Flight engineer Andrey Vasenko (1899-1934, left) and Aircraft Commander Pavel Fedoseenko (1898-1934, right) of the Soviet high-altitude balloon Osoaviakhim-1. Along with instrument operator Ilya Usyskin (1910-1934), Fedoseenko and Vasenko launched on the maiden flight of the Osoaviakhim-1 balloon on 30th January 1934, reaching an altitude of 22,000 metres. During the descent the balloon suffered a catastrophic loss of buoyancy and crashed to Earth, disintegrating in the lower atmosphere and killing all three crew. A number of failings led to the disaster, including the balloon exceeding its maximum safe altitude, insufficient ballast and poorly desined suspending cables