In the early morning of May 25, 1968, a pair of naval reconnaissance aircraft under the command of Alexander Pliev took off from the naval aviation base in Severomorsk in the direction of Norway. Two Tu-16r flew to reconnaissance aircraft carrier multipurpose group of the aircraft carrier "Essex". The second crew was the crew of Sibiryakov.
Pliev's crew recorded the reconnaissance data, passed them on to the command and received an order to return to the base. But he was not destined to return.
Pliev gave the order to the second crew of the Tu-16 Sibiryakov to climb to a great height and, allowing the Americans to find themselves, to divert the attention of the American air defense squadron.
At 11:52 Alexander Pliev himself, having lowered his car to the minimum height, defiantly flew at the deck level of the American aircraft carrier "Essex". Pliev made a spectacular passage next to the aircraft carrier's side at an extremely low altitude, in front of the aircraft carrier's crew, where at that time carrier-based aircraft were preparing for takeoff.
However, the next moment the irreparable happens. When the aircraft turned to go around, the TU-16 touched the water surface with its wing and, hitting the water, collapsed and exploded. The entire crew, led by Pliev, was killed. This was the official version of the American side. There were no other witnesses of the plane crash except the Americans.
In addition, this entire episode, except for the moment the plane collided with the water surface, was recorded on a movie camera by an American operator. According to the established rule, all flights of carrier-based aircraft of the US Navy were filmed and the TU-16, which appeared in the midst of preparation for departures of carrier-based aircraft, also appeared in the frame. The filming shows how the Soviet reconnaissance aircraft flies just above the deck level of the Essex and goes into the second circle.
The very moment of the disaster was not filmed. For a moment, the shooting is interrupted, and in the next frames we already see a column of smoke from the crashed reconnaissance aircraft. The moment the plane collided with the water was not recorded because the operator was shocked by what he saw and lowered the camera.
But it was precisely the absence of the episode of the plane crash in the footage that gave rise to the assumption that A. Pliev's plane was shot down ...
You will learn from this video what are the real reasons for the death of the scout crew.