The story of the Soviets: a full trolleybus fell into the lake but then did not dive into the water sports

Shavarash Karapetyan was a European multi-fin champion and world record holder.

That day, he was greeted by the usual 20km training on the lake when he heard a horrible sound.

Turning around, he saw a crowded trolleybus crossing the barrier of the old highway over the lake and falling with 90 passengers.

S. Karapetjan and his brother immediately went running on the shores of the lake.

Shavarch, 23, came ashore first. He did not stop, but immediately jumped into the water.

He kicked the rear window with his feet.

Armenia is not a swimming country. Several bodies of water are so contaminated that it is impossible to clean them.

A small lake in the country’s capital, Yerevan, was no exception. It was very dark in the depths of the water.

The exception was S. Karapetjan himself. After attending gymnastics as a child, he switched to water sports from the age of 13.

He was a great swimmer and felt better underwater, because that was his swimming style: he swam and competed with flippers on his feet and oxygen cylinders.

The 23-year-old won gold for the Soviet Union at the time, although he was disappointed in 1976, when he remained on board the USSR team.

Then he considered that this was because he was Armenian.

There was no time for deliberation in the lake, although S. Karapetjan was tired after a long training session.

The trolleybus fell about 25 meters from the shore. It immediately sank to the bottom, and at that point the depth of the lake was about 10 meters. S. Karapetjan appreciated it and did not.

He reached the trolleybus and tried to find an emergency door, window, or exit through which to enter, but could find none. The window had to break.

S. Karapetjan kicked at the rear window. The water was cold, about 12-13 degrees, poor visibility, but the swimmer grabbed something like a man and started to pull.

Five inspirations

When he dived, he ordered his brother Camo and the other younger children to stay ashore.

Cam didn’t jump into the trolley at first either, but it was safer to stay ashore and dive alone in case something happened underwater to Shavarš.

One by one, Shavarch released the passengers from the trolleybus. The extraction of one took about 30-35 seconds.

Ascending with the man, he inhaled deeply five times and plunged back into the depths.

It was late, rush hour, when many people were traveling home and the sun was rolling toward the horizon.

The trolleybus was full of schoolchildren, students, and factory workers returning home.

It was unclear why the trolleybus fell from the high bridge into the lake. Either way, the driver lost control and the cost was enormous.

The underwater passengers were crushed, most of them unconscious.

“I realized I was dying”

Among the passengers was Jeanne Avetisyan, a 17-year-old student.

“I realized that I was dying and I was thinking about my mother, father, brothers and sisters,” he said later in an interview.

Avisyan passed out and fell back into the arms of a stranger.

“I didn’t see my savior when he picked me up. But I remember his hand. It was a strong muscular arm. I felt like he was leaning on something, and then it darkened in my eyes again,” the woman said.

Carapetyan had already brought many people ashore when he realized that time was running out. You no longer followed the rule that you should inhale five more times before diving.

He inhaled the air immediately and immediately launched himself.

There was no oxygen left in the trolleybus. S. Karaptjan suddenly grabbed something, but left it inside because he felt he was going to fail.

“It just caught our eye then. I had to inhale five times,” said S. Karapetjan.

They detained more than 30 people.

The self-rescue operation lasted more than 20 minutes before rescue services reached the scene of the disaster and persuaded S. Karapetjan to stop.

There was no chance of saving anyone because the rest of the trolleybus was no longer alive.

Carapetian and his brother Cam estimated that 30 to 35 people were pulled from the water. Some of them were already dead.

According to the official report, 46 people were killed and 20 were rescued.

The brothers remained convinced that they had saved more than 20, but some retirees could quickly leave the scene. And some people were released and escaped when the trolleybus sank to the bottom of the lake.

It took many years for the public to learn about S. Karapetjan’s unexpected feat and received awards.

As is typical of those times, the tragic events were silent.

Going back to sport was too difficult

Carapetian fell ill that night. Her legs were swollen, her temperature rose more than 40 degrees. He began to wander himself.

He was diagnosed with pneumonia and spent the next three weeks in the hospital suffering from various ailments.

After a restful break, he started walking, but his immune system was compromised.

Although he tried to return to the sport of finning, it was not psychologically easy.

Karapetjan said that after the whole story he was not afraid to dive deep, but doing so only made him nauseous.

He was also hampered by physical consequences.

“When I started training hard, I felt like I couldn’t. The lungs couldn’t take it anymore. I kept coughing and coughing,” said S. Karapetjan.

He returned to underwater sports the following year, reaching another record, but soon had to stop: he could no longer play as before.

The incident was reported six years later.

In those days in the Soviet Union, a trolleybus could not fall into the water.

Such were the government’s instructions, the story was hidden, and the photographs taken at the scene appeared only a few years after the incident.

Only witnesses and rescuers to the disaster knew what Carapetyan had done.

He told his friends himself, but he didn’t like doing it. His wife is said to have learned the story of the rescue not from her husband, but six years later, when the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper finally described the hero’s story in 1982.

Readers were told how Carapetyan saved 20 people. Of course, Komsomolskaya Pravda was silent on how many people died.

Karapetyan then went to live in Moscow, where he opened a shoe store called “Second Breath”.

He was recognized as a national hero, attending the Olympic Football Torch Use Ceremony.

But in the end, he himself modestly appreciated his determination.

“There was no other option,” he said. “It wouldn’t be fair if the fastest diver in the world, in this situation, didn’t try to help.”