He maintained the closed runway for years... They laughed at him, but then the INCREDIBLE happened

hi guys have you ever witnessed anything improbable unreal or even incredible whether we believe it or not miracles do happen and every year amazing things take place on our planet things that are only possible thanks to a small number of enthusiasts who diligently do their jobs without even realizing that sooner or later they will save dozens of people whom they don't even know today i will share an incredible story with you after watching it even the most inveterate skeptics will see the world in a different light september 7 2010 this day became the second birthday for almost a hundred people it was on this day that the two 154 took off from the myrni airport on its scheduled flight to moscow the takeoff went well and nobody expected anything to go wrong the 72 passengers and nine crew members who were on board at the moment couldn't even imagine that the flight would be much shorter than expected actually the aircraft only got as far as the village of isma located in the komi republic three hours into their flight the passengers were enjoying their flight in complete peace of mind however the plane wasn't meant to reach its intended destination a complete electrical failure disabled all navigation systems on board we couldn't figure out what had caused the electrical failure a decision has to be made as quickly as possible it was clear that there was no way to reach the destination or find a suitable alternative airfield the aircraft crew was selflessly doing everything they could to save the situation but the chances for salvation were minimal the pilot in command later said at that moment the experienced crew members had only one thought would they manage to save dozens of people's lives however they had no idea who would play a critical role in this emergency situation and now i'll introduce another person the one who became the protagonist of the story sergi sotnikov the supervisor of the helipad in isma several years before the events described in the story there had been a small airport in that village being virtually abandoned it was made into a helipad in late 2009 supervised by sergey sotnikov the man spent a lot of time at work and was very diligent he did many different jobs but most importantly he maintained the runway even though it wasn't in his job description and thus he didn't even get paid for it as our hero later said i'd been told to give up that difficult work a hundred thousand times because the airport had long been closed and there was no need for that runway but even though nobody recognized my hard work i believed in it i believed that years later a plane would land in our village the man single-handedly maintained the runway in order for 12 years he had to pull out the willow which grew again and again between the slabs sergi also put a lot of effort into the runway drainage realizing that unless he did it the slabs would simply become unusable soon in addition he often argued with local residents who'd ride horses or park their cars on the runway and one time his neighbor chopped a pile of firewood and just left it right on the tarmac sergi didn't speak to him for several months after that if only they knew that his long-standing hard work would soon save the lives of almost a hundred people and all the world's media would talk about him as a real hero in the meantime panic and anxiety were heating up on board of the plane the experienced 2-154 crew realized that they urgently needed to find a place for an emergency landing the fuel pumps were about to turn off which would inevitably cause the worst in addition the planes were outpassed over the tega unfortunately for the passengers and the crew no matter how the pilots tried they couldn't find even a somewhat suitable landing site realizing how hopeless their situation was the pilots decided to take a desperate step to land the aircraft over the isma river they hoped that they would be able to land the plane on water near the village so that the local residents could provide first aid to the survivors when they saw the wreck they understood perfectly well that not everyone would be able to survive in that scenario perhaps even only a few people however there was still a chance even though a small one that someone would survive we were desperate theory is one thing but practice is a whole other story and the responsibility for all the people on board their lives depended solely on us at that moment to be honest we thought we were living the last minutes of our lives we even said goodbye to each other and as we were already getting ready to land the plane a true miracle happened the flight attendant noticed a strip which on closer inspection turned out to be a runway it was strange because the airport wasn't marked on aeronautical charts however that was our only chance for survival the co-pilot recalled without a moment's hesitation the pilot started an emergency landing flying a plane without navigation systems was like looking for a black cat in a dark room thus they had to make do with what they had a glass of water served as a horizon indicator and the pilot's eyes were the only radar everyone held their breath after all they understood that they were just inches away from crashing the electrical failure had also disabled the flaps control system and therefore they had to land at a speed of 350 to 380 kilometers per hour which was much higher than the normal 207 kilometers per hour two attempts to land were aborted allowing the pilots to access the condition of the runway it was only on their third try that a successful emergency landing was made at zero 755 local time the crew's nerves were on edge hearts racing but their professional and well-coordinated work got the plane finally landed unfortunately the runway was too short and the aircraft overran it ending up in vegetation but despite it all the enthusiasm of sergey satnikov who for many years had kept the runway in order made everything go as smoothly as possible neither the nine crew members nor the 72 passengers were injured that day as for the plane itself its left landing gear was completely destroyed the nose cone was pulled apart fluid was leaking from its wheels and all engines were broken at first it was decided to decommission the aircraft and leave it in the tega due to severe damage however the plane was later ferry to ukta and then to samaria where it was repaired the 2-154 rose into the sky again few believed that the aircraft could be used for regular flights again after the accident as it turned out the skeptics were wrong the pilot in command of jenny gennadovich navosolav and the co-pilot andrei alexandrovich leminov were awarded the title of hero of the russian federation the rest of the crew received the order of courage sergey sotnikov was awarded a medal of the order for merit to the fatherland featuring his own portrait on one side and the alrosa plain on the isma runway on the other these people had done everything they could to land the plane as safely as possible in such disastrous conditions when it seemed that everyone was doomed in order to show their appreciation for sergi and his work people raised money and bought a snowmobile for the diligent worker after all it was especially difficult for him to get to work during the cold season of course there were people who said that satnikov didn't deserve any special rewards after all he was only doing his job however if you think about it the man did much more than he was required to and it's easy to talk about heroic deeds sitting in a comfortable chair in a warm office soon after what happened the isma museum of history and folklore opened an exhibition entitled the life-saving runway of the isma airport people say that on september 7 2010 there were lots of guardian angels over the village of isma but what made it possible for almost 100 people to survive a miracle a coincidence or maybe a lucky tale number some sort of a combination of them all probably this incredible incident will remain in the history of aviation as the miracle of isma sergi satnikov still receives letters from the survivors who express their gratitude to him so friends what do you think about this story be sure to write about it in the comments and that's it for today give the video a thumbs up and see you soon bye soon i

Channel: Life Stories

Views: 1,965,721

Rating: 4.8927588 out of 5

Keywords: Story, life story, real-life story, tu-154, kindness, good deeds, hero man, landing in Izhma, Izhma airport, aircraft in Izhma, Izhma miracle, Izhma, saved the plane, incredible story, man maintained the runway every day, laughed at him, saved 81 lives, Sergei Sotnikov, real miracle, real story, airfield supervisor, Tu-154 landing, aircraft, landing, airport, aviation, a hero of our time, maintained the runway, motivation, man helped, lesson, became a hero, Izhma village, pilot

Id: 66uv-iziYjs

Length: 8min 57sec (537 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021