In the history of long-range aviation during the Great Patriotic War, two unique cases occurred: falls from different heights of a navigator and a pilot with unopened parachutes, which ended well: both aviators survived. It happened in January and April 1942. Both the navigator and the pilot had to leave the DB-3F (IL-4) aircraft of the same type.
Navigator Ivan Mikhailovich Chissov
On January 25, 1942, a squadron of bombers of the 98th Regiment of Long-Range Bomber Aviation, which included the crew of pilot N. P. Zhugan on a DB-3f aircraft, flew to bomb a railway junction in the Warsaw direction. After completing the combat mission, the pilots sent the plane to the base, but were attacked by the Messerschmitts and were shot down. Nikolai Zhugan ordered the crew to leave the plane with parachutes. Only the navigator responded to the command. Ivan Chissov left the plane by jumping out of the lower hatch. At the same time, the height of the aircraft was about 7000 meters.
Chissov's story:
They were written off from flight work, but left in personnel. He became a navigator teacher at the Voroshilovgrad military school.
Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Konstantinovich Grechishkin
The group, which was to strike at the headquarters of the Nazi command in Vilno, included the crew of V. K. Grechishkin.
Above the target, the bomber came under heavy anti-aircraft fire and, in addition to everything, was attacked by an enemy fighter. The right motor is out of order. On returning, we got into the clouds, the car began to freeze over. All devices are out of order. The commander and navigator decided to fly strictly east as long as there was enough fuel. It is not unlimited on an airplane, and it had to end sometime. Fortunately, it happened already over its territory. Having typed an altitude of 900 meters on the last liters of fuel, the ship's commander ordered the crew to leave the plane. The pilot himself threw himself last at an altitude of 600 meters.
After counting the allotted five seconds, Grechishkin pulled the exhaust ring, but … he did not feel the usual inhibition of the fall. He threw back his head, and there, instead of a white dome, he saw a parachute canvas wriggling with a rope. Dropping his gloves, he began to pull the harness towards him, hoping to loosen the lines. But the height was not enough. Impact, loss of consciousness. In this state, with the parachute lines clutched in his hand, the groom found him in the morning. After making sure that the pilot was alive, he took the village to the hospital, and from there - to the hospital.
Vasily Konstantinovich says:
These are two absolutely incredible incidents during the war. One of them was awarded the Guinness Book of Records.
