Although rescue helicopters often manage to document Soyuz landings, the Soyuz TMA-11 apparently made a rare touchdown, which was actually witnessed by people on the ground from a relatively short distance.
On April 24, Almira Alishbaeva of the Kazakh publication Diapazon published a remarkable account of the landing by the members of the Shalkar agricultural community based in the town of Kumkuduk in the Aitekibiysky Region of Kazakhstan. According to Zhalgaskan Shurenov, the head of the community, on April 19, he and his brigade went to their fields to prepare them for planting seeds.
Around 1 p.m. workers stopped for lunch:
"Suddenly, there was a boom in the sky and the black smoke appeared," Shurenov said, "It was like the aircraft exploded. It split into three parts in the sky (perhaps a reference to the heat shield separation) and one of them started descending under a white cupola. It looked like somebody was coming down on a parachute. Object was flying in our direction and soon landed around three kilometers from us."
Shurenov and several tractor drivers took UAZ and ZIL trucks and headed toward the landing site:
"On the ground there was a black apparatus, which looked like a pot. A moment we approached there was a boom. We jumped back. Immediately, a cover, which looked like a fry pan flew off and an antenna jumped out. The apparatus was so hot that ground started burning. We were waiting what would happen next. Then a man fell out of the pot. He was in the cosmonaut outfit. As we approached we could read "Yuri Malenchenko." "We are cosmonauts," he told us, neither his hands or feet were moving. He was pale and sweaty. We put him on the ground, gave a pillow under his head, while he asked to get others out. There were two women. I carried in my hands Peggy (Whitson) and So-yeon Yi, who appeared from the capsule. The American removed her glove and shook my hand. I said that this is Kazakhstan, Aitekibisky Region, but she did not understand Russian. Neither did So-yeon Yi, so I mostly communicated with Malenchenko. He asked us to take some gadget out of the capsule. The capsule was very small, while all our guys were huge. We picked the skinniest in our brigade -- Kanat Kydyralin -- he pulled the radio and some other electronic device.
Sometimes later the aircraft appeared in the sky. On the radio, we heard that cosmonauts landed safely, local people were helping them."
Upon realization that they can't document the event, Shurenov sent one of his workers to Kumkuduk, some 15 kilometers away. From there many townsfolk set out to see cosmonauts, some even walked. Locals still managed to take still photos and even a 15-minute video at the site. Some of the images were taken by Shurenov's grandson, Abai Duisenov, a fifth grader.
According to Shurenov, seven helicopters arrived to the landing site. Soon after professional rescuers landed, the site was cordoned off and local people were no longer allowed to approach cosmonauts or the crew. Radiation was quoted as one of the reasons for the restrictions to the landing site.
source : http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss_soyuztma11.html#witness
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