This was a two-seat trainer version of the Mig 15, and would have been the aircraft Yuri graduated to from the YAK 18. The instructor sat in the rear cockpit. Ultimately, the UTI plays a tragic part in Yuri’s story, as it was the plane in which he died. Desperate to improve his flying hours, and forbidden from flying solo, Yuri had booked a test with respected instructor and friend Vladimir Serugin.
What began as a routine flight ended in disaster. The weather conditions and visibility became bad, and the MigUTI crashed into the ground. The precise cause has never been established. It could have been turbulence from a supersonic Sukhoi jet-fighter making an accidental close pass, or it could have been oxygen-starvation caused by a cockpit vent left open. Either way, it ended in a high-speed ground impact in which both pilots were killed instantly.
Mig15-UT – two-seat trainer version of the Mig 15