Pilots treated to cherry pie for safely landing Putin''s plane

Moscow, December 3

A special cherry pie made by a Kremlin chef was presented to pilots who recently managed to safely land Russian President Vladimir Putin's plane in dense fog, a government official said.

The announcement was made on Monday by Yelena Krylova, the spokesperson for the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation, in an Instagram post, TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.

The pilots from the Rossiya Special Flight Unit managed to safely land the presidential plane amid dense fog on November 28 in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, where Putin had arrived to attend the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit.

"We now have a tradition to present as a friendly gesture and a sign of gratitude something made by chefs of the Administrative Directorate - a cherry pie by a Kremlin pastry chef - to those who save lives, who do their job with great skill and who are simply good people," she said.

The crew received the pie "for performing a landing with surgical precision in adverse weather conditions, while other planes gave up, diverting to another airport", Krylova added.

According to the spokeswoman, the crew demonstrated their skill by making the difficult procedure look like an absolutely routine maneouver to a non-specialist.

IANS