RUSSIA: Aviation analyst says plane crashes in Russia are the result of a variety of systemic problems including shortages in pilot training, maintenance of aircraft and air traffic safety enforcement by authorities

Record ID: 382855

  • Title: RUSSIA: Aviation analyst says plane crashes in Russia are the result of a variety of systemic problems including shortages in pilot training, maintenance of aircraft and air traffic safety enforcement by authorities
  • Date: 3rd April 2012
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (APRIL 2, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHIEF ANALYST AT AVIATION CONSULTANCY AVIAPORT, OLEG PANTELEYEV, SAYING: "The aviation community has, for a long time, pointed at a series of very serious problems. Till recently, all dramatic and significant accidents, for example those last year, dealt with Soviet-designed planes and specialists said the problem was the old engineering, but regretfully the problem has, in fact, a wider, systemic character, and it's impossible to solve it just by substituting old aircraft with new ones." PEOPLE ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHIEF ANALYST AT AVIATION CONSULTANCY AVIAPORT, OLEG PANTELEYEV SAYING: "The principal issue is that there is a serious lack of pilots, moreover for aircraft types which are new to Russia. It makes companies hold on to their pilots and pay them higher salaries, and turn a blind eye to those problems that are connected with piloting techniques and wrong pr poor decisions made by the pilots." PANTELEYEV TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CHIEF ANALYST AT AVIATION CONSULTANCY AVIAPORT, OLEG PANTELEYEV SAYING: "As for the ATR-72 craft which the (UTair) air company has purchased, there is no way anyone can say that they are too old or unreliable. Beside that, the ATR-72 craft has a flight certificate issued by the aviation register of the Interstate Aviation Committee (Russian aviation watchdog), it has passed all tests which confirmed its ability to be used in all meteorological conditions characteristic for East and West Siberia and even for the far North. This plane was also tested in Yakutia (Russian region in central Siberia) in extreme cold and and no serious problems were identified." VARIOUS OF STREET
  • Embargoed: 18th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Accidents,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA81X5E99S8VLUZ8MQQM3G24NL3
  • Story Text: A Russian passenger plane crashed and burst into flames after takeoff in an oil-producing region of Siberia on Monday (April 2), killing at least 31 of the 43 people on board, emergency officials said.
    At least five of the survivors were in critical condition, RIA news agency quoted hospital officials as saying in Tyumen, some 1,720 km (1,070 miles) east of Moscow.
    It was not immediately clear what caused the UTair airlines ATR 72 to crash with 39 passengers and four crew on board, the latest air disaster to blight Russia's safety record.
    Russian aviation analyst Oleg Panteleyev told Reuters that systemic problems, beyond the scope of ageing Soviet aircraft, are to blame for the drastic fall in Russian flight safety in recent years.
    "The aviation community has, for a long time, pointed at a series of very serious problems. Till recently, all dramatic and significant accidents, for example those last year, dealt with Soviet-designed planes and specialists said the problem was the old engineering, but regretfully the problem has, in fact, a wider, systemic character, and it's impossible to solve it just by substituting old aircraft with new ones," Panteleyev said.
    The crash was the deadliest air disaster in Russia since a Yak-42 plane slammed into a riverbank near the city of Yaroslavl after takeoff on Sept. 7, 2011, killing 44 people and wiping out the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team.
    President Dmitry Medvedev called for a reduction in the number of Russian airlines and improvements in crew training after that crash, which followed a June crash that killed 47 people including a navigator who had been drinking.
    Panteleyev believes there is no one single reason for the growing number of air accidents but a variety of them, including personnel training, poor maintenance of aircraft and insufficient air traffic safety enforcement measures by authorities.
    "The principal issue is that there is a serious lack of pilots, moreover for aircraft types which are new to Russia. It makes companies hold on to their pilots and pay them higher salaries, and turn a blind eye to those problems that are connected with piloting techniques and wrong pr poor decisions made by the pilots," Panteleyev said.
    The contact was lost with the plane just over three minutes after take-off, the regional branch spokesman of the Emergencies Ministry, Yuri Alekhin told Russian television from the scene of the crash. He said that there are no explanations yet, adding that the "black box" flight recorder had been found.
    UTair said on its website that the twin-engine, turbo-prop plane had been trying to make an emergency landing when it came down 1.5 km (one mile) from the airport in the western Siberian city of Tyumen en route to Surgut, an oil town to the northeast.
    UTair has three ATR-72 craft made by the French-Italian manufacturer ATR, according to the Russian airline's website www.utair.ru.
    "As for the ATR-72 craft which the (UTair) air company has purchased, there is no way anyone can say that they are too old or unreliable. Beside that, the ATR-72 craft has a flight certificate issued by the aviation register of the Interstate Aviation Committee (Russian aviation watchdog), it has passed all tests which confirmed its ability to be used in all meteorological conditions characteristic for East and West Siberia and even for the far North. This plane was also tested in Yakutia (Russian region in central Siberia) in extreme cold and and no serious problems were identified," Panteleyev said.
    The International Air Transport Association said in December that global airline safety rates had improved in 2011 but that in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, which groups former Soviet republics, the rate had risen.
    Gunther Matschnigg, IATA senior vice-president for safety, said a key problem in Russia was that pilots and ground technicians were having to adapt to a growing number of a highly sophisticated aircraft.
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