Tragedy in the Karmadon Gorge: the mysterious circumstances of the death of Sergei Bodrov and his film crew

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

14 years ago, on September 20, 2002, a tragedy occurred in the mountains of North Ossetia: in the Karmadon Gorge the Kolka glacier descended, who killed more than a hundred people, including Sergei Bodrov Jr. with his film crew. The bodies of the victims were never found, all 26 members of the film crew are still missing. The mysterious circumstances of the tragedy force scientists today to put forward new versions of the reasons for what happened.

In the fall of 2002, Sergei Bodrov worked on the film The Messenger, in which he acted as a director, screenwriter and actor. On September 18, the film crew arrived in Vladikavkaz. Shooting in the Karmadon Gorge was scheduled for September 20 - only one scene of the film was filmed there. Due to a delay in transport, the start of filming was postponed from 9:00 to 13:00, which cost the lives of all participants. The work had to be completed at about 19:00 due to poor lighting. The group collected equipment and prepared to return to the city.

At 20:15 local time, a giant ice mass fell from the Kazbek spur. In 20 minutes, the Karmadon Gorge was covered with a 300-meter layer of stones, mud and ice. No one managed to escape - mudflows moved at a speed of at least 200 km per hour, covering entire villages, recreation centers and campgrounds for tourists for 12 km. More than 150 people were found under the rubble, 127 of them are still missing.

The road was blocked up, and the rescuers were able to reach the gorge only after a few hours. All the inhabitants of the surrounding villages also came to the rescue. As a result of a 3-month rescue operation, only 19 bodies were found. For the next two years, the volunteers continued their search. Right on the glacier, they set up a camp called "Hope", doing daily searches. According to their version, the film crew could get to the car tunnel and hide from the avalanche there. However, no traces of people were found in the tunnel. Searches stopped in 2004.

There are many mystical coincidences in this story. According to the script by S. Bodrov, only two of the main characters by the end of the film "Messenger" survived - surprisingly, but the performers of these roles really returned home unharmed. According to the scenario, Bodrov's hero was supposed to die. Filming in Karmadon was originally scheduled for August, but this month Bodrov had a second child, which is why everything was postponed to September. In Vladikavkaz, Bodrov lived in the same hotel with another film crew: in a nearby gorge, director Y. Lapshin filmed a film about the descent of a glacier that destroyed local settlements. The plot of the picture became prophetic.

Kolka is a so-called pulsating glacier that falls down about once every hundred years. The fact that he was supposed to get off was known for sure, but it was not possible to predict the time of the disaster. Although seismic stations a few days before the disaster recorded unusual activity - presumably, hanging glaciers fell on Kolka from neighboring peaks. But this data was not processed and taken into account.

Today, scientists say that the glacier could not have triggered the ice build-ups that collapsed from above. Photos were published showing that at the beginning of September there were no hanging glaciers over Kolka. L. Desinov is sure: the nature of the glacier ejection is gas-chemical. The collapse was caused by fluid gas flows coming out of the vent of the Kazbek volcano. Warm jets of gas pushed the glacier out of the bed like a cork from a champagne bottle.

Scientists are also confident that the glacier was not only not accidental, but could also indicate more dangerous and large-scale processes occurring in the layers of the lithosphere. There is a version that the reason for the sharp revival of Kolka was several faults in the ground, which converged at one point. Magma came to the bottom of the glacier, and 200 tons of ice were forced out of its bed. This could be a warning signal for future earthquakes due to faults.

The mysterious circumstances of the tragedy forced many people to put forward incredible versions of what happened. Among the mountaineers there were witnesses who claimed that an hour and a half after the glacier disappeared, the members of the group got in touch, and that they allegedly saw Bodrov alive years after the tragedy.

The exact circumstances of the death of Sergei Bodrov are still unknown. But one thing can be stated with certainty: sooner or later the glacier may collapse again, and people cannot prevent this catastrophe.

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