Monument to the Feat of the Pilot Vasilii Staroshchuk

The monument to Vasilii Staroshchuk was installed in 2003 on the 60th anniversary of the feat of the test pilot.

July 10, 1943, during the test of the ЯК-7 the pupil of the Novosibirsk Aero Club pilot Vasilii Illarionovich Staroshchuk tragically ended the life. The fighter fell directly in the Red Avenue. The impact was so strong that the car entered the ground for several meters. Not a single house was destroyed, none of the townspeople were also injured. The pilot, who was flying the plane, died.

Not much is known about the disaster, all the materials were uncharted, and in 1958 destroyed. The cause of the crash is still not clear. "The investigation showed that the pilot had already completed the task and was on the decline to land at the airport of the plant, at that point there was a breakdown. When Vasilii Staroshchuk realized that he would not reach the airfield, he began to look for a place to land in the city. The flight path shows that he rushed to Lenina square, even released the landing gear. The pilot had the opportunity to throw the machine and save his life by jumping with a parachute, but then people on the ground could die", - says Liudmila Vlasenko, Head of the Pokryshkin Aviation Museum.

The stele at the crash site of the fighter is the only thing that reminds the townspeople about Vasilii Illarionovich Staroschuk. The house in which he lived in 53 Stalina avenue (now Lenina street) is not preserved. His grave, too: he was buried in the territory of Birch roshcha passage, where nowadays there is the Park of Culture and Recreation.