Volga-Dnepr pilots were granted governmental awards and President’s gratitude

According to Vladimir Putin decree No 547 “Governmental Awards” and order No 200-RP dated 26.04.2007, five Volga-Dnepr employees received awards for successful air operation to the South Pole in January 2007.

As the prize for mastering the aeronautical engineering and profound experience during the air trip to the South Pole Sabir Akhmetov, Volga-Dnepr An-124 Captain was granted the award of Distinguished Pilot of Russian Federation, Victor Sdobnov, VDA Flight Engineer received the award of Distinguished Transport Industry Officer of Russia. As the award for arrangement and technical support of the expedition the Government expressed gratitude to Alexander Ershov, VDA Radio Operator, Evgeny Lyashev, Flight Navigator and Firdaus Sarvartdinov, Captain.

This is a well-deserved award for our flight crew, who perform their hard and important work in a responsible and professional way. Sabir Akhmetov works for the company since 1991. He started to work as An-124-100 Co-pilot and then became the Captain. He is Captain for 15 years already and has flown for 16500 hours. Pilot work is his favorite occupation as it comprises romance and complexity. Sabir recollected of the shipment of oil equipment to Jopal (Columbia). The crew were responsible for truly precise work: An-124 freighter with max landing weight had to deliver cargo to mountainous airport with short and narrow runway each day during one month except for Sundays. Every time they had to use all of their mastery and never failed. Sabir stated that they enjoyed this job despite its complexity. He learned a lot from Vladlen Tsibulkin who still greatly assists Captains with advisory work.

Victor Sdobnov is also one of the company pioneers. He started in VDA as a Flight Engineer in 1991. Victor is the expert of a trade, diligent and experienced, thus in 2006 he was granted the “VDA Best in profession” award.

Alexander Ershov, Evgeny Lyashev and Firdaus Sarvartdinov joined the company not very long ago, although they already managed to perform in professional way. The colleagues characterize Alexander Ershov as a competent, responsible and punctual employee; Evgeny Lyashev is an always-ready-to-go man; Firdaus Sarvartdinov is a very prospective and talented pilot.

During the years of operations Volga-Dnepr succeeded to train many crewmembers who reached the level of Distinguished Pilots and Air Transport Officers, and these awards are added to the Airline’s Board of Honour. We congratulate our airmen and wish new awards to them!