One day when the sky is falling

'Even When the Sky Comes Falling' TikTok Singer Found

One of the most popular tracks used in TikTok videos in 2021 has been a cover of "Sure Thing" by the musician Miguel. TikTok users might know the song by the words "even when the sky comes falling." It has also been referred to as "when the sun don't shine," the "why does the sun refuse to shine song," "where the sun don't shine," and "where the sun doesn't shine."

When a TikTok video is being made, creators have the option of choosing music from a large library of tracks. For example, the "Oh No" song was quite popular in the past. They can also grab audio from other videos, which is what happened here.

The Lyrics

The four lines that most commonly appeared in the TikTok videos that featured the cover were these:

Even when the sky comes falling
Even when the sun don't shine
I got faith in you and I
So put your pretty little hand in mine

Anyone looking at TikTok late into the night might hear "even when the sky comes falling" and "even when the sun don't shine" over and over in multiple videos.

It's unclear exactly when the cover of the song first became popular. However, a number of comments claimed that the track was "stolen" from the original creator, who was supposedly never credited.

Popular Videos

Just as memes are created and have a specific purpose, the same is true of songs on TikTok.

The cover of "even when the sky comes falling" is often used in TikTok videos where there's a sad or heartwarming situation. The people or animals portrayed in the clips are often deep in their own feelings about a particular subject.

Some of them also show moping, like when rain ruins a Florida trip to Walt Disney World:

One of the most popular videos was a heartwarming clip about fatherhood.

"When it's 2035 and you didn't get vaccinated," said another video, with a man loading a Nerf Fortnite dart blaster with zombies closing in.

Lil Nas X and Jimmy Fallon created two videos with the "even when the sky comes falling" song:

Another viral video showed a United States Postal Service driver ignoring a woman while on his lunch break.

The Original Singer

While the original song was written and sung by the musician known as Miguel, the person singing in the TikTok cover has remained a mystery.

On April 7, @ilyspin posted a video with the music track that was credited to @spinmovin, which might have been @ilyspin's old username. However, @ilyspin noted: "Not me singing."

So who was the original singer? We traced the roots of the cover all the way back to Feb. 9.

The singer of the popular "even when the sky comes falling" TikTok song was TikTok user @isthatlai:

In comments, she identified herself as a girl. She also posted a video of her talking after it was requested by commenters, plus a full version of her singing the song.

After seeing that Lil Nas X and Jimmy Fallon made videos with her voice, she posted: "If only people knew it was me singing this."

In sum, TikTok user @isthatlai is the girl singing in the popular TikTok music track that begins with "even when the sky comes falling. " It's possible that the song has been played well over a billion times across a countless number of videos. However, we may never know the full view count since TikTok doesn't share that information.

By Jordan Liles

Jordan Liles is a Snopes reporter with expertise in investigating misinformation, inauthentic social media activity, and scams.

What falls from the sky. Amazing natural phenomena

A few decades ago, the film "I'm walking through Moscow" was popular. There is a wonderful song in this film with these words: “Everything in the world is good. / What’s the matter - you won’t immediately understand ... / And just the summer rain has passed, / Normal summer rain. In fact, summer rain in the heat is a real gift. How can he not be happy? But after all, the rain may not be exactly the same, or rather, not at all the one we are used to.

Instead of streams of water from the sky, let's say. .. stones can fall. In the 1st century A.D. e. the Roman historian Titus Livius wrote about this phenomenon. Stones from the sky repeatedly fell on the Sacred Grove, which was located on the top of Mount Alban. Another ancient Roman writer and scientist, Pliny the Elder, testified how once fish suddenly began to fall from the sky. The same is told in ancient Vietnamese chronicles.

In 1578, large mice fell from the sky near Bergen. They fell into the water and rushed to the shore. The same rain was repeated a year later.

In 1652, a viscous mass resembling jelly fell from the sky in Italy. This "rain" was accompanied by the fall of a luminous meteorite. In 1686, an unusual hailstorm went - there were wheat grains inside the hailstones. This case is written in the British Book of Wonders.

In the 19th century, many such testimonies were collected, one more amazing than the other. On March 14, 1813, a strange event happened in the Italian city of Catanzaro. Here is how the historian wrote about it: “The inhabitants saw a thick cloud approaching from the sea. By noon, a cloud covered the surrounding mountains and began to obscure the sun; its color, at first pale pink, became fiery red. Soon the city was shrouded in such thick darkness that lamps had to be lit in the houses... The darkness continued to increase, and the whole sky seemed to be made of red-hot iron. Thunder rumbled, and large drops of a reddish liquid began to fall, which some mistook for blood, and others for molten metal. By nightfall, the air had cleared, the thunder and lightning had ceased, and the people had calmed down.”

On August 17, 1841, a very strange cloud appeared in the sky in Tennessee. She was red. But even more strange and truly ominous were the precipitation that fell from this cloud. "Rain" was a large drop of blood, fat and muscle tissue. Scientists conducted historical research and found that something similar was described by Plutarch and Homer. The ancient writers spoke of rains of pure blood.

Approximately the same thing happened in August 1868 in Brazil. Here blood dripped from the sky and pieces of meat fell. "Rain" was about 7 minutes. In March 1876, chunks of fresh lamb and veal fell from the sky in Kentucky. In 1880, it rained blood in Morocco. Ten years later, the same phenomenon was observed in Italy. The rain consisted of pure bird blood. It is noteworthy that in the surrounding areas there was no hurricane, no wind, or other natural disasters. And where the carcasses of the birds had gone was also unclear. But in 189In the year 6 in Louisiana, carcasses of freshly killed birds fell from the sky. There were so many carcasses that the streets were literally littered with them. Something similar happened in 1969 in Maryland. Bloody birds fell from the sky here too.

Nature "gave" people not only birds, but also fish rains. For example, in February 1859 it rained minnows in South Wales. There were so many fish that the yards and rooftops were literally littered with it. Two years later, catfish fell from the sky in Singapore, at 19In 1818, herring fry fell from the sky near Sunderland. In May 1956, in the United States, in the state of Alabama, a rain of live fish fell on one of the farms. In 1972, a fish landed on a stretch of freeway near Washington. In 1985, Londoner R. Langton saw that the entire courtyard of his house was littered with live fish. In the same year, in the state of Texas, a fish rain fell on the personal plot of a local resident.

Fish showers are probably not as bad as frog rain. However, as they say, the taste and color ... Maybe someone likes toads more. In August 1804, an unusually black cloud appeared in the sky near Toulouse. From it, the frogs rained down on the ground.

And the day was sunny and clear. One can only guess where they came from. Something similar happened in 1863 in England, in the village of Aikle. Here, so many frogs fell from the sky that the village was literally littered with them. True, a day later the unusual “precipitation” suddenly disappeared. Where they went, people could not understand. In June 1882, an amazing hailstorm broke out in Iowa. Its strangeness lay in the fact that inside the hailstones there were small frogs, and they were alive. In June of that year it rained white frogs in Birmingham. In the same place, similar rain fell at 1954 year. In the 60-80s of the last century, frogs fell in Buckinghamshire, in Arkansas, in France, in the village of Brignoles. And in 1933, in the Far East, near the village of Kavalerovo, jellyfish fell from the sky.

It is estimated that in the 19th century there were more than 100 rains of fish and frogs. In the 20th century there were more than 50 such cases.

An even more unpleasant rain fell in January 1877 in Memphis, Tennessee. Here, snakes were falling from the sky, the length of which was about 0. 5 meters.

In 1897 in Italy, in the province of Macerata, grains of the Judas tree, which grows in Central Africa, fell from the sky. Seven years later, in Spain, grain fell from the sky, and in 1913, in Persia, in the town of Kirkmanshaus, corn seeds fell.

In October 1956, a small shaggy monkey fell from the sky in San Francisco at night. It would be logical to assume that she fell from the plane. But that night there were no monkeys on any plane at all. And in 1930 in Germany, in the Rhine mountains, five dead people fell from the sky, they were covered with a crust of ice.

Of course, it is much more pleasant when coins fall from the sky. This also happens. In 1940, in the Gorky region, over the village of Meshchery, Pavlovsky district, silver money fell from the sky during a thunderstorm. Local residents managed to collect about a thousand coins minted from the time of Ivan the Terrible. On February 17, 1957, the London People's newspaper published an article that said that a resident of County Durham was in the yard when two halfpence coins fell from the sky. In the same year, banknotes in denominations of 1000 francs fell from heaven on the inhabitants of the French city of Bourges. The police tried to find out who owned the banknotes, but their owner was never found. The locals are obviously lucky. On September 19For 68 years, the London Daily Mirror reported that in the county of Kent, in Ramsgate, coins in denominations of pence were falling. There were about 50 coins in total, but they were bent. In January 1976, one of the German newspapers told how, in front of two priests in Limburg, banknotes fell from the sky. They managed to collect 2,000 marks. A little less “lucky” was the inhabitants of one of the villages of the Tula province: in the summer of 1890, canvases fell from the sky. Many thought they had witnessed a miracle of God.

Of course, official science offers its own interpretation of these mysterious phenomena. However, we can talk about a hypothesis, and not about an exact explanation of a natural phenomenon. It is believed that the cause of such mysterious rains is tornadoes. A rotating column of air draws certain objects from the ground, even if they have significant weight. It is able to draw in water or other liquid. Anything can be in the whirlwind of a tornado: coins, oranges, apples, frogs, and so on. Naturally, in some other place, the air flow will weaken and, together with the rain, objects caught in the whirlwind will fall to the ground.

Science offers its own explanation for colored rains. Thus, the rains of red and yellow colors are explained as follows. In deserts and some other places there is dust containing ocher, iron oxides and other impurities. Mixing with the rain, they color the drops. However, the rains are also blue. Such rain was in 1954 in the American city of Davenport.

He painted everything blue. Science believes that the immature pollen of certain plants may have given the rain its color.

On the one hand, such explanations look quite simple and convincing. But on the other hand, there are many additional questions. In particular, the authors of the book “Phenomena of Miracles” R. Rickard and J. Michell ask: “It is not clear why tornadoes are so selective: they capture, carry over a certain distance and bring down only frogs and fish to the ground, while neglecting such components of their environment. habitats like water, mud, silt, pebbles, algae, and other living things."

Another interesting hypothesis concerns electric discharge explosions. A researcher at the Rocket and Space Center A. Nevsky wrote in 1999 in the journal Technique for Youth: “By using calculations, I was able to show that when meteorites fly at hypersonic speed, a giant positive potential is formed in the atmosphere, that is, there is the possibility of“ breakdown between the cosmic body and the Earth. In this case, an electric discharge explosion occurs ... During an electrical breakdown, powerful electron flows flow in the soil layer, directed vertically upwards towards the flying meteorite. Nevsky believes that these streams carry away various objects. The flows of electrons turn out to be of extraordinary power, they impart impulses to gas particles. A gas fountain of enormous force arises, and a vacuum forms near the surface of the Earth. The surrounding air tends to the vacuum, which collects various objects around, and soon they are carried upwards. The temperature in the center of the air flow is high, and at the periphery it is low. Presumably, in the center, the temperature level is approximately the same as that of a high-voltage electric discharge. Probably, at the periphery of the air flow, air from the surrounding layers constantly passes, which is the reason for the low temperature. Therefore, those objects that are in the center are destroyed. And those that are on the periphery receive minor damage. But for now, this is just a hypothesis.

In 1957, the book "Wild Nature of India" was published, its author is the Englishman E. Gee. He wrote about a very interesting phenomenon, which he himself was a witness to. The phenomenon is called "birdfall". It happens in the Indian valley Jatinge, in the mountains of the Indian state of Assam. Every year at the end of August, an amazing holiday is held here, called the Night of the Falling Birds. Locals make fires in the square. Birds appear in the air at night. Some immediately fall to the ground. The inhabitants of the valley collect birds, pluck and roast them. Birds fall from the sky for 2-3 nights. The locals are sure that the gods send them birds as a reward for good behavior.

In the 70s of the XX century, the Indian zoologist Sengupta decided to find out what was happening here. He saw that the behavior of the birds is absolutely unbelievable. They not only fell to the ground, but also flew into houses. Moreover, the birds did not try to escape when they were caught. For several days they were not themselves, they did not eat anything. But if then they were released into the wild, the birds flew away as if nothing had happened. The zoologist decided to discuss this issue with ornithologists in Europe and the United States. It was not possible to solve the phenomenon. "Birdfall" proved to be a difficult task for scientists. But Dr. Sengupta did not back down.

On the eve of the "night of falling birds" he erected a metal tower near the village, on top of which he placed an electric lamp. However, when the "birdfall" began, the birds began to fly into the valley, to the fires. The scientist noticed that the valley stretches from south to north. On both sides of the village there is a forest where certain species of birds live. But only birds living in the northern part of the valley flocked to the fires, and this happened only when the south wind blew.

Sengupta suggested that the reason for this phenomenon may be as follows: birds during their flight are guided by the Sun and stars, as well as by the magnetic and, it is possible, by the gravitational field of the Earth. Birds can feel even a small difference in air pressure, react to changes in the weather. Sengupta assumed that there was a significant magnetic anomaly in Jatinga below the village. And under certain circumstances, which are associated with weather conditions, this magnetic anomaly affects the birds. This can happen on moonless nights with a certain state of the atmosphere. The birds wake up and fly to the village, where they are affected by a magnetic anomaly. It is interesting that the birds living in the village do not leave their nests on the night of the “bird fall”, they do not even fly into the neighboring forests the day before. However, since there were no deep studies, the Indian scientist could not convincingly prove his hypothesis.

No less strange "rains" of ice floes, stones, bricks, etc. remain a mystery. And sometimes they can fall in a very peculiar way. For example, on September 4, 1886, in Charleston, South Carolina, warm stones flew from a clear sky day and night onto the same section of the pavement. In 1880, for five days in a row, in front of numerous witnesses, bricks fell from the sky near the school near the Government House in Madras (India).

In 1921 in India, in Pondicherry, pieces of bricks were falling inside one of the houses. Interestingly, no one managed to find the villain who dropped these bricks. Witnesses of the mysterious phenomenon said that bricks fell not only in the house, but also in the yard. They seemed to appear from nowhere, below the roof. This can no longer be explained by the influence of a tornado ... Something similar happened the next year in Chica (California). No natural disasters, in particular tornadoes, were observed in the district.

Around this time in Johannesburg (South Africa), one of the pharmacies was subjected to "shelling" with stones. The police unsuccessfully tried to find out what kind of hooligans were throwing stones. Interestingly, the stones fell vertically. The cause of the phenomenon has not yet been unraveled.

As legends and legends testify, in ancient times objects of greater size also fell from the sky. There is a well-known Christian legend that the famous pillar in Zaragoza was carried through the air by angels and the Virgin Mary. And in 416, a stone column fell from the sky in Constantinople. In China, Japan and Burma, there are beliefs that stones falling from the sky in the form of a pyramid are nothing more than talismans donated by heaven. People believed that the stones are processed in the sky, and then dumped as a gift to people.

Pieces of ice sometimes fall from the sky. Such "messengers of heaven" pose a serious danger to people. For example, in January 1950, an ice spear 15 centimeters thick and 1.8 meters long fell from the sky in Düsseldorf. The spear pierced the carpenter who was on the roof of the house. Ten months passed, and in Devon, on a farm near North Moreton, large chunks of ice fell, killing a sheep in the process. At the end of March 1974 in Pinner (Middlesex) a huge block of ice fell on a passenger car, causing serious damage to it.

February 20, 1984 in Shcherbinka (Moscow region) an ice hollow ball that weighed 7 kilograms fell from the sky. It blew through the roof of the house. The same thing happened in 1988 in the village of Cades (Spain). An ice ball fell from the sky, split, one of its fragments broke a thick tree trunk.

On June 14, 1990, an elderly English woman, Mary Nixon, reported that a ball of ice the size of a soccer ball had broken through the roof of her house. He miraculously did not kill the old woman herself. Three days later, a piece of ice broke through the roof of an apartment building in Stembridge Road. The ice broke up, some fragments weighed about 5 kilograms. After 6 weeks in the south of France, in the town of Lac de Saint-Cas, a piece of ice the size of a tennis ball fell on a man's head. From the blow, the poor man partially lost his sight.

In February 1993, ITAR-TASS reported that a 4-kilogram ice floe broke a stove in the village of Petrish (Romania) when it fell. In the notes of the paranormal researcher R. Willis, there are more than enough such messages. Science, meanwhile, offers very dubious hypotheses regarding the origin of such objects. Perhaps the ice falls from the sky under the influence of a tornado. But why doesn't he melt? Maybe the ice fell from the plane? But such cases also occurred in ancient times, when there were no airplanes yet. It is known that during the time of Charlemagne (742-814), a huge ice floe fell from the sky, the size of which was 4.5 × 1.8 × 3.3 meters. There is a point of view that falling ice is nothing but meteorites. But such a hypothesis is also questionable, because icy meteorites must melt in the earth's atmosphere.

Official science drew attention to ice falling from the sky in 1996. It was then that Dr. R. Griffiths, on the outskirts of the English city of Manchester, witnessed the fall of a piece of ice weighing about 2 kilograms. The scientist was a meteorologist, he was extremely interested in this phenomenon. He took a piece of ice to study. In the laboratory of the Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, the "heavenly messenger" was carefully studied. And they came to the conclusion: it consists of fifty crystals, which are separated by thin ice bubbles. This is not at all like the structure of ordinary ice. There was also a difference in chemical analysis. So there was no way to say that this ice fell from the plane.

To this day, scientists cannot explain the fall of dead bird carcasses from the sky, bloody rains, heavenly rockfalls and other "gifts from heaven."

"And the city thought: the exercises are going on" - 55 years of the feat of the pilots Kapustin and Yanov

1969. I am five years old. Garrison "Ozernoye" in Ukraine. Hot short summer nights. I fall asleep and wake up to the roar of aircraft engines. Father leaves for flights before dark, and returns late at night. I hardly see him, like most of the boys and girls in our air town.

Therefore, for me, my father is a tunic with gold captain's stars on blue epaulettes, which I secretly take out of the closet from my mother when she is in the store and try it on in front of the mirror, like a coat. Heavy gold mugs of medals chime melodiously at every step...

I stand in front of the mirror and pull with all the strength of boyish lungs:

At that time there was no boy in the country who did not know the words to the songs of Oscar Feltsman and Robert Rozhdestvensky. The whole country sang it.

And the whole country bowed its heads before the feat of the crew of the newest fighter-interceptor Yak-28.

Crew

Kapustin Boris Vladislavovich - captain, was born in 1931 in the village of Urupsky, Otradnensky district, Krasnodar Territory, in the family of a researcher. In 1947 he graduated from a seven-year school in Rostov-on-Don, in 1951 - from the Rostov Industrial College. In 1951, he was drafted into the ranks of the Armed Forces, at the suggestion of the draft board, he entered the Kirovobad Military Aviation School for Pilots. Kholzunov.

After graduating from college, assigned to the North. Then he was sent to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSVG).

Yanov Yuri Nikolaevich - senior lieutenant, was born in 1931 in Vyazma, Smolensk region, in the family of a railway worker. In 1950 he graduated from secondary school N 1 in Vyazma, in 1953 - the Ryazan military automobile school, in 1954 - the Ryazan military school for navigators.

After graduating from college, he was sent to the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany.

Both in 1964 retrained in Novosibirsk for the new Yak-28 fighter, a silvery handsome man, whose impetuous, almost "Gothic" forms became the personification of a gambling era - the assault on space, supersonic, and the stratosphere. The already prepared crew as part of a group of aircraft flew from Novosibirsk to the GSVG to the Finov airfield. There, 40 kilometers from Berlin, the 668th bomber aviation regiment of the legendary 132nd bomber Sevastopol Red Banner Aviation Division was based.

Kapustin - pilot, Yanov - navigator-operator. Both are top notch fighters. Others were not taken here: in the midst of the Cold War, the world has not yet recovered from the Caribbean crisis, in Germany, a dozen and a half armies of the former allies in the anti-Hitler coalition are head-on.

Takeoff

On the morning of April 6, 1966, Captain Boris Kapustin's flight received an order to fly the new Yak-28Ps to Zerbst, to the base of the 35th Fighter Aviation Regiment. It was a fabulous car! The first Soviet fighter-interceptor capable of destroying the enemy at low altitudes, not only on overtaking, but also on a collision course. A link of interceptors "along the chain" was distilled to Germany from the Union, where they were assembled at the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant.

- On April 3, they unexpectedly landed in Finov, although only 15 minutes of flight remained before Zerbst, - recalls Galina Andreevna Kapustina, the widow of the flight commander. - When Boris came home, he admitted: he barely made it, the engine was junk.

Aircraft were not released from the airfield for three days, technicians were busy with them. And only on April 6 was they allowed to fly to Zerbst. For everything about everything - from taxiing out on the runway to landing - forty minutes. For first-class pilots - an easy ride.

The laces on high-altitude suits are tightened, all zippers are fastened, helmets are put on, aircraft technicians, like caring nannies, habitually help the pilots to take their seats in the cockpits, check all connections and connectors, remove covers and plugs. At 15.24, a pair of brand new interceptors, still smelling of varnishes and nitro paints, flooding the airfield field with the roar of engines, quickly ran up the runway and soared into the sky.

Flight commander Captain Boris Kapustin - leader, Captain Vladimir Podberyozkin - follower. Navigators on board: Kapustin - Senior Lieutenant Yuri Yanov, Podberyozkin - Captain Nikolai Lobarev.

While the link is breaking through low clouds, here is the certification that the commander of the regiment Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant Colonel Koshelev gave Kapustin in November 1965, when he was nominated for the position of deputy squadron commander: "Kapustin flies on Yak-18, UTB-2, Il-28 aircraft , Yak-12 and Yak-28L with the R11AF2-300 engine Total flying time - 1285 hours In 1964 he successfully retrained on the Yak-28, quickly mastered the retraining program Flying time on the Yak-28 - 247 hours Prepared for combat operations during the day and at night with the minimum weather from low, high altitudes and from the stratosphere at supersonic speed. As an instructor, he was trained day and night with the established minimum weather. He flies confidently, initiative in the air ... "

The navigator Yuri Yanov was also brilliantly certified: "He flies on Li-2, Il-28, Yak-28 aircraft. As a navigator he is prepared for combat operations with the Lotos system, at low altitudes - with the OPB-16 sight. Total flying time - 1030 hours, on the Yak-28 - 185 hours. In 1965 he flew 125 hours, performed 30 bombings with an average score of 4.07. He loves to fly. In the air he is calm and initiative. Very serious and businesslike..."

in the heavenly distance, they could reach the stars with their hands. The trouble came up like tears to the eyes: once in flight, once in flight, once in flight the engine failed ...

Refusal

Altitude 4000. A pair of Yak-28s, having broken through dense clouds after takeoff, glided in an icy void pierced by the dazzling sun above snow-white clouds. Direction to Zerbst! Ten minutes of flight had already passed, when the Yak of the leader suddenly veered sharply to the right.

He began to lose speed and fall.

On the tape recording of the radio exchange preserved in the materials of the investigation, a short note remained:

Kapustin - to the follower:

- 383rd, move to the right!

On command, the wingman performed a maneuver, bypassing the leader's aircraft that was losing speed and control, and came forward. Yak-28 Kapustin immediately fell behind.

After a couple of seconds, Podberyozkin asked:

- 367th, I don't see where you are?

- Three hundred and eighty-third, route on assignment! I'm coming back! Kapustin replied.

Podberyozkin continued flying, but a few seconds later, worrying about the commander, again asked for the leader:

- ...sixty-seventh, how are you?

Silence.

- Three hundred and sixty-seventh, why don't you answer? This simply could not be! The Yak-28 engines are two units independent of each other, each located on its own plane. As the commission will establish, the reason was a "design and manufacturing defect. "

Alas, this was not surprising.

Time

The Yak-28, which began to enter the army in 1960, turned out to be a very capricious machine and often refused. The fuselage of the aircraft was not strong enough and deformed when fully loaded, while it was impossible to close the cockpit canopy. Therefore, it was necessary to first land the crew, close the cockpit, and only then refuel the aircraft and hang up ammunition. Takeoff was allowed only in the non-afterburner mode of operation of the engines - when the afterburner was turned on on takeoff, a "raznotyag" arose, which inevitably led to disaster. For a long time, the flap extension system, which developed insufficient force, caused criticism ...

The haste with which the Yak-28 was created is the root cause of its accident rate. The root cause of the haste is the political situation in Europe, where there was a smell of a big war. Vicious circle. The end justifies the means...

The 8th State Red Banner Scientific Testing Institute of the Air Force opposed the adoption of the Yak-28P into service. But the command of the Air Defense Forces "pushed through" the decision to launch it into a series: 443 interceptors left the stocks of the Novosibirsk Aviation Plant. The Yak-28P was in service for almost thirty-five years, but was never officially adopted by our army.

Nevertheless, the aircraft enjoyed respect among aviators. The pilots were especially impressed by its thrust-to-weight ratio - when flying without weapons in afterburner, the fighter could gain altitude almost vertically. The danger of flying on it was considered something natural. So to speak, the costs of the profession.

Such was the time, such were the people...

"Jump!"

The silence was deafening. The plane began to lose altitude rapidly.

Don't panic!

Psychology of a pilot - to the last fight for the life of a winged machine, save, land! And thus preserve priceless evidence of what happened. A malfunction will be detected on the ground, telegrams will fly to all corners of the country - check the problem node. And these are the saved lives of pilots.

That's why there is no time to think about your own.

Kapustin tried to start the engines with the help of an autonomous start system and oxygen make-up - it did not work! Another attempt failed!

A deceptively soft snow-white blanket of clouds was inexorably creeping towards the "Yak". Beneath it is still invisible ground.

Altitude 3000. "Yak" fell into the clouds, in the cockpit it instantly became dark, as in twilight. Decision time. You need to jump.

According to SPU (aircraft intercom. - Auth.) Kapustin gives a command to the navigator:

- Yura, jump!

But to leave the plane at that moment would complicate the pilot's position even more. The difference between an interceptor and a bomber is that in the Yak-28 two people sit in the same cockpit one after the other; during ejection, a common cockpit glazing lamp flies off. A hurricane of air will fall on Kapustin, the explosion of the ejection seat squib will disturb the alignment of the aircraft, push it down. ..

Yanov makes an instant decision:

- Commander, I'm with you! Let's jump at the same time!

The Yak emerged from the clouds. There is a momentary shock in the cockpit. Under them, in full breadth, from horizon to horizon, Berlin opened up...

Feat

Half a century ago, there were no modern navigation systems that could determine the position of an aircraft with an accuracy of up to a meter. The flight above the clouds on the course in the absence of landmarks and a strong side wind "demolished" the interceptor several kilometers to the side, to the city.

Height 2000.

And a 16-ton, full tank of fuel car falls into busy streets.

The mirror of Lake Stössensee gleamed far ahead. In front of him is a green wasteland covered with bushes. This is the last chance - to reach him and try to sit down. Both pilots, with the last of their strength, pull the control sticks towards themselves, bringing the plane out of a dive.

And it would be necessary to jump - the flight did not come out. But an empty plane will crash on the city. It will pass without leaving a living trace, and thousands of lives, and thousands of lives, and thousands of lives will be interrupted then

smoke, in complete silence, suddenly makes a slide, gaining maximum speed. And from the top of the hill, in a gentle turn, it goes towards the Berlin outskirts.

From the story of West Berlin worker W. Schrader:

"I was working on a 25-story building. At 3:45 p.m., an airplane took off from a gloomy sky. I saw it at an altitude of about 1,500 meters. The car began to fall, then rose , fell again and rose again. And so three times. Obviously, the pilot tried to level the plane..."

Roofs of houses flashed under the very wing. Kapustin ordered again:

- Yura, jump!

Aircraft of the 1960s were fitted with second-generation ejection seats that had limited ejection heights. On the Yak-28, this limit was 150 meters. Yanov still had a chance to survive. But then Kapustin will definitely have no chance of escaping.

Yanov answered again:

- Commander, I'm staying!

Blocks flash by and you can't jump. Let's reach the forest, friends decided. Away from the city we will carry death. Let us perish, let us perish, let us perish, but we will save the city

The earth is moving, filling the horizon. The last houses disappear under the fuselage - here it is, a saving wasteland. And suddenly among the greenery - a forest of crosses and roofs of crypts. Cemetery! You can't sit down! Now - only on the surface of the lake that opens up ahead. But in front of him is a high dam...

Kapustin's last words remained on the tape:

- Calm down, Yura, let's sit down...

In some incredible way, they also jumped over the dam, almost hitting a truck driving along it. But to level the plane, raise the nose for landing - there was no speed, no time. Having raised a fountain of water, "Yak" dug into the muddy depths with a huge spear.

Less than 20 minutes have passed since departure. Since the beginning of the accident - about 30 seconds.

Honor and dishonor

Galina Andreevna Kapustina remembers:

"Boris didn't want to leave the house that day! - he said. I already had lunch on the stove for my son, whom I was waiting for from school. "Well, go ahead," I said to Boris. He nodded and left. And my throat caught from a bad feeling. I rushed to the window. All five crews had already left for the airfield, and Boris was still standing near the house, shifting from foot to foot, as if he felt that he was going towards death.0003

I learned about Boris' death only on the second day. I was afraid to talk about it, I was the last to know. But I already felt that something bad had happened. The first-grader son, returning from school, lay down on the sofa, turned to the wall. I saw how the wives of officers were crying, gathered together. And when the political officer, party organizer and regiment commander entered the apartment, I understood everything. She only asked: "Is he alive?" The commander shook his head. And I passed out."

And then it was time for the vultures.

The disaster area was the English sector of West Berlin. Within 15 minutes, Brigadier General David Wilson, head of the British military mission, arrived here. The British military police cordoned off the lake. All appeals of the Soviet command to gain access to the crash site were rejected under the pretext of settling bureaucratic procedures.

And at night, a team of military divers began to dismantle the equipment of the fighter. Western experts knew that it had a unique Oryol-D radar...

The British got the bodies of the pilots quickly, but continued to assure the Soviet representative, General Bulanov, that they were still trying to do it. Despising the unwritten code of officer honor, to which Soviet pilots were faithful until the last seconds of their lives.

Only at dawn of the next day were the bodies of Kapustin and Yanov defiantly laid on the raft. But only closer to the night they were transferred to the Soviet command. The British were playing for time, because technicians from the Royal Aeronautical Institute at Farnborough were studying the dismantled equipment.

But there were also touching human manifestations of grief. Thousands of citizens came to say goodbye to the pilots in the eastern sector of Berlin. The British command sent a unit of Scottish riflemen for the guard of honor. And they stood next to Soviet soldiers, soldiers of the National People's Army of the GDR, activists of the Union of Free German Youth. This was, perhaps, the only case that united communities that were incompatible in those cold times.

Later, a memorial plaque was erected at the crash site. Commemorative signs appeared in Eberswalde and seven other cities in Germany...

On April 16, 1966, the Military Council of the 24th Air Army presented Captain B.V. Kapustin for awarding the Order of the Red Banner. (posthumously) and Senior Lieutenant Yanov Yu. N. (posthumously) for courage and self-sacrifice in the name of saving the lives of the inhabitants of West Berlin. Soon the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published.

The arrow of the plane shot out of the sky. And the birch forest shuddered from the explosion ... It will not be long before the glades will be overgrown with grass. And the city thought, and the city thought, and the city thought: the exercises are going on

Heaven for two

Yuri Yanov is buried in his homeland, in Vyazma, not far from the places where the first cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was born.

Boris Kapustin was given his last honors in Rostov-on-Don, where his parents lived at that time. The widow also had to bury her father-in-law that day. Vladislav Alexandrovich Kapustin could not bear the grief, he loved his son very much...

- Then he suffered two strokes, lay at home, not getting up, - recalls Galina Andreevna Kapustina. He was afraid to talk about what happened. But he knew anyway. He only said: "Since Boris is gone, there is nothing for me to do here." And he died in less than a day. Father and son were buried side by side on the same day - April 12...

Fifty years later, I am standing at the Vyazma cemetery in front of a modest red granite obelisk. A mean inscription under the photo: "Senior Lieutenant Pilot Yanov Yuri Nikolayevich, heroically died in the line of duty." Quiet around. Smells like spring. And I suddenly find myself humming softly, as in childhood:

In the grave, in the middle of silence, excellent guys of an excellent country lie. The huge sky looks at them lightly and solemnly, the huge sky, the huge sky one for two

CALL EDITA PIEKHA

"The navigator's wife got up on stage in Voronezh..."

- How did this song come to you, Edita Stanislavovna?

- Oskar Feltsman wrote music to the verses of Robert Rozhdestvensky, who was in Berlin and learned about the feat of the pilots there.

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