A possibility of formation of the three reaction products having comparable masses at the spontaneous fission of $^{252}$Cf is theoretically explored. This work is aimed to study the mechanism leading to observation of the reaction products with mass
es $M_1=$136---140 and $M_2=$68---72 in coincidence by the FOBOS group in JINR. The same type of ternary fission decay has been observed in the reaction $^{235}$U(n$_{rm th}$,fff). The potential energy surface for the ternary system forming a collinear nuclear chain is calculated for the wide range of mass and charge numbers of constituent nuclei. The results of the PES for the tripartition of $^{252}$Cf(sf,fff) shows, that we have favorable dynamical conditions for the formation of fragments with mass combinations of clusters $^{68-70}$Ni with $^{130-132}$Sn and with missing cluster $^{48-52}$Ca.
