Russia’s Lokomotiv ice hockey team in air disaster
On September 7, 2011 Yak-42 jet carrying Russia’s ice hockey team Lokomotiv has crashed on take-off from Yaroslavl city Tunoshna airport. Out of the 45 people on board – 37 players and 8 crew members – only 2, flight engineer Aleksandr Sizov and Lokomotiv forward Aleksandr Galimov, survived. Galimov died on September 12 in hospital. The BBC reports that the hockey player’s condition is critical, as he received burns to 90 percent of his body and his respiratory passages and sustained injuries to his left lung and kidneys. The flight engineer has burns over 15 percent of his body and a hip fracture. Russia’s best doctors are doing their best to save the survivors’ life in Moscow.
“It is a shock for the entire country, as is always the case. But there is an additional moment here: the plane carried the first-line players of a popular team in Yaroslavl and all Russia, one of this country’s most successful clubs,” Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev said after visiting the disaster place. He also called for keeping the club alive and reviving its potential.
President of the International Ice Hockey Federation, Rene Fasel, has called the disaster “the saddest day in the history of sport,” while the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) has announced the postponement of matches due to the Yaroslavl tragedy. The me-mory of those killed in the crash is being honored almost all over the world.
News.ru quotes Yaroslavl Oblast Governor Sergei Vakhrukov as saying that “a large number of clubs has expressed willingness to help Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. About 30 players are ready to transfer to this club. A lot of Yaroslavl-born athletes play in the KHL, and they are ready to get back to the Yaroslavl club,” he said.
It became known recently that a Lokomotiv player, the forward Maksim Ziuziakin, had not flown together with his team to his first KHL regular championship match in Belarus. “The coach Pyotr Vorobyov decided that I would not come out on the ice and it would be better if I immediately traveled to Moscow to reinforce the national under-21 team. I was told just last night not to fly,” Maksim told Life News. The Finnish coach of Lokomotiv goalkeepers, Jorma Valtonen, was also absent from the flight.
Meanwhile, investigators are considering three versions of what could cause the crash of the airplane which fell immediately after the takeoff: an equipment failure, a pilots’ error, and a substandard fuel. One of the earlier versions was that the plane hit a high-voltage line and fell down.
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is considered one of Russia’s best ice jockey clubs. It won three national championships in 1997, 2002, and 2003. In addition to native-born players, the club also employed Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany, Belarus, and Latvia internationals, as well as three Ukrainians – Oleksandr Viukhin, Danylo Sobchenko, and Vitalii Anikeienko. These boys were also on board the ill-fated plane. These players had passports of citizens of both Ukraine and Russia. Two of them, Sobchenko and Anikeienko, were raised at Kyiv’s Kryzhynka ice hockey school. The Day got in touch with this school’s coaches and asked them to say a few words about the boys.
Viacheslav LYPEKHA, coach, children’s sport school Kryzhynka; former coach of Vitalii Anikeienko:
“Vitalii came to our group later than the others: he was born in 1987, while the rest were in 1986. But, thanks to his inborn physical conditions and discipline, he began to make progress and looked better, in terms of sport, than the other boys. At 12 he was admitted to the Lokomotiv ice hockey club’s boarding school and moved to Yaroslavl. It is not an easy psychological trial for a child of this age. But Vitalii successfully went through all this, came into the first line, played for Russia’s under-21 national team with the boys who were two years his senior, and became a silver medal winner in Kontinental League championships, when he was 22 and 23. This year he won the bronze medal at the national championship of Russia. He was a well-mannered and hard-working guy.”
Ivan BENEVELSKY, coach, children’s sport school Kryzhynka; former coach of Danylo Sobchenko:
“Danylo was a kind-hearted and well-mannered boy. I did not train him very long – for two years only. Then he moved to Yaroslavl. He became a world champion as a Russian national team player: they won the 2011 world championship last winter [by outplaying the team of Canada with a score of 5 to 3 – Author.]. He was one of the first five players. Although he was at such an early age, San Jose Sharks had their eyes on him. As far as I know, he had a choice: to go to the NHL or stay behind in Yaroslavl. Danylo chose the latter.”
Yevhen ALYPOV, coach, children’s sport school Kryzhynka; he knew Oleksandr Viukhin:
“Oleksandr Viukhin was a physical training faculty graduate. When I played for Dynamo Kharkiv, this club invited him, 15 at the time, to play for it. When he was 17 and we had a problem with goalkeepers, he defended the goal of this high-skilled team. Later, he and I transferred to Sokil. Then he continued his career in Novosibirsk and Omsk.”
The Den/The Day journalists express their condolences and are deeply bereaved over this bitter loss
