generalspeaking

Russia's Passenger Jet Safety Record

"The stewardesses saved me."
"The girls were standing near us. In the area where there was fuel, where it was dark, where the temperature was the highest, they brought people out and helped them get down the slide."
Dmitry Khlebnikov, 10th row passenger, Moscow flight disaster, Sukhoi Superjet 100

"We took off and flew into a cloud. It was hailing heavily."
"At that moment there was a bang, this kind of flash, like electricity."
"It all happened very quickly."
Tatyana Kasatkina, Aeroflot flight attendant

Black smoke billows from the burning plane on the tarmac at Sheremetyevo airport   AFP

It had, said the plane's commander, Denis Yevdokimov, all started when lightning knocked out their radio and electronic guidance systems. The pilots, as a result, were forced to fly manually. The flight had left Moscow on Sunday en route to Murmansk, in northern Russia, a regular and popular flight. Shortly after takeoff the Sukhoi Superjet's pilots signalled distress, and circled back to return to Moscow for an emergency landing.

Under most such circumstances, a returning aircraft is instructed to rid itself of fuel. With communication down and instructions not forthcoming and time short, the plane arrived to the airport its fuel intact. As the plane bounced on landing, the tail struck ground causing it to burst into flames and that fuel fed the flames as the plane sped its course along the runway of Sheremetyevo International airport.

That the fuel was leaking and burning was the reality seen as flames spread on the tarmac. Even while passengers were descending via the inflatable emergency slides, attempting to flee from the blazing wreck. Of the 78 people on board the plane, 41 died, among them two children. A 22-year-old flight attendant, Maxim Moiseyev, stationed himself with the intention of assisting passengers toward the front doors.

He refused to leave himself -- as long as passengers remained on board. He had worked as a flight attendant for 14 months after passing a correspondence course in civil aviation which followed his completion of a military academy course and service in the Russian army. He died in the fire, one of the 41 victims.

Kommersant FM radio station reported that among the passengers, some insisted on retrieving their hand luggage from overhead compartments. Which served to slow down the evacuation. People behind were clamouring to exit the plane as it burned. But a handful of the passengers groped for their baggage, creating a lethal bottleneck in the single aisle.

Most of those who died had been seated at the rear of the plane. An investigative committee is considering three possible causes of the tragedy; inadequate crew and ground personnel training, technical malfunction, or bad weather. And it is conceivable that all three issues contributed to this disaster. The fuel tanks remained full because the pilots were unable to contact the tower.

The rear of the Aeroflot plane was completely burnt out  Reuters

Otherwise they might have been given the option to dump the fuel, or to circle over the airport in an effort to burn through the fuel. Coded signals were sent via transponder indicating the radio had failed. And four minutes before the disastrous landing, it was communicated that the pilots were facing an on-board emergency.

Over four thousand people signed an online petition for Russia to halt the flight of Superjets in the wake of eight safety incidents occurring in the past year in the face of denials by the transport minister that there might be any reason to ground the passenger airliner, the main domestically- produced plane.


It is a plane representing the nation's first newly designed, post-Soviet passenger plane introduced in 2008. At the plant in Siberia where the plane is manufactured, dozens of its employees were discovered to have false university engineering diplomas. A Superjet crashed into a mountain in Indonesia in 2012 during a sales demonstration flight, with all 50 people aboard killed. Attributed to pilot error.

The plane has been sold to a few other countries, among them Mexico. In Mexico 15 of its 22 Superjets were grounded this year by Interjet with complaints the plane's engine, a joint venture between French and Russian manufacturers, required too-frequent remediation work. Russia's air industry has a history of crashes, often attributed to pilot fatigue or error.

Statistically four times more dangerous than the global average for safety.

The plane had just taken off from Sheremetyevo airport when it caught fire   Getty Images

Labels: Air Disaster, Flight Catastrophe, Investigation, Russia

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, May 08, 2019