posted Jan 7th, 2022 - Timur Frank's freefall comeback began with 2-way training, which soon turned into 4-way jumps with members of Airborne VDV (Alexey Izmalkin, Georgy Miroshnichenko) and Tanay Wolves (Alexander Furman, Alexey Afanasyev on camera).

The Tanay 8-way team and the Tanay Wolves/VDV combination took turns training from the L-410 Turbolet in Tanay until the tragic plane crash happened on June 19th. Tanay 8 and Airborne VDV training were scheduled for a starting time at noon, and the Tanay Wolves/VDV combination used the morning hours to make a few 4-way jumps with Timur Frank.

The third takeoff on June 19 turned into the disaster. Georgy Miroshnichenko remembered that the malfunction of the right engine happened almost instantly after takeoff, at an altitude of approx. 50 meters. Even though it was obvious that the right engine was failing there was still no panic aboard.

He said that the experienced skydivers understood that the pilots would now try to get to higher altitude with the functioning second engine and then return to the airfield. However, the plane began to shake and seemed to be out of control. That was the time when Georgy Miroshnichenko became a little bit nervous: "I looked at our operator, who was sitting with us on the floor and began tightening his helmet. The next moment I turn my eyes back to the ground and saw how it was coming at us quickly, like being in a roller-coaster. I bunched up, looked out the window, and then I don't remember anything anymore, except for a picture a second before the collision with the ground."

Georgy Miroshnichenko said that there was no time to think of what was going on, as everything happened so quickly and within a few seconds. He came back to himself when he was lying on the field in pain. He still began to check himself with his left hand and could move the toes. He remembered that he felt better, as there did not seem to be spine damage:

"I tried to take off the helmet with my hand and breathe when I heard the voice of Alexander Izmalkin who asked me not to move. He came and helped me to take off the helmet, event though I was covered in blood. My face was one big hematoma, and I could not see see anything."

He asked Alexander Izmalkin how his team mates Timur Frank, Alexander Furman and Alexey Afanasyev were doing: "I heard Timur groaning nearby, and I heard Alexey's voice. He and Sasha Izmalkin assisted the rest of the parachutists, and a couple of minutes later the guys from the airfield arrived together with the paramedics."

His VDV team mates Seregin Sergey and Evgeny Shatnenko immediately arrived, as well, and they began to help taking off equipment and clothes, as Georgy Miroshnichenko felt a sharp pain in his left hip: "It was not clear what was wrong there, and I assumed a fracture. They tried to apply an immobilization splint, but the slightest movement caused severe pain, and I asked not to touch me, as I could already hear the sirens of ambulances somewhere in the distance."

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Airborne VDV at events before the plane crash

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The paramedics injected pain killers right away, and it became a little bit easier for Georgy Miroshnichenko before the medical helicopter arrived. The four heavily injured people were flown to the nearest hospital, and Georgy Miroshnichenko remembered how they were unloaded and placed in a CT machine in the hospital:

"Next time I came to my senses I was already in intensive care. I heard a lot of doctors gathered around me, and I could already move my foot. I even asked what was wrong with my leg, and it turned out to be a dislocation in the hip joint, which was already fixed. I was even cheered up a little. I remember some of my thoughts running through my head - there is no fracture, the leg is set, the bruises in my face and head will pass in a couple of weeks, and I will be able to continue training with the team..."

He did not know all the injuries at that time, and the doctors explained that they had to insert a spoke into his leg, which he surely did not like to hear: "They did not listen to me, and my day was over."

The doctors eventually gave Georgy Miroshnichenko an overview of the injuries at the consultation next morning: open cranio-cerebral trauma, multiple fractures of facial bones, hemotomas, closed dislocation of the hip joint. He had to stay for three more in the intensive care station, while the doctors were waiting for the results of the head trauma. Then he was transferred to the neuro-surgery department, where he staid for a whole month, before the next transfer to a military hospital in Moscow. There he staid for another month without getting up at all. It still all worked out eventually, and he started walking on crutches for the next step of the recovery process.

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Airborne VDV with Georgy Miroshnichenko after his recovery

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The doctors told him during the time of rehabilitation efforts that no one knows what will happen next. Only time would tell how the dislocation will heal, and what will happen after the head trauma, with an additional fracture of the temporal bone and some nerve damage of the facial nerve: "I did not even blink with an eye, and I did not want to listen to any of that. I knew that everything would be fine, and I started doing exercises to get myself in shape and deal with the injured leg. After less than two months I felt pretty good, and I immediately ordered a new jumpsuit.

He was back to cautious indoor training in September, and none of the injuries bothered him much any longer. Even the facial nerve began to recover, and the results of this recovery process include the ten rounds at the Russian Indoor Nationals and at the 1st DITC in Dubai.

Georgy Miroshnichenko said that had never been in a hospital with an injury in his whole life before the plane crash: "Now, and in hindsight, having been in a position between heaven and earth, I have begun to look at life in a new way and treat it differently."

4-way training and competition are obviously still a big part of his new life...