The Sverdlovsk Air Disaster

The Sverdlovsk plane crash on January 5, 1950, killed all 19 people on board, including almost the entire Soviet Air Forces ice hockey team (VVS Moscow)—11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur. The team was flying in a twin-engined Lisunov Li-2 transport plane, a licensed Soviet-built version of the DC-3, to a game against the Chelyabinsk Dzerzhinets (Traktor Chelyabinsk) hockey club. The flight was diverted to Sverdlovsk due to bad weather in Chelyabinsk. The crew attempted four approaches to Koltsovo Airport in Sverdlovsk, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, but the aircraft crashed near the airport during the fifth approach in a heavy snowstorm with strong winds.

It has been claimed that Vasiliy Stalin, Josef Stalin's son, was in charge of the team and did not want to upset his father. As a result, he never told him. Rumor has it that the younger Stalin simply formed a new hockey team, and his father, who was never a big fan of the game in the first place, was unconcerned.

It's difficult to confirm whether that part of the story, though widely reported, is true. However, the crash was never mentioned in the state media, and the team was replaced. It's debatable whether this was done with or without Stalin's knowledge.