July 26, 1964 - August 16, 2009
russian military pilot, leader of the aerobatic team "Russian Knights", head of the 237th Guards Center for the display of aviation equipment of the Russian Air Force, Honored Military Pilot of the Russian Federation, Guard Colonel
Biography
Igor Tkachenko was born on July 26, 1964 in the village of Ventsy-Zarya, Krasnodar Territory. He moved to the capital of BAM with his parents. Graduated from school number 7 in Tynda. In 1985 he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after V.I. V.P. Chkalov, in 2000 - the Air Force Academy. Yu.A. Gagarin.
He served as an instructor pilot in the Borisoglebsk Air Force Academy, and since 1987 he served at the Cuban Air Base. During his service he mastered the aircraft L-29, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27, Su-35. He flew 2300 hours on these types of aircraft. Tkachenko flew on foreign-made aircraft: Mirage 2000, F-16.
He has been engaged in aerobatics since 1989. In the aerobatic team "Russian Knights" was listed since 1993, became the commander of the group in May 2002.
The aerobatics group "Russian Knights" was created on April 5, 1991 from the best pilots of the Kubinka airbase, who perfectly mastered the Su-27. “Russian Knights” is one of the few aerobatic units in the world that performs group aerobatics on heavy fighter aircraft. “Russian Knights” more than once demonstrated a complex of aerobatics such as Nesterov's loop, “barrel”, afterburner bend, “fountain” and “scissors” dissolutions, “bell”, aerobatics on a collision course, oblique loop in the “arrow”.
Master of single and group aerobatics Igor Tkachenko performed complex maneuvers at the maximum modes of the SU-27 fighter: "turns on a hill", passes at a speed of less than 170 km / h. Leader and solo aerobatic team "Russian Knights".
He was fond of alternative medicine and cars.
Doom
Igor Tkachenko died while flying on August 16, 2009 during preparations for the MAKS-2009 air show of the Russian Knights and Strizhi aerobatic teams. The Su-27UB aircraft, in which there were Igor Tkachenko and the senior navigator of the TsPAT Igor Kurylenko, collided with the Su-27, piloted by Vitaly Melnik.
As a result of the fall of Tkachenko's plane and the subsequent fire on the ground, a resident of the village "Sosny-2" died, 4 more people were burned.
All three pilots of both aircraft ejected. The reason why Igor Tkachenko died, despite the bailout, is currently not known for certain. According to some reports, the ejection system of Igor Tkachenko was damaged during a collision of aircraft, and the parachute did not open, according to some eyewitnesses, the parachute caught fire in the air, according to specialists from NPP Zvezda, the ejected pilot might not have enough height to deploy the parachute. According to another version, Tkachenko died while still in the plane as a result of the impact of a fighter crashing into him, and the ejection system worked automatically or was activated by navigator Igor Kurylenko.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the commander of the aerobatic team "Russian Knights" Igor Tkachenko in connection with his tragic death.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov decided to nominate Igor Tkachenko to be awarded a posthumous state award "for courage and heroism." Due to the death of the commander, the Russian Knights aerobatic team canceled its demonstration performances at the MAKS-2009 air show. Subsequently, the pilots of the "Russian Knights" team dedicated their flight to the memory of their commander at the closing of this air show.
He was buried on August 19, 2009 at the cemetery of the village of Nikolskoye, near the town of Kubinka, not far from the airfield of the Russian Knights.
Awards
- Chevalier of state orders and medals of the USSR and Russia:
- Hero Russian Federation (2009, posthumously)
- Order of Courage (2005)
- Order of Military Merit
- Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"
- Medal "70 years Armed Forces USSR"
- Medal for Distinction in military service"(Ministry of Defense) 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree
- Honored Military Pilot of the Russian Federation
- Honorary Citizen of the city of Tynda (decision of the Tynda City Duma No. 35 of April 3, 2006)
A family
He was married and raised a son and daughter. Son Igor Igorevich Tkachenko graduated from the Armavir Pilot School and continues his father's work.
Memory
On August 18, 2009, in memory of the deceased pilot, the MAKS-2009 air show was started with a minute of silence. In briefings and conferences of aerobatic teams and the RF Air Force command at the air show, the topic of the death of a pilot and the reasons for what happened was repeatedly raised. The aerobatic group "Russian Knights" took part in the air show - on August 23, the aerobatic program of the air show was closed by the passage of four Su-27s.
Tkachenko Igor Valentinovich
Hero of the Russian Federation
Guard Colonel.
Commander of the aerobatics group RUSSIAN VITYAZI.
Born on July 26, 1964
In 1985 he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after V.P. Chkalov. He served as an instructor pilot at his own school.
In 2000, he graduated from the Yu.A. Gagarin. During his service he mastered the L-29, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27. Performed flights on foreign types of fighters. He flew 1600 hours on these types.
Honored Military Pilot of Russia. Military pilot-sniper.
Engaged in aerobatics since 1989. Since 1992 he has been a member of the "Russian Knights" aerobatic team as a solo pilot, left and tail wingman, and oncoming pilotage. Since 2002, the host of the Russian Knights.
Died on August 16, 2009 while performing a training flight in participation in the MAKS-2009 air show.
Remained a wife, daughter, son.
To open the photo to the screen frame - click on the photo. To enlarge the photo to full size - click again.
The photo was sent by D. Mikhailov, a 1989 graduate.
============================================
Accident of Su-27. Igor Tkachenko died ...
For several hours, many of us waited anxiously and hopefully for reliable information about the consequences of the collision of two Su-27s that took place during the rehearsal of the MAKS-2009 air show. One of the planes was flown by Igor Valentinovich Tkachenko, a 1985 graduate of the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation School. At first they said that everyone had catapulted, then there was a rumor that someone had died, and we hoped until the last minute for a successful outcome, but ...
The terrible thing was confirmed: the plane, piloted by Igor Tkachenko, fell near the village of Zakharikha, the pilot died ...
We, the Borisoglebsk pilots, who have already given up their flight work, are watching our colleagues who are still plying the sky with hope, joy and anxiety. We always rejoice at their successes and grieve at their failures, and in their flight work we seem to continue to fly ourselves. And Igor Tkachenko was one of the pilots whose flights were especially noticeable, and of whom we were all proud.
Today's tragedy has deeply affected all of us. We express our deep condolences to the family and friends of Igor Valentinovich, and we mourn with them ...
Blessed memory of you, Igor ...
======================================
.
TKACHENKO IGOR VALENTINOVICH
Guard colonel
Chief of the 237th Guards. show center aviation technology
Honored Military Pilot of Russia
Military sniper pilot
Born on July 26, 1964 in the village of Ventsy-Zarya, Krasnodar Territory.
August 16, 2009 at Day air fleet Russia, which is traditionally celebrated on the third Sunday of August, a plane crash occurred not far from the airfield in Zhukovsky near Moscow. During a training flight on the eve of the MAKS-2009 air show, two fighters from the Russian Knights aerobatic team collided in the air. The chief of the 237th CPAT and the leader of the aerobatic team "Ruski Vityazi" of the guard, Colonel Igor Valentinovich Tkachenko, was killed.
The training flight was attended by four MiG-29 fighters from the Swifts aerobatic team and 4 aircraft (Su-27UB and 3 Su-27) from the Russian Knights aerobatic team. After the separation with the Strizhi, at about 13:00, the four Knights completed the program with the traditional and long-established "tulip" - the dissolution of fighters in the form of flower petals symmetrically diverging to the sides. During the subsequent gathering over the floodplain of the Moskva River in the marching formation, by which the pilots were going to go to the airfield in Kubinka, at an altitude of about 1200 m, the Su-27UB collided with w / n "18" (Igor Tkachenko, Igor Kurylenko) and the Su-27 Vitaly Melnik with w / n "14" (was supposed to be the closing one, but replaced the left one in the diamond w / n "08", who returned with a refusal to Kubinka).
Here is how eyewitnesses describe the very moment of the disaster: “One plane hit another in the nozzle with its nose, it blew smoke, went to turn around and fell. The pilots ejected. Then there was a terrible explosion. ", "Sparka" caught up with the Su-27, damaged the nose and the front cockpit, the Su-27 had an engine fire. ", “I started observing the group about a minute before the collision. Everything was happening in front of my eyes ... Horror ... I can only confirm that one of the pilots just "caught up" with the previous one. ", “The first 3 planes went visually with the same speed. The fourth fell behind and followed a slightly different course. Then he accelerated, caught up with the group and the flash ... ", “The three dryers went from Ramenskoye almost directly to us, they passed under such a large cumulus cloud and began to maneuver, and the fourth was catching up with them from behind and above, this cloud broke through and fell on the leading vulture (...) from the engine and slowly began to go to the left over the river towards Bronnitsy, and the second almost lost its nose and was spinning to the right on Belozerikha. Two orange domes appeared almost immediately. (apparently an eyewitness speaks about the lost brake parachutes w / n "14" - RS) while they were descending, the third one walked in circles high above them, then moved to the Pines and for 15-25 minutes cut circles over the place of the fall, until the fire turntables appeared ... ", "Combat Su-27 rushed forward over the commander's twin, then abruptly handed down, hitting its front with its tail ...".
In the collision, the blow fell on “In the front cockpit where Tkachenko was sitting. The blow turned out to be overlapping on the movement, forward and downward "- said a source in the Ministry of Defense Infox.ru. The rear cockpit, in which Kurylenko was, was not damaged by the impact. He triggered the catapult - the plane was already uncontrollable and was falling. (For Kurylenko, this is already the second case of bailouts - the previous one was on a MiG-29 in 2006.) “If the front or rear cockpit drives the catapult, then both are fired at 0.6 second intervals. In this case, it doesn't matter who pulls ", - the expert explained. “At Tkachenko's chair the headrest fell off immediately from the impact, and in the headrest there was a stabilizing parachute. Igor - stone down. But he was already dead ", - the source notes.
“Three planes flew almost over our areas, suddenly we heard a thud and saw that two of them collided. Sparks rained down, the pilot immediately ejected from one plane. Then the planes scattered in different directions: one with a firing tail flew towards Bronnitsy (...), and the other began to descend sharply, almost perpendicular to the ground ... when the pilot ejected from the plane quite near the ground, and the plane entered the ground with its nose, and a column of black smoke and fire rose, they realized that a tragedy had occurred. It all happened in a matter of seconds. ", "The plane that fell on the houses shot the pilot about 100 meters to the ground, and he crashed to the right of my site.", “We saw how an airplane without a nose, falling into a tailspin, sharply gained altitude, threw one pilot and then crashed ...”, “Sparka, immediately after the impact, did not maneuver anywhere, but simply fell down. This is what I saw. ", “Fallen Su-27UB. Only one dome opened. There was no second for sure. ", “There were only TWO white parachutes in the sky ... !!! One to the left of us, where we stood on Staraya Ryazanka near V. Velino ... the other to the right - sank into the field ... ".
"The body of one of the pilots was found in a field near the village of Malakhovka"- said the interlocutor of RIA Novosti. According to 72-year-old Muscovite Nina P., the pilot was without a helmet and severely broke his head during the fall. “Tkachenko was lying in the field and without a chair and a parachute - he crashed. There was no fire at the crash site. When he fell, I did not see the parachute. I only saw that a separate seat was flying and a separate pilot. " “There was no catapult chair or parachute canopy nearby. I did not find any traces of its attachment, such as broken lines or straps on the pilot's body. "- told "Kommersant" a resident of Zakharikha Vladimir, who found the body of the pilot on the field behind the outer houses and called rescuers to the scene. According to the witness, the pilot's body also did not have open wounds that he could have received in a collision - only injuries characteristic of falling from a great height: the corpse was, as it were, sprawled on the ground, and his arms and legs were unnaturally twisted.
Sparka, which fell almost vertically on the Sosny-2 gardening partnership, located near the village of Belozerikha, completely destroyed a three-story brick cottage and several nearby buildings, and the cars of the owners of summer houses were damaged. Fragments of the aircraft flew tens of meters. A massive fire broke out. "In total, five people were hospitalized with burns, four are in a state of moderate severity, another woman is in intensive care.", - said the representative of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Moscow region (51-year-old Olga Elizarova died of burns on the 6th day after the disaster). At the ground, Kurylenko's parachute caught on the branches of dense trees. Approximately 40 minutes later, the pilot was evacuated with a concussion, a bruised spine and knee joint.
As a result of the collision, w / n "14" lost the fuselage compartment with a braking parachute. The plane had a fire on the right engine. The miller turned off the engines and ejected. Upon landing, the pilot received a bruise in both feet. His car fell into a field near the village of Tyazhino. There was no destruction on the ground. "The plane that caught fire is extinguished, no one was injured", - a source in law enforcement agencies of the Moscow region told RIA Novosti.
The Su-27 aircraft with w / n "01" (Igor Shpak), being the trailing one, was damaged by the wreckage of colliding fighters, but did not leave the accident zone for a long time, circling over it with one engine running and directing search groups. After that Shpak landed safely in Kubinka "On an airplane in which there are holes in the wings with a couple of fists, all keels are covered in soot".
Honorary President of the Air Show, Honored Test Pilot of Russia, Hero of the Russian Federation Magomet Tolboyev saw the collision of two fighters with his own eyes. “I just happened to be a witness. They flew off normally. They showed their program. Then there was a dissolution, then the slave had to join his leader. Well, at high speed I caught him, and the worst thing is that the wingman ejected, and the leader Tkachenko, the commander of the Kubinka base, he died. He was the most experienced, one of the most experienced, we flew with him a lot, and 10 years ago, when he was young. Unfortunately, this is not his fault. The wingman, you see how, did not calculate ... The wingman lagged behind the leader at high speed and, equalizing, at a distance of 1.5 ... 2 meters from the tail of the aircraft to the nose of the second, apparently, crashed into it ... Apparently, here the approach speed was exceeded. We have never had a technical failure, this is the rarest case; basically, the human factor plays a role, unfortunately, 80% is a person; this is an accident ", - said Tolboyev.
Former commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, Vladimir Mikhailov, believes that the accident occurred due to the negligence of one of Tkachenko's followers. “Igor is not to blame for this catastrophe. They ran into him from behind, and then everything happened, you probably know more than me "- said Mikhailov.
An employee of the Zhukovsky airfield in charge of the technical side of the fighter tests, on condition of anonymity, told GZT.RU that, most likely, a piloting error was the cause of the crash. "The bird did not get into the turbine, the pilots failed to complete the figure, - he said. - This is the kind of work where no one is immune from such things. "
"To investigate the causes of the incident, a commission has been created, which consists of representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the High Command of the Russian Air Force"- said the head of the information and public relations service of the Russian Air Force Vladimir Drik. Discovered "black boxes" of crashed aircraft. The flight recorders are in satisfactory condition. Investigative bodies of the military-investigative department of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for the Moscow Military District initiated a criminal case on the basis of a crime under Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport).
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the family and friends of the commander of the "Russian Knights" Igor Tkachenko. In turn, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called the death of the pilot "An irreparable loss not only for Russian, but also for world aviation"... The proposal of the Minister of Defense on submission to state award Igor Valentinovich Tkachenko, Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the Russian Knights aerobatic team. According to the Ministry of Defense, Tkachenko will be posthumously awarded for "Courage and heroism displayed in the performance of military duty"... What kind of award the deceased will be awarded has not yet been specified.
Ironically, on August 16 in the Kaluga region, the Yak-52 training aircraft crashed on which the world champion in aerobatics, 37-year-old instructor pilot Svetlana Fedorenko, and the son of the former pilot of the Russian Knights Dmitry Mikhailovich Khachkovsky (in 2003, the senior navigator of the TsPAT went into reserve) - cadet of the Ulyanovsk Higher Aviation School civil aviation Anton Khachkovsky. The disaster occurred at 12:50 Moscow time near the village of Guryevo. The plane took off from the Drakino airfield (the flight director is Svetlana's husband), located in the Serpukhov district of the Moscow region, and after a while fell to the ground, the crew members died at the scene. There are no victims or destruction on earth. On the fact of the Yak-52 plane crash, a criminal case was initiated under Part 3 of Art. 263 ("violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport") of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The reasons for the plane crash are being investigated.
On August 19, with a large crowd of people in the garrison house of officers in Novy Gorodok (Nikolskoye rural settlement of the Odintsovo district), a farewell was held to the guard colonel, Honored Pilot of Russia, commander of the 237th CPAT Igor Valentinovich Tkachenko. He was interred at the Nikolskoye cemetery, next to his comrades who died in Kamran. The pilot left behind his wife Galina Aleksandrovna, daughter, student Daria, and son Igor, a fifth-year student at the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots.
On August 19, Acting Deputy Chief of Armaments Major General Oleg Barmin said that “There are no preliminary claims to the technical condition of the aircraft. The "black boxes" have been found, they are intact, the flight information will be decoded and presented to the commission. As soon as the commission completes its work, it will voice the true reasons "... Air Force experts have established a preliminary cause of the collision, it will be officially announced later, and, as in most cases, led to the disaster. "Tragic coincidence"Barmin added. The next day, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Alexander Zelin, also did not report any results of the investigation of the commission to clarify the reasons for the collision of two Su-27 fighters near Zhukovsky on August 16, but said that there was objective flight control data that would help investigate this incident. “There is a video of the clash, she was arrested, and a commission of inquiry is working on it. It will help to draw an objective conclusion about the causes of the disaster "- said the commander-in-chief of RIA Novosti.
On August 23, the rhombus of the aerobatic team "Russian Knights" consisting of Andrey Alekseev, Igor Shpak, Oleg Erofeyev and Alexander Bogdan performed a farewell passage with a long shooting of the LTC at MAKS-2009, in memory of the departed commander. "They returned to escort their commander on the most endless, final flight.", - announced the announcer. The planes made two circles over the airfield with a diamond, after which they headed for the permanent airfield in Kubinka. Saying goodbye to the spectators, the pilots presented a small fireworks display to the guests and participants of the cabin, illuminating the gloomy sky near Moscow with bright white and yellow lights.
On September 22, the Moscow authorities decided to pay compensation in the amount of 150 thousand rubles to the relatives of Olga Elizarova, who, without regaining consciousness, died on August 21 in the intensive care unit of the burn center of Moscow city hospital No. 36. She was taken to a Moscow hospital with severe burns. Doctors stated that she had 80% of skin burns. The funds will be allocated from the city budget under the social protection program for Moscow residents, Vesti reported.
On September 29, a commission to investigate the causes of the collision of two Su-27 fighters from the Russian Knights aerobatic team named the cause of the tragedy. Sources in the Ministry of Defense told news agencies that according to experts, the human factor was the fault of the disaster, namely, the error of the pilot of one of the cars. The fact that the planes were in good working order, experts said almost immediately after the accident, and its cause was initially called a mysterious "confluence of various circumstances", without explaining what exactly those circumstances were. However, no one has officially confirmed the cause of the tragedy. The BBC announced yesterday that it would be made public no earlier than November, Vremya novostei reported.
As the Air Force experts said at the time, both fighters were in good order and "worked as expected." Major General Oleg Barmin, acting deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force for armaments, stated that the tragedy was caused by "a tragic coincidence of various circumstances." Then he stated that the version of the disaster had already been established and would be announced in the near future. But this happened only a month and a half after the incident, and even then "unofficially."
As a source in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation told news agencies, the commission came to the conclusion that the cause of the disaster was the human factor. At the same time, he said that the official results of the investigation will be made public no earlier than November. He also denied appearing in last days some media reports that the accident occurred due to the lack of communication between pilots and controllers, calling it "fiction". “At this time the dispatchers worked most intensively, and the loss of communication between the dispatcher and the aircraft at this time is excluded. Moreover, the second aerobatic team - Swifts - was also already in the air, "he said.
According to experts, the most likely cause of the tragedy was the mistake of the pilot Vitaly Melnik, namely, the loss of his orientation in space when the planes passed the clouds. As the experts considered, Mr. Melnik, apparently, had confused the direction and made an erroneous maneuver, going across the Tkachenko's "spark". As a result, his Su-27 touched the nose of the "twin", summed up "Vremya novostei".
The investigation will check the activities of all officials The Ministry of Defense of Russia, who were involved in the functioning of the aerobatic group "Russian Knights", RIA Novosti reports, citing a source in the commission to investigate the plane crash in the Moscow region on August 16.
At present, the investigation is checking all officials who were somehow related to the Russian Knights aerobatic team. The audit will affect everyone, from engineers and mechanics who maintain the technical condition of aircraft, to senior commanders who gave orders, including the command of the Air Force, the source said.
According to him, the investigators requested all the documentation available in the Air Force and the Russian Ministry of Defense, which has at least something to do with the aerobatic team, the website AVIA.RU said on 30 September.
According to the Baltic Information Agency on August 26, 2010, two Su-27 fighters collided in the air at the MAKS-2009 air show in August 2009 due to a violation of the flight rules by the commander of the Russian Knights Igor Tkachenko. This was reported by the Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation. The criminal case into the plane crash was investigated by the Military Investigation Department of the UPC.
As noted, military investigators seized and examined fragments of both aircraft, flight recorders, necessary technical and flight documentation, and other materials. Hundreds of witnesses were interrogated, all the necessary examinations were carried out, all documents were examined and analyzed and regulationsregulating the conduct of demonstration flights.
"Based on the materials of the criminal case, including the opinion of the experts of the Interstate Aviation Committee and the Aviation Safety Service of the Armed Forces of Russia, the investigation concluded that the direct cause of the plane crash was a number of violations of the flight rules committed by Igor Tkachenko himself.", - said in the message of the UPC.
On April 27, 2010 the criminal case was terminated on the basis of paragraph 4 of part 1 of Art. 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation - in connection with the death of the pilot. This decision was recognized by the military prosecutor of the Moscow Military District as legal and justified.
In addition, the investigation submitted to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force the idea of \u200b\u200btaking measures to eliminate the circumstances that contributed to the crime. As follows from the answer received, based on the facts stated in the submission, the Air Force adopted a set of organizational and preventive measures.
“At the time of the decision to terminate this criminal case, all victims, with the exception of Olga Elizarova's relatives, were compensated for the material damage. According to available information, the issue of the amount of compensation payments to the family of the deceased Elizarova is being considered by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation ", - added to the UPC.
Minor planet - an asteroid of the main belt 269390 (2009 QA34), discovered in August 2009 - is named after the Russian military pilot, the commander of the aerobatic team "Russian Knights" Igor Tkachenko, who died in 2009, the discoverer of the asteroid reported on 24.09.2013. astronomer Leonid Yelenin. Small bodies database now Solar system NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicates that this object is also called Igortkachenko.
Sources:
1. Internet media, blogs
Pilot.
Igor Tkachenko was born on July 26, 1964 in the village of Ventsy-Zarya, Krasnodar Territory.
In 1985 he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots named after V.I. V.P. Chkalov, in 2000 - the Air Force Academy. Yu.A. Gagarin.
Served as an instructor pilot in the Borisoglebsk Air Force Academy, and since 1987 served at the Cuban Air Base. During his service he mastered the aircraft L-29, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27, Su-35. He flew 2300 hours on these types of aircraft. Tkachenko flew on foreign-made aircraft: Mirage 2000, F-16. He has been engaged in aerobatics since 1989. Leader and solo aerobatic team "Russian Knights". He was married and raised a son and daughter.
Igor Tkachenko - commander of the Russian Knights group, head of the 237th Guards Center for the display of aviation equipment of the Russian Air Force, honored military pilot of the Russian Federation, military sniper pilot, guards colonel.
TV viewers heard his voice during the Victory Parade on the Red Square. During the flight on May 9 over the Red Square of the MIG-29 and SU-27 aircraft of the Russian Knights and Swifts aerobatic teams, the Honored Military Pilot of Russia, Guards Colonel Igor Tkachenko, managed to congratulate the veterans right in the air.
Honored Military Pilot of Russia, Tkachenko had vast flight experience. Such people take risks deliberately, expanding the capabilities of humans and world aviation. Many of the aerobatics that Russian Knights perform today cannot be repeated anywhere in the world.
During the Victory Parade, Igor Tkachenko congratulated the Russians from the cockpit of the fighter, flying over Red Square. Many will remember him as such - a calm, cheerful, self-confident pilot-ace.
Igor Tkachenko gave an interview to Vesti immediately after the Victory Day parade. The planes have just landed in Kubinka near Moscow. Igor Tkachenko, head of the Kozhedub Aviation Show Center, shares his impressions: “First impressions - finally, the Parade is over! Everything succeeded! The weather did not disappoint, the equipment did not fail, the personnel did not disappoint. What they taught is what they showed ”.
And on August 16, 2009, two Su-27 fighters of the Russian Knights aerobatic team collided in the Ramenskoye airfield area. The group leader Igor Tkachenko was killed. Two more pilots survived, but one was seriously injured. There are victims among local residents... Several houses were destroyed and burned down. The collision occurred during preparations for the MAKS International Aviation and Space Salon.
“A pair of Su-27s crashed during aerobatics on parallel courses,” says one of the eyewitnesses of the incident. - During the collision, there was an orange flash, and then a cloud of black smoke appeared. When the cloud cleared, one of the planes fell in a tailspin.
Hundreds of people from the ground watched the training of the Su-27 aerobatic team "Russian Knights" before the performance at the MAKS air show. The tragedy played out literally before their eyes.
“They were walking opposite each other, and one ran into the other's tail,” adds a local resident. "The tail caught fire, and it was already clear that this plane had no choice."
According to one of the versions, the picture of what happened could look like this: when entering the circle for rebuilding, one of the driven aircraft lagged behind the leader and caught up with him at great speed. Coming up, he approached the commander at a distance of one and a half to two meters, and, not calculating, crashed.
The plane with a broken "tail" literally fell like a stone right on one of the houses of the holiday village of Sosny. The debris was scattered within a radius of hundreds of meters. Somewhere - parts of the skin, somewhere - engine parts. Aviation fuel exploded instantly. The houses caught fire.
In the general chaos, someone was looking for their relatives. Those who were near the crash site tried to run away. Several people were burned. “Three victims were delivered to us, one - with minor burns - up to 5% of the body, these are burns of the first second degree. And two - with burns of 15-20% of the body. One of the victims is now in intensive care, ”said Igor Sundukov, deputy chief physician of the central hospital in Ramens.
In the poisonous smoke of burning fuel, people saved what they could. In the village of Sosny, three houses and one car were completely burned down. A few minutes after the fall, fighters first appeared in the sky, and then the EMERCOM helicopters.
About 10 minutes later the first vehicles of the rescuers and the military entered the village. At first, of course, they were looking for three pilots who managed to eject. “I saw that he landed there in the forest - a pilot,” says one of the local residents. "He alone hung on a tree in the area of \u200b\u200bthe store."
The second Su-27 - the one that damaged the wing, crashed a few kilometers from the first. The pilot, most likely, managed to get the car away from residential buildings, and the plane crashed into the field, so there was no severe fire or casualties on the ground.
Before the collision, the pilots commented on the maneuvers: both fighters had no technical problems.
The chronicle of the SU-27 disaster is shown on the radio - the last talks between the Vityaz aerobatic team members and commander Igor Tkachenko are interrupted by a 35-second pause.
The confident voice of the commander clearly distributes orders: "Let's go to the left, continue." At this moment in the air, heavy aircraft, like obedient swallows, line up in even figures. All this is happening at great speed.
At about 13.02 Moscow time the following happens on the air:
"... 2-41 we observe on the right ...". "Smoothly on swivel 1200". "Understood, I'm watching." "Moving on to ... the fifth ...". "3800" ...
Judging by this command, the pilots finish the maneuver and disperse, rebuilding to perform a new figure.
Suddenly, in the midst of the measured development of the ether, beeps, squeaks are heard, and silence ensues ... the pause lasts about 35 seconds. It turns out that the voice of the honored pilot of Russia Igor Tkachenko sounds for the last time ... this is not on this recording, but the radio interception caught the voice of another pilot: "Smoke from the engine, jump!"
Further, on the radio wave, on which negotiations were held for the training of pilots preparing for the MAKS air show, the voices of flight managers appear. An immediate decision is made to lift the helicopter into the air. It was reported that a canopy of a parachute is visible above the crash site:
"Turn off the engines!" "2nd - 44th. Spot the mark, watching the parachute." "2-44 - 900 meters above the drop point". "I understand you, I'm raising the helicopter. I fell into an open field. Saxophone control, saxophone control, 75-243. Have you fixed the coordinates?"
It becomes clear that two aircraft crashed - 2-42 and 2-41. These names figure in the negotiations:
"2-41? 2-41 ejected, saw the dome. 2-44 allow."
The "fifth" does not respond to the roll call on the air:
"Fifth, answer the sixth. Third. Second. Fourth. The fourth answer to the sixth ... Fifth, where? Lost. I did not see him. Does not answer. Collision with him? Yes. Understood. I answer: 2-44. That's right. Observed. 2-41. 2-42 had a fire.
From the fire, I watched the bailout of the 2nd-42nd. 2-43 watched the bailout of 2-42, board 14 was. The dome was watching. "
The atmosphere during the negotiations is heating up. It is becoming clear that the catastrophe could turn into a serious tragedy.
"I am standing over the crash site on 2-41. The fourth answered the sixth. I watched the fall of the 14th side. I fell in the field. I did not damage anything. Yes, I understood. The dome also watched it. What are you misleading? B **. be nervous. "
The Vityaz pilots were preparing the most risky aerobatics for the show. In particular, they worked out the "star", "cover" and "mixed rhombus". These figures "Russian Knights" and "Swifts" were going to be shown at the air show. They worked out new program, trying to bring it to complete automatism.
When the planes diverged, a catastrophe occurred - the slave plane crashed into the leader. For what reason this happened is still unclear. Perhaps this is a control system failure. Perhaps the pilots lost sight of each other at some point and collided. During the execution of aerobatics, the distance between the planes is from a meter to five, the speed is more than seven hundred kilometers per hour.
The commander of the aerobatic team "Russian Knights" Igor Tkachenko managed to eject, but died due to the ignition of the parachute, which caught fire in the air. According to residents of a dacha village near Moscow in the Zhukovsky area, over which the accident occurred, the parachute of one of the ejected pilots caught fire in the air, as the falling fighter was on fire at that moment.
“He really was a maestro in his business - as a pilot, as a person,” says Honored Test Pilot of the Russian Federation Vladimir Biryukov. “And today I flew on a Superjet. When I heard his voice, I greeted him - I said: "Hello, maestro" (as we called each other), and after 15 minutes he was gone. "