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On the eve of the winter season the Russian
President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Lensk where the
weather makes peace with calendar least of all and the cold
comes at the time when central parts of Russia still enjoy
mild and soothing sunshine of the Indian summer. The country
President was driven over a reconstructed dam, which is
due to prevent destructive nature cataclysms in the future.
The President gave high appraisal of the efforts made for
reconstruction of Lensk after the destructive flood in May.
With no exaggeration one can say that the endeavour so large
in scope, costs and manpower would not have been completed
in Lensk on the set time unless air company "POLET"
took part. The company received special thanks for this
service from the President of Sakha-Yakutia Mikhail Nikolaev.
It is quite clear that such evaluation could be made after
positive conclusion of the Russian President regarding the
completed work.
Deputy General Director of "Almazy Rossii-Sakha ("Alrosa")
Alexander Morozkin came to Polet's Moscow office so as to
present this honourable award. There he held the press conference
together with General Director of "Polet" Anatoly
Karpov. "If it were not for air company "POLET",
the assessment of our Government could be quite different.
Now we can state with a clear mind: yes, we carried out
the President's task, - Mr. Morozkin said presenting the
letter of gratitude made in frame looking as a diploma of
excellence to Polet's General Director.
The main point was not in the scope and difficulty of the
reconstruction, but in the requirement to perform it in
the shortest possible terms, which is explained by Yakutia
geographical location. It would have been plainly impossible
to provide town dwellers with houses and restore the ruined
infrastructure of Lensk unless there was a cargo air company
capable of transporting heavy and outsized cargo accurately.
The air company won the announced tender and used three
AN-124-100s for deliveries. One of them started the work
as soon as it completed the contract of transporting the
American spy-plane EP-3, which had an emergency from Hainan
Island in China. To this end it is worth mentioning that
air company "POLET" has been given thanks from
the US military commanders.
Totally 63 flights were performed and over 6000 tons of
cargo were delivered. The flight geography was vast: Bombay
to Milan, Tyumen to Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok. The
cargo was delivered to Mirny and Polyarny airports.
To observe the sanitary requirements the flight crews have
organized a relay. Delivery of changing crews was performed
by YAK-40 also belonging to "Polet".
When "Alrosa" representative was asked about the
scope of services provided by air company "POLET",
he replied confidently: " We have never been served
on such a high scope and with so good quality level.
I don't think someone else performed such amount of deliveries
before. Everything was planned hour by hour."
At this moment I thought of a different thing. Air company
"Polet" is one of the major participants in the
unique Russian project "Air Launch" intended for
launching satellites by upgraded AN-124-100 aircraft from
which rockets are to be started.
To accomplish this goal four out of seven Polet's aircraft
are going to be retrofitted. It is conceivable that the
time will come and a similar letter of gratitude will be
received by the company from the space industry customer.
Date:- November 2001
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