Vladimir Gasoyan (both of them were subsequently awarded the titles of the Hero of the Soviet Union) made sharp maneuvers to prevent the hijackers from taking aim. The hijackers were forced out of the flight deck but several people were injured in a clash. Rather than concede to the hijackers' demands, the pilot circled Tbilisi and later landed.

The Georgian Communist Party chief, Eduard Shevardnadze, called for the deployment of an elite Soviet special unit Alpha Group from Moscow. On day two of the hijacking the Alpha group stormed the aircraft and arrested the surviving hijackers. The incident claimed the lives of three crew members, two passengers and three hijackers. The aircraft received 108 bullet holes during the attack, and because its structure was weakened by the maneuvers that exceeded its design limits, the aircraft was written off.

Trial and aftermath

The arrested hijackers as well as their friend and confessor Orthodox priest Theodore Chikhladze were tried by the Soviet Georgian court. The convicts declared that they wanted to "have a better life and live in a free society." Shevardnadze described them as "drug addicts" and "bandits", and demanded the death penalty. In August 1984, the three hijackers – Kobakhidze and the brothers Iverieli – were sentenced to death, while their female co-conspirator Tinatin Petviashvili received a 14-year jail sentence. Despite the lack of evidence, the priest Chikhladze was declared a "ringleader" and also sentenced to death. On 3 October 1984, all four men were shot.

Many details of the incident are still unclear and a series of questions remain open. Shevardnadze has been accused of rejecting the offer by the hijackers' parents to negotiate with their sons the release of the hostages. Many claims have been made that he demanded the death penalty for the hijackers to strengthen his positions among the Communist leadership and to show his loyalty to Moscow. The 108 bullet holes in the aircraft as well as the death of a stewardess remain a source of controversy.

In 2001, a Georgian producer of the Marjanishvili Theater, David Doiashvili, decided to make a performance of the 1983 events. However, the theater administration didn't accept the screenplay of the writer David Turashvili. The latter stated Shevardnadze was reluctant to recall old memories. Georgian human rights organizations claimed censorship in Georgia was still functional. The performance The Jeans Generation, or Belated Requiem was staged, however, at the private Liberty Theatre and gained a conspicuous popularity in Georgia.

In 2003, Georgian-born author and director Zaza Rusadze made a documentary Bandits about the event and its background. The movie was screened at several International Film Festivals and broadcast in German and French speaking EU countries in 2004, as well as on the 1st Channel of Georgian Public Broadcaster.

See also

References

  1. Сергей Турченко. Кровавый рейс № 6833 // "Труд" от 2 августа 2000
  2. "Угоны самолётов в СССР Captures of planes in the USSR". hijacking.far.ru. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  3. "Гасоян Владимир Бадоевич". www.warheroes.ru. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  4. Christensen, Julie (Spring 1991). "Tengiz Abuladze's Repentance and the Georgian Nationalist Cause" (PDF). Slavic Review. 50 (1): 163–175. doi:10.2307/2500608. JSTOR 2500608. S2CID 155732018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2013.
  5. ^ "Чрезвычайное происшествие (попытка угона) c Ту-134А Грузинского УГА в Грузии (борт СССР-65807), 18 ноября 1983 года. // AirDisaster.ru – авиационные происшествия, инциденты и авиакатастрофы в СССР и России – факты, история, статистика". www.airdisaster.ru. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  6. "✈ russianplanes.net ✈ наша авиация". russianplanes.net. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  7. ^ (in Georgian) თვითმფრინავის გამტაცებლები (The Hijackers). Archive Administration of Ministry of Internal Affairs. Retrieved 25 April 2008. Archived 11 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Priest's death sentence by Soviets 'a warning,' report says". United Press International. 21 December 1984.
  9. "ქართული თეატრის ენციკლოპედია — ჯინსების თაობა" (in Georgian). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.

External links

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Aviation accidents and incidents in Georgia (country)
Georgian SSR
Georgia
This includes accidents in the Georgian SSR and post-independence Georgia
* refers to accidents and incidents that took place in Abkhazia.
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1983 (1983)
Jan 11 United Airlines Flight 2885Jan 16 Turkish Airlines Flight 158Mar 7 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 013Mar 11 Avensa Flight 007Apr 19 Aeroflot Flight E-46May 1 Negev mid-air collisionMay 5 Hijacking of CAAC Flight 296May 5 Eastern Air Lines Flight 855May 22 Rhein-Main Starfighter crashJun 2 Air Canada Flight 797Jun 6 Alraigo incidentJun 8 Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8Jul 1 Chosonminhang Il-62 crashJul 11 TAME Flight 173Jul 16 British Airways Sikorsky S-61 crashJul 23 Air Canada Flight 143Aug 30 Aeroflot Flight 5463Sep 1 Korean Air Lines Flight 007Sep 14 Guilin Airport collisionSep 23 Gulf Air Flight 771Oct 11 Air Illinois Flight 710Nov 8 TAAG Flight 462Nov 18 Aeroflot Flight 6833Nov 27 Avianca Flight 011Nov 28 Nigeria Airways Flight 250Dec 7 Madrid runway disasterDec 14 TAMPA Colombia Boeing 707 crashDec 18 Malaysian Airline System Flight 684Dec 20 Ozark Air Lines Flight 650Dec 23 Anchorage runway collisionDec 24 Aeroflot Flight 601
1982   ◄    ►   1984
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