Mi-8 Pilot - Major
Unit: 55th Helicopter Regiment, 4th Air and Air Defense Forces, Southern Military District
Cargo ID: #139
Full Name: Yury Petrovich Belitchenko
Russian Name: Белитченко Юрий Петрович
Date of Birth: 25 May 1967 (55 years)
Education: Saratov Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (1988)
Awards: Order of Courage (ph.), Others Being Investigated
He was born on May 25, 1967 in Karaganda, Kazakh SSR, in a family of employees. In 1973 he went to the 1st grade of secondary school No. 1 in the city of Kagan, Uzbek SSR. In 1976, the family moved to his father's new duty station - to Poland. There, in the city of Legnica, the northern group of troops was located. In 1982, the family moved again - this time to the village of Sokol near Saratov, where Yuri graduated from high school. In 1984, he entered the Saratov Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots, from which he graduated in 1988 and received the rank of lieutenant.
He went through the entire ladder of military service - from a cadet to the commander of a helicopter unit (on MI-8) of a helicopter squadron. He flew MI-8, MI-9. He was a pilot-navigator of a helicopter, then a flight navigator - a flight pilot, then a helicopter commander, a senior flight pilot and finally a helicopter flight commander.
By order of 01.11.2003, Yuri Belitchenko was assigned a class category - "Military pilot of the 1st class". He was awarded two Orders of Courage, medals "For Distinction in Military Service" of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree; "For military valor" of the 1st degree; "For strengthening the military commonwealth"; United Nations.
During his service, he repeatedly took part in hostilities to restore constitutional order in the North Caucasus - the Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian armed conflicts, in the UN peacekeeping mission in the Republic of Sudan (Africa), an operation to force Georgia to peace, a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine.
Yuri Petrovich died on March 6, 2022. On March 6, 2022, crews consisting of a group of four Mi-8s and two Mi-35s carried out a combat mission to transport personnel from the Dzhankoy airfield to the Chornobaivka airfield.
In the order of battle of the group, the crew of Major Belitchenko Y.P. was the wingman of the first pair, the crew included pilot-navigator Lieutenant Izmailov I.Zh. and onboard technician Captain A.A. Saigakov. When flying over the Nova Kakhovka point over the Dnieper River, the group came under fire - 2 MANPADS missiles were fired at it. One missile hit Major Belitchenko's helicopter. The helicopter crashed into the river. At the cost of their lives, the crew saved a group of their comrades.
For the courage and heroism shown in the performance of the assigned combat mission, the crew of Major of the Russian Aerospace Forces Belitchenko was awarded the Order of Courage posthumously.
Demilitarized on March 6, 2022 in the area of Nova Kakhovka, Kherson oblast, during the redeployment of the aviation service department from the airport at Dzhankoy (Crimea), to Chornobaivka. Onboard were also:
Passengers:
1. Senior Lieutenant Perfilov N.I. (368th Separate Assault Aviation Regiment)
2. Sergeant Major Arzumanov S.Yu. (368th Separate Assault Aviation Regiment)
3. Junior Sergeant Shakhbanov T.A. (368th Separate Assault Aviation Regiment)
4. Senior Lieutenant Fatyanov M.A. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
5. Captain Alexandrov A.V. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
6. Senior Lieutenant Ushakov M.N. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
7. Major Litvinov K.S. [Cargo ID #510] (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
8. Ensign Shalomagin D.A. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
9. Senior Warrant Officer Lekanov S.Yu. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
10. Sergeant Budyonny O.V. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
11. Sergeant Major Shvedun M.A. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
12. Warrant Officer Burmatov D.Yu. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
13. Senior Sergeant Kuzmenkov N.P. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
14. Captain Kukhta E.V. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
15. Senior Warrant Officer Palamarchuk R.I. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
16. Senior Lieutenant Kovalenko N.N. (37th Composite Aviation Regiment)
17. Unknown
Today, in two schools in the Korenovsky district - No. 3 and school No. 41 was opened the desks of the Hero - Major Yuri Belitchenko and Sergeant Igor Evsigneev, who died in the line of military duty on March 6, 2022 during a special military operation.
