08/16/2009 - Two Russian SU-27s from the Russian Knights flight group collided while training for the MAKS-2009 air show. The collision happened at Malahovka, near Moscow with one plane crashing into a house in the village of Ribak near Zhukovsky airfield and the other in a field. All three pilots ejected however the commander of the group, Colonel Igor Tkachenko, suffered a fatal spinal injury after his parachute failed to deploy. Igor Spak ejected safely.

Colonel Igor Tkachenko was born in 1964. 1985-ben completed the V.P.Cskalov Military Flying College, and in 2000 Gagarin Military Flying Academy. Till 1987 served on the Kubinka AFB.

Colonel Igor Tkachenko flew with L-29 Delfin, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27, Su-35 more than 2300 hours. Foreign aircrafts flew with Mirage-2000 and F-16. Aerobatics flying till 1989. Commander of the Russian Knights and the solo pilot. He has a wife, son and a daughter. Russian Military put him for a promotion medal. Russian Knights will not fly on the MAKS 2009 about the accident.

Video about the wreckage:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8204149.stm

R.I.P.

Reason of the crash: Colonel Igor Tkachenko's Su-27UB fly into Vitalij Melnyik's Su-27. Melnyik's Su-27 right engine damaged and the brake parachute container broke out. The hydraulic system deadly damaged. Tkachenko's Su-27UB nose damaged too. Probably Igor Kurilenko in the 2nd seat pull the ejection arm, because in the cockpit blood found on Tkachenko's place. So he maybe died when the two plane collapsed. Tkachenko's main parachute didn't open, just the seat's stabilizator parachute.