He could make his invaluable contribution to the development of Russian military aviation for many years to come. His life was eventful, but he was not destined to live to old age. The determined and courageous Guard Colonel Igor Tkachenko died in the line of duty, barely celebrating his forty-fifth birthday. But people who have left this world live as long as the memory of them is alive.

On August 16, 2009, a tragedy occurred that shook the entire population of Russia to the core. The plane flown by Tkachenko, flying over the Moscow region, unexpectedly collided with another fighter. While steering the falling side away from residential buildings, the colonel died tragically, but did not allow the “wounded iron bird” to harm the population...

The biography of Igor Tkachenko is presented to your attention in the article.

Childhood

The future pilot Igor Tkachenko was born in the fertile Krasnodar region, where boundless wildlife reigns. He was born on July 26, 1964. His parents then lived in a simple small village. Perhaps, peering into the azure skies, beckoning with their vastness, purity and grandeur, the growing boy dreamed of the moment when he could rise above the clouds. From childhood, he had a strong character and was distinguished by determination; he tried to realize any goal. And nothing could stop him from doing this. Everyone who knew him as a boy remembers how he wrote touching poems. He also worked on hardening and even in the most severe frosts he did pull-ups on the horizontal bars. The traits of a future commander were evident in him from an early age.

Igor was still a schoolboy when his parents, like many other people of those times, decided to go to the Amur region, to the city of Tynda, which was called the capital of BAM. The goal was simple: to contribute to the construction of the railway to conquer the Far East and have a decent salary.

School years

Since Igor Tkachenko’s parents intended to live in Tynda for many years, here the boy entered school No. 7. He became its graduate. And today this educational institution is famous for the fact that the great conqueror of the sky, a pilot and guard colonel, studied there.

To perpetuate the memory of this outstanding man, it was decided to name the school after him. Modern children who were lucky enough to study there are very proud of this fact. And almost all boys dream of becoming pilots and colonels.

Student at the military school named after. Chkalova

The beginning of Tkachenko’s career should be considered the year 85, when the guy graduated from the Higher Military School named after V.P. Chkalov. It was here, in Borisoglebsk, that military pilots were trained. It was the best aviation center, producing excellently trained pilots.

The military school bears the name of Chkalov, who became its graduate and pride. It was founded in 1922 with the goal of educating and training the best pilots for reconnaissance and control of fighter aircraft.

Further training at the Military Academy

Igor Tkachenko, a graduate, did not stop there, and in 2000 decided to enter the Military Academy of the Air Force, which was named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. For this purpose, he went to a large village located in the Moscow region - Monino (Shchelkovsky district).

The Air Force Academy purposefully trained commanders. Graduates became chiefs of staff of aviation formations, units, chief navigators of aviation (formations and units), aviation logistics units, and officers of aviation associations. Upon completion of his studies, Igor Tkachenko joined the ranks of graduates who became heroes of the country. Famous Russian and foreign cosmonauts and pilots graduated from this educational institution.

Carier start

Igor Valentinovich Tkachenko returned to Borisoglebsk, where he graduated from a military school with the aim of obtaining the position of an instructor pilot at the Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. In 1987, he entered service at a military airfield in the Moscow region, which was located (as it is today) five kilometers from Kubinki.

Tkachenko’s career as a pilot begins at the military airfield. He mastered the most famous aircraft of that time. He was lucky enough to fly the Russian multi-role fighter - Su-35, jet trainer L-29, multi-role training aircraft of the 4th generation - MiG-29. He also roamed the boundless expanses of heaven, piloting the all-weather multirole fighter Su-27 (4th generation), and the front-line supersonic fighter of the 3rd generation, the MiG-21.

Igor Valentinovich Tkachenko also flew foreign-made aircraft. He mastered the multi-role French fighter Mirage 2000 and the light multi-role American aircraft. In total, during his service on the Kubinka, he flew 2 thousand 300 hours.

"Russian Knights"

In 1989, Tkachenko decided on aerobatics. His military training allowed him to achieve the highest results in the process of flying jet aircraft. He achieved special mastery in this industry and was not going to stop there. His talent as a pilot, willpower and perseverance worked wonders. The future hero of the country became one of the best pilots of the Russian Knights group in 1993. It should be said that it was created back in 91 and included in the excellent “conquerors of the sky.” The mission of such pilots today is to be able to fly heavy fighter aircraft to perfection.

In May 2002, Tkachenko was appointed commander of the group in which he was a pilot (“Russian Knights”). Among the aerobatic maneuvers performed by the “knights” are “scissors”, “bell”, “Nesterov loop”, “fountain”, and oblique loop. Together with his group, he constantly improved his aerobatics skills and strived to surpass the best specialists in the world.

Awards and hobbies

Igor Tkachenko is a pilot who has earned many awards and titles, including the following: the Order of Military Merit, the Order of Distinction in Military Service, the title of Honored Military Pilot and Hero of the Russian Federation (the latter was awarded posthumously in 2009).

Relatives, friends and colleagues remember him as an interesting person in every sense, in whom a strong-willed character and simplicity were surprisingly combined. Among his hobbies were cars, to which he paid special attention. In addition, Igor Tkachenko is remembered as a person who had a special interest in alternative medicine. Everyone who knew him speaks of him as a very talented and comprehensively developed personality. He was so sociable that he found a common language with any person with amazing ease. Moreover, he was always considered the soul of the company. His wife Galina jokingly called him a boy.

Personal life of Igor Tkachenko

Despite many achievements, a serious and difficult profession that requires maximum dedication, Tkachenko found time for his personal life. He, just like any other guy, was in love, and proposed marriage to the girl Galina, who became his wife. She supported her husband in the most exciting moments of his life and was proud of him. Every time Igor set off to roam the skies, piloting a heavy fighter, she worried about him.

Galina and Igor Tkachenko had two children in their marriage: a son (he was named Igor in honor of his father) and a daughter (she was given the name Daria). Tkachenko Jr. decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and entered the Higher Aviation Military School in the city of Krasnodar. Today he has become determined to live up to his family name and achieve no less heights than his father.

Death of Igor Tkachenko. How it was

It seemed that on that clear summer day in 2009 there were no signs of trouble. Tkachenko was busy preparing for the air show flight. Before this, he had repeatedly demonstrated amazing aerobatics, which had no equal. The group “Russian Knights” soared into the skies. The unexpected collision of two fighters turned out to be fatal.

Together with navigator Kurylenko, Igor Tkachenko was on the Su-27UB aircraft. Their flight was interrupted by an unexpected jolt; the winged aircraft hit the Su-27, piloted by Vitaly Melnik. Trying to move the falling unit away from the residential area, Tkachenko did not think about himself. He managed to save the lives of many people who were in danger on earth. If such a mechanism collapsed on residential buildings, there would be many casualties. The death of the commander of the “Russian Knights” Igor Tkachenko was not in vain. He saved the lives of many people at the cost of his own.

There are still discussions about what exactly caused this terrible tragedy, which claimed the life of the famous colonel, a talented military pilot. But even experts cannot come to a consensus. It is known that his parachute did not open at the right time. Igor Tkachenko was awarded the last award posthumously. And today he is an example for others of courage, professionalism, originality, nobility and incredible willpower.

“In memory of Igor Tkachenko and all the pilots who went on their last mission” - a song performed by Nikolai Anisimov. If you haven't heard it yet, we recommend doing so.

In 1985, he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School named after Valery Chkalov, and in 2000, from the Yuri Gagarin Air Force Academy.

He served as an instructor pilot at the Borisoglebsk VVAUL, and since 1987 he served at the Cuban air base. During his service, Tkachenko mastered the L-29, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27 and Su-35 aircraft, having flown 2,300 hours on these types of aircraft. Tkachenko flew on foreign-made aircraft - Mirage 2000 and F-16. Tkachenko has been involved in aerobatics since 1989, he was the leader and solo pilot of the Russian Knights aerobatic team. Igor Tkachenko was married and raised a son and daughter.

Igor Tkachenko was not only the commander of the Russian Knights group, he was also the head of the 237th Guards Aviation Equipment Display Center of the Russian Air Force, an honored military pilot of the Russian Federation, a military sniper pilot with the rank of guard colonel.

TV viewers heard his voice during the Victory Parade on Red Square. During the flight of MIG-29 and SU-27 aircraft of the Russian Knights and Swifts aerobatic teams over Red Square on May 9, Honored Military Pilot of the Russian Guard Colonel Igor Tkachenko congratulated the veterans right in the air.

Tkachenko had extensive flight experience. Such people take risks consciously, expanding the capabilities of humans and global aviation. Many aerobatic maneuvers that the Russian Knights perform today cannot be repeated anywhere in the world.

When, during the Victory Parade, Igor Tkachenko congratulated the Russians from the cockpit of a fighter, flying over Red Square, the audience remembered him as a calm, cheerful, self-confident ace pilot.

Igor Tkachenko gave an interview to Vesti immediately after the Victory Parade, after the planes landed in Kubinka near Moscow. The head of the Kozhedub Aviation Equipment Display Center, Igor Tkachenko, shared his impressions: “First impressions - finally, the Parade is over! Everything was a success! The weather didn’t let us down, the equipment didn’t let us down, the personnel didn’t let us down. What was taught was what was shown.”

On August 16, 2009, two Su-27 fighters of the Russian Knights aerobatic team collided in the air near the Ramenskoye airfield. During this incident, group commander Igor Tkachenko died. Two more pilots survived, but one was seriously injured. There were also casualties among local residents. Several houses were destroyed and burned down. The collision occurred during preparations for the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS.

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“A pair of Su-27s crashed during aerobatics on parallel courses,” said one of the eyewitnesses of the emergency. - During the collision, there was an orange flash, and then a cloud of black smoke appeared. When the cloud cleared, one of the planes went down in a tailspin.”

Hundreds of people from the ground watched the Su-27 training of the Russian Knights aerobatic team before their performance at the MAKS air show. The tragedy unfolded literally before their eyes.

“They walked opposite each other, and one crashed 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 version, the picture of what happened could look like this: while entering the circle to change lanes, one of the trailing aircraft fell behind the leading aircraft and caught up with it at great speed. Keeping pace, he approached the commander at a distance of one and a half to two meters, and, without calculating, crashed into him.

A plane with a broken tail literally fell like a stone directly onto one of the houses in the holiday village of Sosny. The debris was scattered over a radius of hundreds of meters. Somewhere - sheathing parts, somewhere - engine parts. The aviation fuel exploded instantly. Houses caught fire.

In the general chaos, someone was looking for their relatives. Those who were close to the crash site tried to run away. Several people received burns. “Three victims were brought to us, one with minor burns - up to 5% of the body, these are first-second degree burns. 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 Ramenskoye hospital.

In the toxic 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, first fighter jets appeared in the sky, and then helicopters from the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

About 10 minutes later the first rescue and military vehicles entered the village. 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 was hanging alone on a tree near the store.”

The second Su-27, the one that damaged the wing, crashed a few kilometers from the first. The pilot, most likely, managed to steer the car away from residential buildings, and the plane fell into a field, so there was no strong 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 reflected on the radio - the last negotiations between the members of the Vityazi aerobatic team and commander Igor Tkachenko are interrupted by a 35-second pause.

The commander’s confident voice clearly gives orders: “Let’s go left, let’s continue.” At this moment, in the air, heavy aircraft, like obedient swallows, line up in even figures. All this happens at great speed.

At approximately 13.02 Moscow time the following happens on air:

"...2-41 is observed on the right...". “Smoothly turn 1200.” “Got it, I’m watching.” "Let's move on to... the fifth...". "3800" ...

Judging by this command, the pilots finish the maneuver and disperse, reforming to perform a new figure.

Suddenly, amid the measured development of the ether, beeps and squeaks are heard, and silence sets in... the pause lasts about 35 seconds. It turns out that the voice of the honored Russian pilot Igor Tkachenko is heard 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, on the radio wave on which negotiations were held for the training of pilots preparing for the MAKS air show, the voices of the flight directors appear. A decision is immediately made to take the helicopter into the air. It was reported that a parachute canopy was visible above the crash site:

“Switch off the engines!” “2-44th. Mark the mark, I’m watching the parachute.” "2-44 - 900 meters above the impact point." “I understand you, I’m raising the helicopter. Fell into an open field. Saxophone-control, saxophone-control, 75-243. Have you recorded the coordinates?

It becomes clear that two aircraft crashed - 2-42 and 2-41. These names appear in the negotiations:

“2-41? 2-41 ejected, saw the dome. 2-44 I allow.”

The “fifth” does not respond to the roll call on air:

“Fifth, answer the sixth. Third. Second. Fourth. Fourth answer to sixth... Fifth, where? Lost. I did not see him. Doesn't answer. Collision with him? Yes. Understood. I answer: 2-44. Yes sir. Saw 2-41st. The 2-42nd had a fire.

From the fire I observed the ejection of the 2-42nd. 2-43 observed the ejection of 2-42, board 14 was there. The dome was watching."

The situation during the negotiations is heating up. It becomes clear that the disaster could turn into a serious tragedy.

“I’m standing over the crash site of 2-41. The fourth answered the sixth. I observed the fall of the 14th side. Fell into a field. Didn't damage anything. Yes, I understand. The dome was watching him too. Why are you misleading? Fuck. Do not be nervous".

The Vityaz pilots were preparing the most risky aerobatic maneuvers for the show. In particular, they practiced the “star”, “cover” and “mixed diamond”. These figures “Russian Knights” and “Swifts” were going to be shown at the air show. They worked on a new program, trying to bring it to complete automation.

When the planes diverged from formation, a catastrophe occurred - the trailing plane crashed into the leading one. For what reason this happened is still unclear. This may be a failure of the control system. Perhaps the pilots lost sight of each other for a moment and collided. When performing aerobatic maneuvers, the distance between planes ranges from one to five meters, and the speed is more than seven hundred kilometers per hour.

The commander of the Russian Knights aerobatic team, Igor Tkachenko, managed to eject, but died due to the parachute catching fire in the air. According to residents of a holiday village near Moscow in the Zhukovsky area, over which the accident occurred, the parachute of one of the ejected pilots caught fire while still in the air, since the falling fighter was on fire at that moment.

“He really was a maestro in his field - as a pilot, as a person,” says Vladimir Biryukov, Honored Test Pilot of the Russian Federation. - And today I flew on a Superjet plane. When I heard his voice, I greeted him - said: “Hello, maestro” (that’s what we called each other), and after 15 minutes he was gone.”

A documentary film “Commander of the Russian Knights” was made about Igor Tkachenko.

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Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov

Used materials:

Materials from the site www.news.mail.ru
Materials from the site www.lenta.ru
Materials from the site www.dni.ru
Materials from the Wikipedia site

From the aerobatic team "Russian Knights", which happened on Sunday in the sky over Zhukovsky. According to one version, a possible cause of the collision could have been a small cloud, due to which the planes found themselves in a “dead zone” for each other. In addition, according to Izvestia, the deceased head of the aircraft display center, honored military pilot of Russia Igor Tkachenko, shortly before the emergency, wrote a report on his dismissal from the Armed Forces.

A commission of the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force General Staff yesterday studied the flight recorders of crashed fighters. According to Izvestia, the military now has three versions of what happened: a bird hit the plane’s engine; one of the pilots made a mistake in piloting and a fatal accident, as a result of which the pilots found themselves in a “dead zone” for each other.

Flying heavy Su-27 fighters in tight formation is an extremely difficult element of formation aerobatics, a source at Air Force headquarters said. - Such piloting often leads to the fact that one or more aircraft get caught in the air stream in front of the flying car. In this case, the aerodynamics of the flight are disrupted and the plane may be thrown to the side.

Numerous photographs of eyewitnesses to the disaster appeared on the Internet. They clearly show how the trailing aircraft, in which the pilot, Vitaly Melnik, was, is catching up with the leading aircraft, the twin aircraft of Igor Tkachenko and Igor Kurylenko. The follower pokes his nose into the leader, after which he begins to burn. This information partly confirms the version of the famous pilot Magomed Talboev - while catching up with the leader, after completing the maneuver, the wingman did not calculate the speed, as a result of which the cars collided.

There is also a version that it was the presenter who “reset” the speed due to a malfunction. The military also “paints” a different picture: when the fighters turned around, Melnik’s plane was higher than the plane of Tkachenko and Kurylenko, and between them there was a small but dense cloud. Both vehicles found themselves in the “dead zone”, and the wingmen “cut off” the cockpit of the leading fighter. The blow hit the cabin visor, and Tkachenko died instantly (his neck was broken, as evidenced by the severely deformed chair without a headrest), and after that the catapult immediately went off.

Honored test pilot Anatoly Kvochur believes that everything was wrong - having decided to eject, the pilot was thinking about where the plane would fall and wanted to take it away from the buildings. Perhaps he hoped to save the car. Pilots prefer to fight to the last for the life of the fighter, but not to eject. The K-36DM ejection seats (they are found on the Su-27) are considered one of the best (even Americans buy them). But ejection is an extreme situation.

By the way, Kurylenko, a navigator from the friendly group "Swifts", flying in a twin aircraft, has already ejected once from a falling fighter. In 2006, at the Perm Bolshoye Savino airport, a MiG-29 under the control of Colonel Nikolai Dyatl and Igor Kurylenko during takeoff fell into a flock of birds that suddenly rose into the sky. The plane lost control and both pilots had to eject. They say that after the second ejection the pilot is written off “ashore.”

This disaster also has a human element. The "Russian Knights" were supposed to be transferred to a new location - from Kubinka to Lipetsk. The commander of the Knights, Tkachenko, refused to be transferred from Moscow and wrote a report on his dismissal from the Air Force. “After the report, he was called to his superiors and told: now you’re flying off MAX and you’re free. Igor thought and answered: good,” Tkachenko’s colleague told Izvestia. Yesterday, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov decided to nominate Colonel Tkachenko for a posthumous state award for courage and heroism.

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 No. 7 in the city of Tynda. In 1985 he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School named after. V.P. Chkalov, in 2000 - Air Force Academy named after. Yu. A. Gagarin.

He served as an instructor pilot in the Borisoglebsky VVAUL, and since 1987 he served at the Cuban air base. During his service, he mastered the L-29, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27, Su-35 aircraft. He has flown 2,300 hours on these types of aircraft. Tkachenko flew on foreign-made aircraft: Mirage 2000, F-16.

He has been involved in aerobatics since 1989. He has been a member of the Russian Knights aerobatic team since 1993, and became the group commander in May 2002.

The Russian Knights aerobatics team was created on April 5, 1991 from the best pilots of the Kubinka airbase, who had mastered the Su-27 to perfection. “Russian Knights” is one of the few aerobatic units in the world that performs group aerobatics on heavy fighter class aircraft. “Russian Knights” have more than once demonstrated a complex of aerobatic maneuvers, such as the Nesterov loop, “barrel”, afterburner turn, “fountain” and “scissors” flights, “bell”, aerobatics on oncoming courses, and an oblique loop in the “boom”.

Master of single and group aerobatics Igor Tkachenko performed complex maneuvers in the extreme conditions of the SU-27 fighter: “hill turns”, passes at speeds of less than 170 km/h. Lead and solo pilot of the Russian Knights aerobatic team.

He was interested in alternative medicine and cars.

Death

Igor Tkachenko died while performing a flight on August 16, 2009 during preparations for the MAKS-2009 air show of the Russian Knights and Swifts aerobatic teams. The Su-27UB aircraft, in which Igor Tkachenko and TsPAT senior navigator Igor Kurylenko were on board, collided with a Su-27 piloted by Vitaly Melnik. The cause of the collision was Tkachenko’s violation of a number of flight conditions.

Best of the day

As a result of the crash of Tkachenko’s plane, and the subsequent fire on the ground, a resident of the village “Sosny-2” died, and 4 more people received burns.

All three pilots of both aircraft ejected. The reason why Igor Tkachenko died, despite the ejection, is not reliably known at the moment. According to some reports, Igor Tkachenko’s ejection system was damaged during a plane collision, and the parachute did not open; according to some eyewitnesses, the parachute caught fire in the air; according to specialists from the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise, the ejected pilot may not have had enough altitude to open the parachute. According to another version, Tkachenko died on the plane as a result of the impact of a fighter that crashed into him, and the ejection system worked automatically or was activated by navigator Igor Kurylenko.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed condolences to the family and friends of the commander of the Russian Knights aerobatic team Igor Tkachenko in connection with his tragic death.

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov decided to nominate Igor Tkachenko for posthumous state awards “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 at the closing of this air show to the memory of their commander.

Colonel Tkachenko was suspected by investigators of a crime under Art. 351 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of flight rules or preparation for them”). The criminal case was discontinued due to the death of the defendant.

He was buried on August 19, 2009 in the cemetery of the village of Nikolskoye, not far from the airfield parking lot of the Russian Knights.

Awards

Knight of state orders and medals of the USSR and Russia:

Hero of the Russian Federation (2009, posthumously)

Order of Courage (2005)

Order of Military Merit

Medal "In Memory of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"

Medal "70 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"

Medal "For Distinction in Military Service" (Ministry of Defense) 1st, 2nd and 3rd class

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).

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 began with a minute of silence. In briefings and conferences of aerobatic teams and the command of the Russian Air Force at the air show, the topic of the death of the pilot and the reasons for what happened was repeatedly raised. The Russian Knights aerobatic team 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 aerobatic aviation team RUSSIAN VITYAZI.
Born July 26, 1964

In 1985 he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation School named after V.P. Chkalov. He served as a pilot instructor at his native school.

In 2000 he graduated from the Yu.A. Air Force Academy. Gagarin. During his service, he mastered the L-29, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27. He performed flights on foreign types of fighters. Flown 1600 hours on these types.

Honored Military Pilot of Russia. Military sniper pilot.

Has been involved 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 counter aerobatics pilot. Since 2002, the presenter of Russian Knights.

Died on August 16, 2009 during a flight to prepare for participation in the MAKS-2009 air show.

Survived by wife, daughter, son.

To open a photo to screen size, click on the photo. To enlarge the photo to full size, click again.

The photo was sent by D. Mikhailov, graduate of 1989.

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Su-27 crash. Igor Tkachenko died...