Kremlin hands top state honours to pilots after crash-landing

By Tom Balmforth

 

A view shows the Ural Airlines Airbus 321 passenger plane following an emergency landing in a field near Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow Region, Russia August 15, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

 

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday bestowed top state honours on two pilots for courage and heroism after they safely landed a packed passenger plane in a cornfield near Moscow as its engines were failing.

 

Russians have said it was a miracle that no one was killed when the Ural Airlines Airbus 321 struck a flock of gulls on Thursday, disrupting its engines and forcing it to land less than two minutes after it took off.

 

Putin, in a decree published on the Kremlin's website, handed captain Damir Yusupov and co-pilot Georgy Murzin Russia's highest state award - the Hero of Russia. He granted the Order of Courage, another top state award, to five flight attendants.

 

The plane took off from Zhukovsky International Airport carrying 233 people to Simferopol in Crimea. More than 70 passengers were treated for injuries following the emergency landing but nobody was killed.

 

"I did what I had to do," said Yusupov who guided the Airbus down. "I saved the plane, the passengers, the crew. I think that was the only decision. I don't think I'm a hero."

 

"I wasn't scared," he told reporters in Yekaterinburg where Ural Airlines has its training centre. "I saw the cornfield in front of me...I tried to minimise our vertical speed to ensure a soft landing."

 

Murzin was receiving treatment for a bruised chest in hospital on Friday, the RIA news agency reported.

 

Russia's natural resources watchdog said late on Thursday it had identified an illegal rubbish dump roughly two kilometres from Zhukovsky International, which is southeast of Moscow, as being the possible home of the birds which caused the emergency landing.

 

Officials from the watchdog and the ecology ministry were due to check the site as well as others nearby, RIA news agency reported.

 

(Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by James Drummond and Toby Chopra)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-17

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Very impressive. 

Kudos well done! A little side note look up the story of the gimley glider a great avation story!

Edited August 17, 20196 yr by Tug

swamped in Honour

Great achievement...

 

But let's wait for a full investigation first, would not be the first time pilot have been praised before an investigation found the pilots responsible,  remember BA92 Kegworth 1989 where the pilots switched off the wrong engine, I am sure there are more...

courage and heroism - nonsense, it was self preservation and skill that got them down in one piece

Footage of the flight:

 

Edited August 17, 20196 yr by evadgib

4 hours ago, Basil B said:

Great achievement...

 

But let's wait for a full investigation first, would not be the first time pilot have been praised before an investigation found the pilots responsible,  remember BA92 Kegworth 1989 where the pilots switched off the wrong engine, I am sure there are more...

Plane's engines failed by a birdstrike. So don't know what they could have done wrong.

5 hours ago, Basil B said:

Great achievement...

 

But let's wait for a full investigation first, would not be the first time pilot have been praised before an investigation found the pilots responsible,  remember BA92 Kegworth 1989 where the pilots switched off the wrong engine, I am sure there are more...

Didn't you read the article ? "Ural Airlines Airbus 321 struck a flock of gulls on Thursday, disrupting its engines and forcing it to land less than two minutes after it took off."

Every landing is a controlled crash... but kudos leaving the wheels up and doing it on a patch of green.

 

5 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

courage and heroism - nonsense, it was self preservation and skill that got them down in one piece

Surely the urge for self preservation combined with acquired skills is the basis for most deeds of heroism requiring courage?