Russian ex-lawyer pilot behind miracle plane landing

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Friday the pilots of a Ural Airlines plane the highest civilian honor: "Hero of the Russian Federation" for their "courage and heroism" in performing official duties in extreme conditions.

Putin also awarded crew members with the "Order of Courage" award for their "courage and dedication" shown in the performance of duties in extreme conditions.

The honors came after Captain Damir Yusupov safely landed an Airbus jet Thursday with full fuel tanks in a cornfield after it hit a flock of birds seconds after takeoff from an airport in southeast Moscow.

Yusupov made the decision after the jet lost power to both engines. That decision saved the lives of all 226 passengers and seven crew on board, including two pilots.

The Ural Airlines Airbus-A321 aircraft headed from Zhukovsky International Airport in Moscow to Simferopol in Crimea, belly-flopped without chassis in a field near the Ramenskoye settlement about one kilometer (0.6 miles) from the airport.

The landing did not cause any fatalities but dozens of passengers were slightly wounded.

Ural Airlines announced each passenger would be compensated 100,000 Russian rubles ($1,500).

Russian media hailed Yusupov as a hero alongside Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the US Airways captain who in 2009 diverted his plane into New York's Hudson River in Manhattan after a similar bird strike, saving all 155 people on board.

Yusupov said he noticed the "unstable engine function" of the left engine and decided on an emergency landing at Zhukovsky Airport -- flying on a single engine. But shortly after the right engine "failure" he changed his mind and landed the passenger aircraft in the cornfield.

Engine power was not enough to continue the flight, "even to maintain the altitude,” he told Russia-1 news channel.

"The height was not significant. Initially, there was a decision to turn around, land the plane. But when I saw that the second engine also failed, I had a decision to land the plane in a field just in front of me," he said.

He decided to land the plane without its landing gear because of the risk the plane could “roll over,” ending with much worse consequences.

“I tried to land the plane softly so that the touchdown came with a minimum vertical speed,” he said.

Yusupov thanked co-pilot Georgy Murzin who assisted with the landing, as well as the crew for their professionalism during the incident and for successfully evacuating passengers via the emergency chutes.

“Many people say that I am a hero, but to be honest, I don’t feel like a hero at all, because I did what I had to do: saved the plane, passengers, crew,” he added.

- Who is Damir Yusupov?

Yusupov, 41, was born in a Muslim Tatar family Sept. 13, 1977 in Igarka in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region.

In the 1990s, his family moved to Syzran in the Samara region. Later, he moved to Yekaterinburg in the east of the Ural Mountains.

Since childhood, Yusupov loved flying as his father was the captain of an Mi-8 helicopter crew.

After applying to flight school, he was not able to pass the medical exam and was not enrolled to the school of his dreams.

Yusupov completed his law degree and worked as a lawyer in Syzran, and served as assistant director of the city’s autonomous organization for ethnic Tatars.

Despite his established career, the hero pilot started flying career just six years ago in 2013.

Not giving up on his dream, at the age of 32, Yusupov was enrolled at the Buguruslan Flight School of Civil Aviation and graduated with honors.

In 2013, he graduated from the St. Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation, with honors, and was immediately employed by the Ural Airlines, the company said on its Instagram page.

In 2018, Yusupov enhanced his skills and earned another degree in air navigation from the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Institute.

Yusupov has over 3,000 hours of flying time, just twice the minimum number needed to be an aircraft commander.