User:Hillbillyholiday/Articles/Seven Simeons

See also: Aeroflot Flight 3739

Early

 * Ninelle or Ninel Ovechkin??

A large family from Irkutsk that in March 1988 hijacked a Tu-154 airplane with the aim of escaping from the USSR.

Ninelle Ovechkina's mother was accidentally shot when she was five, and she spent her childhood in an orphanage. She later married, but her husband was an alcoholic, who would fire upon his own sons with a hunting rifle after his day-long binges.

Ovechkin large family lived in a suburb of the city of Irkutsk working on laws for ordinary suburb: kept cows, pigs, ducks, rabbits, planted in the garden potatoes and vegetables. All the children were in the work - mowing hay, grazed cattle, traded on the market of meat and vegetables.

His mother, Nina S. (1937g. born.). Salesmen the same store, moonlighted night resale of wine and taught the children the hard opposition of life. The family ruled steady commercialism.

Children (11 people) Basil (26 years), Dmitry (24), Oleg (21), Alexander (19 years), Igor (17), Michael (13 years old) and Sergei (9 years), four daughters : the eldest daughter Ludmila (married, lived in another city and participation in the crime did not take), Olga (28 years), Tatiana (14 years), Juliana (10 years).

Mothers of ten children or more receive the honorary title of "Mother Heroine" because of the Soviet desire to encourage population growth.

After giving birth to the tenth of her eleven children, Ninel Ovechkin was awarded the Soviet title of "Hero Mother."

she reared her seven sons and four daughters by herself in the city of Irkutsk, about 2,600 miles east of Moscow.

The matriarch of the family was Ninel Ovechkin, described by Tass as "a plump, fashionably dressed woman of over 50." The band members had recently returned from Japan, Izvestia said.

After her husband died in 1984, Dmitry, the father, died in 1984. "After the death of our father, she had to become both parents in one person," said one of the children, Tatyana, who was fourteen during the hijacking attempt. "But whatever was going on around us, we were good. We never smoked or drank, never went to discos." An early documentary about the band shows her brood milking cows and shoveling manure between band practices. All this under the watchful eye of a stern but caring mother, issuing precise instructions. Ninelle comes across as principled, but kind. "Evil begets evil. So, I try to never hurt my children," she says at one point. Yet her authority in the family was absolute. "We could not say no to her. It's not that we were scared, we could not even think of defying her," says Mikhail, who played the trombone in the band, and was thirteen at the time of the escape.

At the moment of the incident the family consisted of the mother Ninel, 51 years old, and her 11 children (4 girls and 7 boys, aged from nine to 32). Ninel Ovechkin was a woman with a very tough character and the only leader in the family. She had spent a difficult childhood in an orphanage and hard work and poverty had probably turned her into an ambitious person who would go to any length to have her way. Her husband drank a lot and, while under the influence of alcohol, would threaten to kill his children. After his death in 1984 Ninel reared her children by herself in the city of Irkutsk, about 2,600 miles east of Moscow.

Although private commercial activity was officially prohibited in the Soviet Union, small farm holds like the Ovechkins' could survive by selling produce at local markets. As her family grew, and her husband disappeared for weeks at a time, Ninelle became the farmer, and her children the farmhands.

Neighbors noted that the Ovechkins rarely spoke to outsiders, preferring their own company after school. When one needed a new purchase or faced a major decision, the entire family would gather for counsel.

The Ovechkin family was quite poor and had to work hard in their field and with their livestock. When the boys showed interest and skills in music, Ninel fully supported them in their development, considering this as an opportunity for a brighter future of the entire family. Being a highly authoritarian person, the mother decided that music must be a privilege for the boys only, while she and her daughters should take care of routine tasks such as cooking, washing and even organizing make-up and costumes for the young musicians.

Seven Simeons
In 1983 the seven brothers, with the help of a music teacher, Vladimir Romanenko, formed a jazz band called "The Seven Simeons." The oldest brothers Vasily, 26, and Dmitry, 24, managed the band. The most talented among the boys were 13-year-old Mikhail and 9-year-old Sergey, who also were "a trump card" of The Seven Simeons. Very soon the ensemble won a number of awards in different music competitions across the USSR, and gained popularity. A story about a talented family from "upcountry" was reported in the press and filmed in a documentary.

The Ovechkins attained fame and recognition and were accepted as students of the prominent Gnessin State Musical College. The young musicians' study was not successful though: either because they considered themselves to be skilful enough, or because they didn't have money to live in Moscow. Some sources state that the Ovechkins, despite their great music achievements, could not make ends meet.


 * Seven brothers, known professionally as "The Seven Simeons" jazz ensemble, were employed regularly as entertainers by the local council's cultural department


 * After a tour of Japan, the members of The Seven Simeons became impressed by the standards of life and possibilities available in a foreign country and they decided to escape from the USSR.
 * A tour to Japan was the turning point. The surviving brothers later said that they experienced culture shock at seeing neon lighting, supermarket shelves stacked with food that could be bought without coupons, and memorably for them, flowers in toilets.

The mother Ninel insisted that all the family had to leave, and with the help of her sons she planned a hijacking as a means of crossing the border. The plan proved to be unsuccessful and poorly organized, with tragic consequences. The family's simple life on the outskirts of the industrial city of Irkutsk was changed by a single encounter. Vladimir Romanenko, a jazz-loving music teacher, spotted the male siblings performing a folk song in an after-school music group. A thought that seemed both outrageous and logical formed in his head within seconds. These boys would become a family Dixieland group – from Siberia. Romanenko assigned the group instruments, and taught them to play Louis Armstrong pieces and jazz interpretations of Russian traditionals.

And so "Seven Simeons" - named after a Russian fairy tale - was born.

Success was instant. As Gorbachev's Perestroika made Western culture not only fashionable, but legitimate, a film crew was dispatched to document the phenomenon of the "peasant family jazz band" (as Ovechkina scathingly referred to their portrayal).

Whatever their objections, the family took to the lifestyle, and began to tour Soviet palaces of culture. Once filled with an endless parade of state-sanctioned ensembles, now these stuffy halls framed by heavy velvet curtains, and adorned with Soviet insignia rocked to sounds pioneered in New Orleans. Used to politely applauding at the ends of songs, the crowds barely knew how to react, clapping along to the unfamiliar rhythms, but not daring to get up off their seats.Of the seven boys in the band (the girls were never sent to study music) most of the older brothers were merely competent musicians, but all eyes were on the two youngest children, Mikhail, and Sergey, who wielded a banjo that seemed bigger than they were.

Irkutsk made the national sensation a symbol of the city, and lavished them with Soviet-style privileges. Instead of their homestead, the Ovechkins moved to two large adjacent flats, were given extra food coupons (a regular part of life in the USSR from the mid-80s until its break-up), and the oldest two children were sent to a prestigious music school in Moscow.

But like most Soviet artists, the family was paid the equivalent of less than $5 for filling out concert halls on a nightly basis. The new flat may have had running water, but among the shortages of foods that weren't tinned cabbage, keeping animals brought in more money, and better dinners. Once again doing what it takes to survive, Ninelle defied a strict crackdown on alcohol and started selling vodka illegally at the city market during the day, and outside her flat at night.

But the Ovechkins felt they deserved a better life. An existence where Seven Simeons would perform in front of hundreds, and then return to a flat where there was barely enough food, became humiliating. Frustrated band leader Vasily also quit the musical academy, claiming that classical-minded professors could not teach him anything about jazz, and that his horizons lay far beyond.

Seven Simeons were on the verge of taking the well-trodden path of other Soviet defectors, like dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov – escaping the minders who followed them at every step of the tour, and asking for asylum in a Western embassy.

But their mother would remain at home, where she would likely face ostracism, questions from secret service agents, and possibly criminal charges for not informing the authorities about the possibility of defection. They would never see her again. So, they called off a taxi they planned to sneak out in, and boarded the plane home.

In Irkutsk, people interviewed by Izvestia who knew the Ovechkins expressed shock and bewilderment. Neighbours said the family had been selling furniture and personal possessions in recent weeks.

After
Twenty-five years after Seven Simeons, a Soviet family jazz band, caused a bloodbath following a failed hijacking, they still polarize opinion. To some they are victims of totalitarianism, to others murderers, prepared to kill innocents for material gain.

Both at the time of the trial, and now, a quarter of a century later, Russians' condemnation of the hijacking is determined by their attitude towards the Soviet Union.

9/11 turned the hijacking of passenger planes into a nonpareil crime. Yet, at the time, the Ovechkins were viewed with sympathy, or at least understanding, by some. The question was voiced in the increasingly free media and in an award-winning documentary about the family: what kind of country is the Soviet Union that successful musicians hijack planes to escape it?

Others blamed the authorities for putting hundreds of lives at risk to avoid setting a precedent, and for mishandling the rescue. From this incident onwards, only special operations units have handled emergency situations, though there have still been substantial civilian casualties in other hostage situations.

For many others, no deprivation could justify taking innocent lives. Those who knew them also pointed out that the Ovechkins were not freedom fighters, but simply people determined to become better-off at all costs.

What neither side could condone was the plan itself. The brothers insisted that they came up with the scheme, and that their mother was not told what was about to happen until she boarded the plane. But that was hard to believe.

The stripped down flats in Irkutsk showed that their inhabitants knew they were not coming back, and in the past all important decisions in the Ovechkin family were handled by Ninelle.

Including the choice to send her own children on a badly-planned escape mission that was always likely to end in death.

In September 1988 the trial of the surviving adult members of the Ovechkin family began. Olga was sentenced to six years and Igor to 8 years. They both served out only half of their terms. The younger children were put into an orphanage, and later were taken into the family of the oldest daughter, Lyudmila Ovechkin, who didn't take part in the hijacking. She also took in Olga's child, born in prison.

Information about the Ovechkin's life after the incident is very limited. Olga was killed by her partner during a drunken row. Her second child, a newborn son, was adopted by Lyudmila, who also took care of her younger brothers and sisters (Mikhail, Sergey, Tatiana and Ulyana).

Igor, accused of growing narcotic plants, was arrested for a second time, and later was killed by a cellmate. Ulyana was unhappily married, tried to commit suicide and became physically disabled. Sergey, together with his older brother Igor, played in restaurants for a period of time, but his later destiny is unknown.

Mikhail Ovechkin was the only member of the family who managed to reconstruct his life with music. He played in the Saint Petersburg jazz band Easy Winners, and then moved to Spain. According to the most recent information, at the moment he plays in a jazz ensemble called the Jinx Jazz Band.

There is no information available about Tatiana's life.

Within two years of the hijacking the Berlin Wall was dismantled, and in less than four the Soviet Union perished, and Russians were free to travel to any place in the world.

But even for those members of the family who survived March 8, 1988, there was nothing on the other side.

Olga (28 at the time) served a prison term for terrorism, worked as a market stall trader and was killed in a drunken row by her boyfriend. Igor (17) also spent time in prison, then became a drug addict, and was later murdered in a police cell by another detainee. Ulyana (10) became an alcoholic, then tried to commit suicide by jumping in front of a car, but survives with severe disabilities.

Tatyana (14), and the oldest daughter Lyudmila, the only sibling not to join the hijacking, still live near Irkutsk, while Sergey the banjo-playing youngster, performed in restaurants, and has lost contact with the rest of his family.

Mikhail, whom we tracked down in a Spanish hospital, initially appeared to be the most successful of the siblings. The trombonist married, and moved to St. Petersburg, where he played in several respected jazz collectives, before being invited to play in a Dixieland group in Barcelona. But, due to persistent drinking he was kicked out, saw his marriage collapse, and came to live on the streets. Alcoholism caused him to develop seizures, during one of which he fell and fractured his skull, causing a severe brain injury. He has recovered his memory, but half of his face remains paralyzed, and he can no longer play his instrument well.

"I don't think I have ever come to terms with what happened that day. There is no way to explain why we decided to do what we did. All I want to do is to go back to my home town and start my life all over again," he says.

That made it all the more puzzling last week when the family attempted to hijack a Soviet airliner, an incident that climaxed in a moment of...

philly
Yesterday's Soviet media reports were unusually detailed. According to Izvestia and other official media, the hijacking was attempted by the Ovechkin family of the Siberian city of Irkutsk, not far from the Soviet border with Mongolia.

The Seven Simeons reportedly were scheduled to give a concert in the House of Culture in Irkutsk on Tuesday, celebrated here as International Women's Day, but the event was canceled last weekend.

MOre

 * Veshchovo airfield history
 * "Hero-mother". Neighbours surprised, but had witnessed family selling personal possessions and furniture in the weeks before the hijack.
 * News Sentinel
 * An Irishman in Moscow?
 * An Irishman in Moscow?
 * An Irishman in Moscow?


 * Washington Post

first=David last=Remnick

An 11-member family of Siberian jazz musicians trying to flee to London has been identified as the plotters behind a hijacking attempt  that ended with nine persons dead and 20 wounded in bloody shootout  between the family and an assault team, according to published reports  Thursday.

The Ovechkin family of Irkutsk, led by its mother, with seven brothers who comprised a locally famous Dixieland band known as  "The Seven Simeons," demanded that a flight scheduled to end  in Leningrad continue west to England. During a refueling stop at an airfield outside Leningrad, the police assault team stormed the plane,  after attempts to talk the family out of the plot failed. The government newspaper Izvestia said the Ovechkins had boarded the flight at the often-busy

Film
There Once Was A Band Called Seven Simeons


 * Kino 1990
 * 山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭 - Issue 1 - Page 41

time authors=Briton Hadden, Henry Robinson Luce

Hijack
See also: Aeroflot Flight 3739

Background
From the 1950s until the collapse of the USSR in 1991, hijackers tried to take control of more than sixty Soviet planes. The captors' demands were always the same: to re-direct the plane to a country beyond the Iron Curtain. To escape the Soviet Union, the hijackers risked the lives of others, and almost always their own. Few lived to lay their eyes on their desired destination: many were shot before without setting their foot off the plane ever again, others executed after a trial, and only a handful escaped. Among the hijackers were dissident intellectuals, disgruntled officers and even doomed schoolboys. Yet none of them were as unusual as a matriarch and her eleven children, who rose from absolute poverty in Siberia to international fame, only to meet gruesome deaths in an escape plan that was as audacious as it was naive.

From the 1920s onwards Soviet citizens were not allowed to leave the country freely, and only a tiny fraction travelled each year on official business or cultural tours. The Ovechkins quickly realized that as nationally-known performers they would not be allowed to emigrate, and even asking to do so meant they would never perform outside of a village auditorium again. "Before we did anything else, we agreed – if the hijacking failed, we would commit suicide rather than give themselves up to the police. We would all die together," says Mikhail. The Ovechkins bought a hunting rifle off one acquaintance, and asked another to saw it down. A farmer sold them gunpowder, which they stuffed into several primitive home-made explosive devices. Finally, they enlarged their case for the double bass, to make sure that it could not pass through the security scanner. Fortunately, as local celebrities supposedly flying to Leningrad for their next concert, local police did not search their instrument holders at all, as Ninelle, three of her daughters and seven sons boarded the plane. The family had sold everything they had, and dressed up in new outfits they bought with the money - the clothes in which the world's media would greet them as they stepped out of the plane in London.

On March 8, 1988, during a routine flight between Irkutsk and Leningrad, passed a note to the flight attendant, whom he would shoot at point blank range an hour later.

Next to him sat his accomplices, his nine year-old brother Sergey, eight other siblings, and the beloved mother of the family, who they would have to kill later that day.

On 8 March 1988 Ninel and ten of her children boarded a Tu-154 jetliner in Irkutsk. The official purpose of the flight was a musical tour in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). Their luggage included a double-bass case, which was too big to pass through the airport x-ray machines. The Ovechkins refused to put it in the cargo hold, claiming that it was too valuable.


 * The airport staff recognized the famous band and didn't check their luggage properly.


 * The family hid weapons, including sawn-off shotguns and a hand-made bomb, in musical instrument cases and smuggled them onto the plane.
 * In a gripping, detailed report of the hijack attempt, The Soviet press said the Ovechkins had boarded the Leningrad-bound jetliner in Irkutsk "with weapons and explosives in their musical instruments."
 * Inside their instrument cases, the Ovechkins carried several sawed-off shotguns and some explosives.
 * a man holding an instrument case containing a double bass, a sawn-off shotgun and home-made explosive devices.


 * In total there were 76 passengers aboard the flight, including the Ovechkin family.
 * Izvestia said there were 76 people, including four crew members and three flight attendants, on the airliner.


 * About halfway through the long journey, two of the Ovechkin brothers took the sawn-off shotguns out their instrument cases and handed the flight attendant a note, threatening to blow the plane up unless it was diverted to London.
 * At about 3 p.m. Moscow time, after a stopover in Kurgan east of the Ural Mountains, several of the Ovechkins drew guns and sent a note with a flight attendant into the cockpit, demanding to be flown to "a capitalist country, to London" and threatening to blow up the plane.
 * It read "Change course to London. Don't descend, or we will blow up the plane. You are now under our command."

The armed brothers ordered passengers not to leave their seats. After the negotiations, the cockpit crew, separated from the hijackers by a locked compartment door, managed to convince the terrorists that the plane was not fuelled enough for a long flight. The hijackers agreed to a short landing in Finland, to refuel. In reality the crew, under orders from ground control, secretly planned to land the plane on a reserve airfield near Leningrad. After landing, the jet was surrounded by soviet soldiers. Their uniforms and Russian writing on the equipment made the armed family realize that they had been tricked. The brothers' nervous behavior deteriorated and they started shouting and threatening to blow up the plane. Dmitry shot dead a stewardess, Tamara Zharkaya, who took a direct part in negotiations with the terrorists.

As it would be reported later, the actions of the assault team were not professional and the subdivisions involved in the attack were not specialized in this type of task. These factors led to a dramatic finale of the hijacking.

After the fuel refill (which, according to some resources, was faked) two soldiers from the assault team managed to enter the cockpit and started a chaotic gunfight in the passenger compartment, aiming at the rear of the plane where the Ovechkin family was situated. A few passengers were wounded.

contradiction between early and later reports?

 * A) Ninel Ovechkin, who ordered her sons to kill her and themselves in case of failure, was shot dead by the oldest son Vasily. He [Vasily] immediately killed himself afterwards.


 * B) (early reports?) Realizing their situation was hopeless, two of the Ovechkin brothers shot their mother, witnesses told a Soviet correspondent.
 * In apparent despair over the failure of their plan, the brothers shot their mother, and then two of them turned their guns on themselves. Two other brothers died either in the explosion or from gunfire.


 * Three brothers, Dmitry, Oleg and Aleksandr, let off a hand-made bomb, causing a fire in the plane, and then shot themselves.


 * 17-year-old Igor didn't follow his mother's orders and hid himself in a toilet to save his life.


 * 28-year-old pregnant Olga Ovechkin and her 4 younger brothers and sisters survived too.

Unfortunately, the death of the terrorists was not the final part of the tragedy. The passengers tried to leave the burning plane, but were met by the assault team that violently beat them. Later these actions were explained by a possibility that hijackers could escape together with the passengers.

As a result of this bloody attack nine people died and 36 were wounded (some of them became physically disabled); these casualties were caused by the actions of both the Ovechkin family and the assault team.

However, like many previous hijackers, the Ovechkins' desired destination was a fantasy. The Tupolev-154 they were flying on did not have enough fuel to go further than Scandinavia.

"Land the plane on the Soviet side Finnish border, and tell them they are in Finland. Falsely promise them that in exchange for the release of the passengers, they will be given safe passage to Helsinki," said the voice of the security officer on the ground.

The authorities successfully used the same tactic and the same airport during an attempted hijacking five years earlier, but on landing Dmitry noticed Cyrillic writing on a refueling truck as soon as the plane stopped moving. As a warning, he instantly killed Tamara Zharkaya, the flight attendant who passed the initial note to the pilot, and demanded that the plane take off straight away.

The pilots barricaded themselves in, and still there was no order to get off the ground. Without air conditioning, temperature and humidity began to rise within the plane. For two hours, the brothers paced up and down, screaming at the passengers not to look at them, peering outside the steamed-up windows, and perhaps slowly realizing their gambit had failed. Finally, instructions were dispatched from Moscow. The police unit that burst into the cabin had no special training in hostage rescue. Cowering behind riot shields they sprayed bullets into the aisles, as passengers crouched. One hit Sergey, the youngest of the brothers, in the leg – the others were unharmed. Three passengers were killed, dozens of others wounded.

The brothers realized that they had only minutes before capture. "They started shouting, 'Come, let's blow ourselves up'" Igor, one of the surviving siblings recalled at the trial.

"I did not go – I did not want to die, because I am young. Then I heard my mother shouting 'Kill me!' Vasily, my brother shot at her with the shotgun, and I saw her skull open up."

Mikhail, who was at his brothers' side, is still angry just recalling the bloody moment.

"I remember my oldest brother shooting my mother right in front of me. Why did he do that? Why did they make me watch that? I was just a boy." The four oldest brothers then joined hands and set off the explosive. But it was too weak. Rather than killing them it started a fire that quickly spread to the seats.

Instead, the four took the shotgun and one by one shot themselves, in order of oldest to youngest.

As the fire engulfed the interior, passengers started to jump off the plane. The officers met them with a barrage of baton strikes, after being instructed to "detain escaping terrorists".

The death toll: one air hostess, Ninelle, the four oldest brothers, three passengers, and fourteen more with serious injuries sustained during the escape.

The hijackers who tried to commandeer a Soviet jetliner this week were members of a musical family from Siberia who had shotguns and explosives hidden in their band instruments, the Soviet press reported Thursday. Their adventure ended in a bloody shootout with army troops that claimed nine lives.

Five of the 11 were killed in the gun battle and subsequent explosion aboard the Tupolev-154 jetliner. Three passengers and a flight attendant also died. Twenty passengers required hospitalization for bullet wounds or burns, and at least two members of the Soviet assault team were wounded.

The hijackers included a mother and seven brothers, who made up a jazz ensemble known as the Seven Simeons, the press reports stated. Izvestia implied that the other three members of the hijackers` party were sisters.


 * After a stopover in Kurgan, one of the hijackers passed a note to a flight attendant demanding that the crew change course "to London or any capitalist city," according to witness accounts in Izvestia.
 * At about 3 p.m. Moscow time, after a stopover in Kurgan east of the Ural Mountains, several of the Ovechkins drew guns and sent a note with a flight attendant into the cockpit, demanding to be flown to "a capitalist country, to London" and threatening to blow up the plane. (Both from same source, Tass?)

They boarded the Aeroflot Tu-154 Tuesday morning at Irkutsk with three sisters, their mother, Ninel Ovechkin - "a plump, fashionably dressed woman in her 50s," Tass said - and several small children, who were not identified in the news accounts.

The pilots signaled ground control that there was a problem and told the hijackers that they would have to refuel at the Finnish town of Kotka. Instead, the pilots brought the airliner down at a military airfield outside Leningrad, where troops were waiting.

As the plane touched down, both passengers and the hijackers could see members of a special anti-terrorist squad moving toward the plane. It was at that point that the Ovechkins fired their first shots, apparently in warning, Izvestia said.

A flight attendant, identified as Tamara Zharkaya, persuaded the family members to let the refueling proceed, but she was shot and killed when the hijackers spotted soldiers manning the fuel trucks.

Five members of the anti-terrorist team entered through the pilot's cabin and tried to break into the passenger section, but were fought off by the family in a prolonged gunfight. The soldiers retreated with two wounded.

Ten minutes later, there was an explosion at the rear of the aircraft and a fire broke out. Panicky passengers tried to get away through one of the exits as the assault team stormed the plane with guns blazing.

The crew reported the crisis to ground control, "and a plan was adopted for an operation against the criminals," Tass said. The hijackers were told that a refueling stop at the Finnish city of Kotka was required, but the aircraft-with its 76 passengers, 4 crewmen and 3 flight attendants-landed instead at a military base near Leningrad.

Troops mustering at the base to storm the plane apparently were not concealed well enough, and the hijackers spotted them and opened fire after the craft touched down, Izvestia said.

The hijackers agreed to allow a refueling team to approach the jet, but when they saw soldiers manning the trucks they shot and killed flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya, the newspaper added.

Five members of the antiterrorist squad then slipped into the cockpit through a hatch in the nose of the plane, but were kept at bay by shots from hijackers in the passenger cabin.

The soldiers retreated with two wounded, Izvestia said.

An explosion at the rear of the plane sent the passengers into panic, the newspaper said. The military task force then boarded and opened fire.

"The bandits managed to set off an explosive device in the airliner's tail section." Tass said. "The plane caught fire." While not contradicting the Tass version, Western military attaches stationed in Moscow said it is possible that the explosion was set by the assault team as a diversionary tactic or to blow a hole for access into the jet.

The two then turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide. A third brother died in the explosion, Izvestia said. It did not say how the fifth family member was killed.


 * Izvestia said another brother escaped through an emergency hatch with the other passengers, but was found hiding with three young members of the family in a car at the airfield.
 * One brother, Igor Ovechkin, managed to flee the plane with three small children but was caught hiding in a car at the airfield. (same orig source?)


 * Previous press reports said the remaining hijackers also were captured.
 * All of the accounts implied that the remaining family members were captured. (same orig source?)