Timur Apakidze
Georgia- Biography of Timur Apakidze
- Service in the Baltic Fleet
- Achievements and Awards
- Tragic Death and Legacy
Biography of Timur Apakidze
Timur Avtandilovich Apakidze was born on March 4, 1954, in the city of Tbilisi. He completed his education at the Leningrad Nakhimov Naval School in 1971 and continued his training at the Eisk Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots named after the twice Hero of the Soviet Union pilot-cosmonaut V. Komarov, which he successfully graduated from in 1975.
Service in the Baltic Fleet
Apakidze began his military service at the Guards Separate Maritime Assault Aviation Regiment of the Naval Aviation of the Baltic Fleet. He climbed the ranks from a junior pilot to the deputy commander for flight training. In 1986, Apakidze graduated from the A.A. Grechko Naval Academy and was appointed as the commander of the shipborne fighter aviation regiment in Saki. He served in this position until June 1992, as the head of air-to-air and tactical training. Afterwards, he was transferred to the Northern Fleet and appointed as the head of air-to-air and tactical training - the senior pilot of the mixed naval aviation division of the Russian Air Force. From March 1993, Timur Apakidze served as the deputy commander of the division. And from November 1994 to July 1998, he was the commander of this unit.
Achievements and Awards
Timur Apakidze completed the General Staff Academy of the Russian Armed Forces in 2000 and was appointed as the deputy commander of the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy. He mastered the combat training course in full. On September 26, 1991, Apakidze made the first landing of the first Russian deck-based fighter SU-27 (SU-33) on the aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov." He has made a total of 236 landings and mastered 13 types of aircraft. His total flight time amounted to 3500 hours.
Apakidze was honored with the highest awards of his homeland: the "For Service to the Fatherland in the Armed Forces" Order of the 3rd degree and the "For Military Merit" Order. On August 17, 1995, for courage and heroism demonstrated during the testing and mastering of new aviation equipment, Timur Avtandilovich Apakidze was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
Tragic Death and Legacy
On July 17, during a demonstration flight near the city of Ostrov in the Pskov region, Timur Apakidze tragically died. While performing advanced aerobatic maneuvers on the SU-33 fighter, he experienced a malfunction in the aircraft's mechanisms, which he promptly reported to the command center. He received orders to immediately eject from the plane. However, his duty, honor as an officer, and responsibility for the combat machine did not allow him to abandon the aircraft. He did everything possible to save the plane until the very last minute when it became impossible to save himself.
The name of one of Russia's best military pilots, Timur Apakidze, who has repeatedly shown courage and heroism during aviation technology tests, will forever be etched in the history of global military aviation. On July 26, 2001, the City Council of ZATO Severomorsk made the decision to immortalize the memory of Hero of the Russian Federation Timur Avtandilovich Apakidze: to rename Zapolyarnaya Street in Severomorsk-3 settlement to Timur Apakidze Street and install a memorial plaque on House No. 4, where the Hero of Russia lived. On September 10, 2001, the memorial plaque in memory of the remarkable pilot was unveiled.
