Vladimir Sharpatov
Vladimir Ilyich Sharpatov (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Шарпа́тов, born March 21, 1940, Krasnogorkiy village of Zvenigovsky District, Mari El) is a civil aviation pilot and Hero of the Russian Federation (1996). An Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane under his command made a forced landing at the airfield near Kandahar, Afghanistan, in August 1995. All seven Russian nationals on board were subsequently held captive by the Taliban for a year until they successfully escaped by flying their own plane out of Afghanistan in August 1996. Russian actor Alexander Baluyev played Vladimir Sharpatov in the 2010 film Kandagar.
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Biography
Sharpatov took evening classes at the Kazan Aviation Institute, and attended a local flying club, where he became a glider pilot. He then entered the Krasny Kut civil aviation flight school.
External links
- (in Russian) Sharpatov, Vladimir Ilyich
- Russian airmen escape from Afghanistan, Phil Reeves, The Independent, 19 August 1996
- Afghan Escape Film ‘Kandahar’ Pulls in Crowds, Alexander Bratersky, The St. Petersburg Times, February 9, 2010