This story is nearly half a century old. In 1974, at the Vnukovo airport, the owner of Alma couldn’t persuade the staff to require the dog onboard without a certificate. Thanks to eye damage, the Eastern European sheepdog didn’t pass vet control.
The owner was the last to board, and before that, he took off the collar and said goodbye to his pet for an extended time. The powerful IL-18 liner carried a person to the north. The dog ran for an extended time on the runway, trying to catch up with him. She didn’t accept the loss, didn’t leave the airport. Neither the people who tried to catch her nor the local dog group tearing up the newcomers had forced Alma to leave her post. Gradually, they got used to dogs. The port service began to feed and protect the sheepdogs.
She still didn’t trust people, hiding at the slightest danger, and still saw off every plane. This went on for 2 years until the pilot saw the dog running after the plane from the cockpit of the plane. For her safety, Vyacheslav Valentine contacted the dispatcher and invited her to take the dog away from the runway.
They explained to him that it had been useless, Alma was trying to find the owner and didn’t let anyone get close. Then, the pilot often sees a shepherd dog, which hopefully meets every plane. Vyacheslav Alexandrovich went through the war, was a prisoner of Dachau and then the camps — he knew what grief was and saw it in the dog’s eyes. He visited the editorial office of Komsomolskaya Pravda and asked to write down that Alma was still waiting. that each commander will take it on board if only there’s an owner.
