Vladimir Petrushin

Squadron Commander and Head of Electronic Warfare - Lieutenant Colonel

Unit: 1st Aviation Squadron,117th Transport Aviation Regiment, Military Transport Aviation Command, Western Military District

Cargo ID: #270

English Name: Vladimir Aleksandrovich Petrushin

Russian Name: Петрушин Владимир Александрович

Date of Birth: April 1, 1986 (age: 36 years)

Place of Birth: Khabarovsk Territory

Education: Krasnodar Military Aviation Institute; Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (2008), 4th Faculty of Military Transport and Long Range Aviation, Balashov.

Awards: Nesterov, Hero of Russia (ph.) Others being investigated

Previously Served : Syria

Over the years of service, he has gained extensive experience in his profession, performed many responsible tasks, including flight management during extinguishing massive forest fires in the Far East, participation in the operation to return Crimea to the Russian Federation (2014), a military operation in Syria against international terrorist formations (since 2015), an operation under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Kazakhstan (January 2022).

On June 23–24, 2022, the heavy military transport aircraft Il-76MD No. 78778 performed a training flight along the Orenburg-Ryazan-Belgorod route. The crew included the aircraft commander, Lieutenant Colonel Petrushin, the head of electronic warfare, navigator Major S. N. Perminov [Cargo ID #268], senior flight engineer-instructor of the 18th military transport aviation division, Major Gorbunov [Cargo ID #269], airborne equipment flight engineer, ensign Andreev and five more military personnel.

After refueling, performed at the Dyagilevo air base (within Ryazan), the plane took off on June 24 at 03:05 to continue its flight. However, immediately after takeoff, a fire broke out in one of its four turbojet engines. The crew commander decided to make an emergency landing on the ground. For several minutes, the plane circled over the surrounding meadows and at 3:18, damaging the power line, made a hard landing 5 kilometers from the air base, while partially collapsing. Three people, including the commander, died immediately, two died in the hospital, the rest, having received injuries, survived. Residential areas of Ryazan were located in the immediate vicinity of the crash site, but there was no destruction or casualties among the population.

According to the widow, he seemed to have a premonition of something.

“He was going on my last business trip somehow, you know, not very briskly." Irina said. "It was already 12 midnight. At 5 am he had to go to work. I ask him why you are not packing your suitcase? He: “Oh, something doesn’t raise a hand.” That is the only thing that stuck out to me”.

The deceased pilot left a five-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son.

“Five-year-old Miroslava knows that dad is no more. But he understands it like a child. They say the mind of a child is more flexible. But the nine-year-old Yaroslav does not leave his mother. The little boy's emotions broke free only on the third day after his father's funeral. Awareness of the loss comes gradually."

Hero Of Rrussia, 17 October 2022, Medal no 1262

" In Orsk on May 16, 2023 , a memorial plaque was installed to the pilot Vladimir Petrushin, who died near Ryazan, In the Orenburg region, the memory of the Hero of Russia, pilot Vladimir Petrushin was immortalized. At school No. 38 in the city of Orsk, a memorial plaque was unveiled with the name of a graduate who tragically died in a crash. "

Intalled on June 2, 2023 at the site of the Il-76MD plane crash in the floodpalin of the Pletenka River in the Mikhailovskoye Highway area (Ryazan).