Being a colleague of Igor Kshnyakin and a captain who worked side by side with him, I can say with full confidence that during the disaster Igor made full use of all his accumulated life and pilot experience and did everything possible until the last second.
As Day.Az reported on Sunday, the captain said this today at a farewell ceremony at Heydar Aliyev International Airport with three crew members – pilots Igor Kshnyakin, Alexander Kalyaninov and flight attendant Hyokuma Aliyeva, who died in a plane crash near Aktau Nazim Jafarovwho worked with Igor Kshnyakin for many years.
“It’s very difficult for me to speak here today. Because Igor Kshnyakin and I worked side by side for 45 years. In 1979, we, two Baku residents, entered the Aviation School together. There, Igor and I developed a friendship, one might say kinship. Returning to Azerbaijan , we have dedicated our entire lives and activities to the aviation of Azerbaijan. I express my deep condolences to Igor’s family and his children who are present here today.
It’s a pity that today I’m talking about Igor in the past tense. We recently got together and celebrated the 45th anniversary of our work. We had dreams of living to retirement age and living for ourselves and our families. It’s very difficult. It is especially difficult to see the body of our co-pilot, a young colleague, here. Because we, as senior captains, always wanted the young ones not only to be professional and good pilots, but also took care of them as our children, wanting them to become good people in life and experienced workers. Hyokume, I wished for the same thing. There are not enough words to express all the gratitude and respect that could be said for them here,” he said.
Let us recall that on December 25, an Embraer 190 passenger plane belonging to Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), flying on the Baku-Grozny route, crashed 3 kilometers from Aktau airport.
There were 67 people on board the plane (62 passengers and 5 crew members).
On December 26, 14 victims and the bodies of four dead were delivered to Azerbaijan.
And on December 28, the bodies of three crew members (pilots Igor Kshnyakin, Alexander Kalyaninov and flight attendant Hyokuma Aliyeva), as well as 21 passengers, were delivered.