New details have emerged about the air crash on 27 March 1968 that killed Yuri Gagarin — the first man in space.
Fellow cosmonaut Alexey Leonov claims an unauthorised
plane flew too close to Gagarin’s fighter jet, sending it into a spin.
Gagarin and his flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died when their MiG-15 went down near the town of Novoselovo, about 90km from Moscow.
Secrecy surrounding the crash has led to vigorous speculation down the years.
A government investigation of the accident (which Mr Leonov was part of) concluded that the MiG tried to avoid a foreign object
— such as geese, or a hot air balloon.
On the conclusions of this original investigation, Mr Leonov said: That conclusion is believable to a civilian — not to a professional.
In an interview with Russia Today, the cosmonaut — who, in 1965, became the first person to walk in space — claimed he had been permitted to share a declassified report showing that a Sukhoi fighter jet flew too close to Gagarin’s MiG, disrupting its flight — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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