In October 15, 1970 died Kurchenko Nadezhda (1950-1970), Soviet stewardess. She was born in December 29, 1950 in the village of Novo-Poltava of the Altai Territory. In December 1968 she became to work as a hostess of Sukhumi Squadron. Nadezhda died in October 15, 1970, trying to prevent the hijacking of the air-liner AN-24, captured by terrorists, father and son Brazinskas (45 and 13 years old). At a height of 800 meters, two passengers, a father and son Brazinskas summoned stewardess and handed a note to pilots with the requirement to change the route and fly to Turkey. The girl ran into the cab and shouted: 'Attack!'Criminals ran after her. 'No one to get up! - the younger of the hijackers shouted. - Otherwise,we'll blow up the plane! 'At this point in the interior shots rang out, one of which cut short the life of 19-year Nadezhda Kurchenko.A bullet hit the spine of the first pilot George Chahrakiya shot , and his legs were paralyzed. Through the pain, he turned and saw terrible scene: Nadia was lying motionless in the doorway of pilot cabin and was bleeding. Valery Fadeev, the navigator was shot in a light, and flight engineer Hovhannes Babayan was shot in the chest. The most lucky was a second pilot Suliko Shavidze - a bullet lodged in a steel pipe in the back of his seat.The elder Brazinskas stood behind the pilots, brandishing a grenade, and shouting: 'Keep on the left side of the sea. Head south. Do not enter the clouds! ' The pilot tried to deceive the terrorists and to put the An-24 at a military airfield in Kobuleti. But the the hijacker once again warned that the plane will blow up . Soon the captured air-liner crossed the Soviet-Turkish border, and after another half an hour it was over the airfield in Trabzon. Immediately after the landing the hijackers surrendered to Turkish authorities. The next day, by a special all the people and the dead girl's body was taken to the USSR. A little later, the Turks returned the hijacked An-24. After a major overhaul AN-24 with a photo of Nadya Kurchenko in the cabin flew in Uzbekistan for a long time. Brazinskases in 1983 got a U.S. passport. They settled in the town of Santa Monica, California, where they worked as painters. In the U.S. Brazinskases wrote a book about their "heroic deeds", trying to justify the seizure and hijacking of the air-liner by "the struggle for liberation from Soviet occupation of Lithuania". An attempt to organize a fundraiser fund for their own help failed - almost none of Lithuanian immigrants did not give them a dollar. Under the old age the elder Brazinskas became irritable and bile, and therefore in a two-room apartment, which he shared with his son,quarrels frequently occured. During one of these fights 45 year old son sloughterd his 77-year-old dad with a baseball bat. This drama has stirred up the whole country. The Soviet Union was shocked - such a crime happened for the first time. And for many years the name of Nadezhda Kurchenko became a symbol of heroism. Nadezhda Kurchenko was buried in the center of Sukhumi. 20 years after her grave was moved to the city cemetery in the town Glazov. Her name was given to one of the peaks of the Hissar range, to the Russian navy tanker and a to a small planet in the constellation of Capricorn.
It is interesting how isolation and misinformation can deform the human mind to such a criminal level. And then, victims get into the "crossfire" such as the 19 year old stewardess girl. Thousands of people from the Soviet block had to learn the hard way that they were tricked at both sides of the "fence".
Thank you for posting this information. I collect Russian & Soviet badges, and I have one that commemorates this wonderful young Hero of the Soviet Union.
son Brazinskas his now in jail for killing his father in USA, also I watched documentary from this story.
Sowjets were guilty on Nadezhda's death because they should better permit peoples go and not stop them to achieve their goal: fleeing from Russia.
