MOSCOW – The incident reportedly occurred during a bout of bad weather,with the Russian president on route from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
Vladimir Fedorushkin, a distinguished pilot and former commander of theRussian presidential plane, has revealed that he and his co-pilots onceexperienced an emergency situation with Vladimir Putin onboard that was sobad it nearly resulted in a serious accident.
Speaking during a programme for Russia’s NTV television channel which airedon Sunday, Fedorushkin explained link thatthe incident occurred during a flight from the Russian capital to Putin’shometown of St. Petersburg.
“The weather in both Moscow and St. Petersburglinkwasvery bad for flying, with crosswinds in both locations, and such choppywinds. So we’re taking off, and when we’re about 5-6,000 meters in the airwe get into such wild turbulence. It was turbulence in clear skies.” theofficer recalled.
According to the veteran pilot, the flight was his hardest flight in hisforty years of service as a professional pilot.
“Our autopilot kept getting knocked out, the yoke was limited to one thirddeviation. We climbed to nine thousand meters, and we got shaken so badthat if we hadn’t had our seatbelts fastened, we would have found ourselvesheadfirst on the ceiling,” Fedorushkin said.
During touchdown in St. Petersburg, the rainwater was so heavy that itnearly covered the airstrip, the pilot noted. “Meanwhile, we have a yoke,which we have to hold steady during landing, that can only deviate by onethird. Even in conditions when it’s completely manoeuvrable, it’s hard tokeep ahold of. And here we only have one third deviation.”
Fedorushkin said that after landing in St. Petersburg’s Pulkovolinkairport,Putin asked him to come to his office to ask “what that was.”
“We spoke for a bit about it. Of course it was an unpleasant experience.The probability of the plane flying off the landing strip was about 90percent. But we managed,” the veteran pilot concluded.
Fedorushkin did not clarify when the incident took place. – Sputnik