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11 May, 2016 09:29

WWII pilots revisit their planes, share wartime stories in touching video

WWII pilots revisit their planes, share wartime stories in touching video

They greet the planes they used to fly decades ago with a “hello, I love you.” RT has brought two veteran pilots to a hangar with the WWII aircraft and filmed the touching reunion.

“Yes, that’s the one. What can I say? It’s Boston,” Boris Sverdlovsky says. 

The last time the military pilot Sverdlovsky saw the A-20 Havoc plane (also known as Boston), was a “very long ago.”

“The last time [I saw it was] before 1952,” he says, touching the metal tenderly, as though stroking a living being.

“I had this accident: when I was landing once, I forgot to lower the landing gear, and landed on the fuselage!” Sverdlovsky, who is in his mid-90s, laughs. 

Kuddus Latypov used to be the pilot of a Il-2 battle-plane, and he can’t hide his emotions: he hugs the Il-2, and talks to it, “Well, hello. I love you.”

“It’s been 60 years since I sat like this,” he admits, after the RT crew helps him into the pilot’s seat. 

Latypov also spoke about the hard task a pilot faces: “Anyone who feels like it, shoots at you: the infantry, anti-aircraft guns, and tanks, too. You’re always in the firing line.”

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