On September 7, near Yaroslavl, a Yak-42 plane crashed with the Lokomotiv hockey team on board, which was leaving for Minsk for its first game of the new KHL season. As a result of the plane crash, out of 45 people on board, 43 died at the scene of the accident, another - the striker of the Russian national team and Lokomotiv Alexander Galimov - died on September 12 at the Institute of Surgery. Vishnevsky from burns incompatible with life. Only the flight attendant of the ship, Alexander Sizov, survived the plane crash; now he is at the N. V. Sklifosovsky. The catastrophe, which received worldwide resonance, once again demonstrated that the state of affairs in Russian civil aviation is far from ideal.
The severity of the problems in modern Russian aviation is confirmed by a series of plane crashes this year. The last one took place less than two months ago. On July 11, 2011 in the Tomsk region the plane An-24 of Angara Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing on water. The plane, following the Tomsk-Surgut route, splashed down a kilometer from Cape Medvedev. There were 33 people on board, 5 of them died, 4 were seriously injured. Shortly before that, on June 21, 2011, one of the largest plane crashes of the year occurred. A Tu-134 of the RusEy airline crashed near Petrozavodsk, flying on the route Moscow-Petrozavodsk. On board there were 43 passengers (including 8 children) and 9 crew members, 47 people were killed.
In March this year, during flight tests on the border of the Voronezh and Belgorod regions, an An-148 plane crashed, 6 people died. It is noteworthy that 2011 itself began in Russia with a plane crash. On January 1, a Tu-154 belonging to the Kolymavia airline crashed while landing in Surgut, as a result of the accident 3 people were killed, 44 were injured of varying severity. In terms of the number of aviation accidents and flight accidents over the past year, our country has come close to the Congo, Iran and a number of other less developed countries.
Yak-42, crash site near Yaroslavl
Reasons and ways of overcoming the crisis
Traditionally, after each plane crash, officials ordered to "ban and not let" into the air the next types of aircraft. At the same time, in most cases, the cause of the plane crashes were mistakes made by the crew. It also affects the fact that Russia uses a fairly old fleet of aircraft, and the infrastructure of airports, especially in the provinces, is not in perfect condition. Test pilot 1st class Vadim Bazykin is convinced that our aircraft are of the highest class, but they are all the result of the work of engineers back in the 70s of the last century. Our passenger planes are high-speed and give the crew very little time to make decisions. Modern planes land at a much slower speed, they provide an order of magnitude more time for the crew to comprehend the situation. Old Soviet aircraft are very demanding on the level of crew training and do not forgive mistakes, and any mistake in this case is a cut in human lives. The conclusion suggests itself, Russia simply needs a modern aircraft fleet, and it is not at all necessary that it be imported. At the same time, today only Moscow, St. Petersburg and maybe a few more airports in the country meet all modern international requirements. And so either the technology does not correspond to the airports, or the airports to the technology.
The opinion that in the field of flight safety in the Russian civil aviation the situation is catastrophic is also held in Europe. The German Pilots Union Cockpit believes that only Africa is the most deplorable state of affairs. A statement about this was made on September 11 by the press secretary of this trade union Jörg Handwerg. According to him, the main problems of Russia are obsolete aircraft, insufficient professional training, lack of money for preventive maintenance and repairs.
The technical equipment of ground services at Russian airports also raises criticism from the German side. With a few exceptions, a few large airports have international status. At the same time, small airports in the province are experiencing huge problems. Handwerg, who, when he was a pilot, flew to Russian airports more than once, noted that the training of Russian dispatchers is far from ideal, many dispatchers in the provinces practically do not know English.
An old-timer of domestic aviation Tu-134, production was discontinued in 1985
The Germans also noted another Russian peculiarity, this time of a legal nature. Russian meteorologists are personally responsible for the provided weather forecasts. This is why they tend to be conservative and often predict worse weather than actually expected, citing possible hail or stormy winds. These attempts at reinsurance, in the opinion of German specialists, are counterproductive. To improve the situation in the field of flight safety, it is necessary to take comprehensive measures that will require the attraction of large funds, sums up the spokesman for the German pilots union.
The catastrophe near Yaroslavl was the last straw of patience for President Dmitry Medvedev, who made a number of sharp remarks on this matter. By order of the President, by February 1, 2012, the most urgent measures should be taken to ensure the leasing of civil vessels that would meet all modern airworthiness requirements, regardless of their country of origin. By the same date, the government should develop a system of subsidizing regional and local transportation. Also, by November 15, measures should be developed to terminate the activities of air carrier companies that are unable to ensure flight safety. In addition, a number of changes are planned to be introduced into the Air Code, which will ensure the introduction of international standards for overseeing the training of aviation personnel, administrative fines for violating flight rules will also be increased, and the possibility of an extrajudicial procedure for stopping the operation of aircraft that violate the requirements of air legislation will be separately provided.
According to the pilot, Army General, ex-Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Air Force Pyotr Deinekin, many air crashes in recent years are associated with the so-called human factor. Many of them are the fault of the flight crews and, above all, of the aircraft commanders. In his opinion, during the restructuring, the main personality in aviation - the ship's commander - was reduced to a level below the plinth. In the USSR, commanders of passenger planes who flew the Tu-104 were greeted almost like cosmonauts, they were people who were respected in society.
Another old man, An-24
Currently, aircraft commanders have lost their face, and, if I may say so, personal courage. In the notorious case of the catastrophe near Donetsk (2006, 170 dead), the ship's commander knew that there was a powerful thunderstorm front ahead, but decided to go through it, although he could easily fly around it. The captain of the ship was saving kerosene while the innocent passengers, for whom he was responsible, sat behind him.
Today, pilots have become virtually slaves. Airline owners are only interested in profits, while they themselves have never flown at the helm. Pilots can fly on foreign aircraft, they know English perfectly and at the same time they are mercilessly exploited, some pilots have 90 hours of flight per week. Such a number of hours is very difficult to bear even by people with good health, it is a very strong load and great stress. As a result, the person becomes indifferent to the situation, which may require his detailed analysis. That is why it is wrong to blame only outdated domestic aircraft. It is necessary, as soon as possible, to restore the former image of aircraft commanders.
What they fly in Russia today
Today, the existing passenger fleet of Russian air carriers includes 986 passenger and 152 cargo aircraft, in terms of the number of foreign aircraft make up 46% of this number, while having an overwhelming advantage in long-haul flights. Since 1998, the number of foreign-made mainline airliners has grown from 40 to 350 aircraft, during the same time the number of Tu-154 and Yak-42 has been halved. At the same time, regional aircraft were and remain primarily of Russian production. According to the registry data, there are about 130 old Tu-134, Yak-42, and An-24 aircraft in the fleet of Russian companies. The average cost of a new aircraft of this class is about $ 20 million per unit, therefore, in order to completely replace them, more than $ 2.5 billion will be required.
In 2010, Russian airlines purchased only 8 new Russian-made aircraft. Three mainline airliners - Tu-214, Tu-204-300, Tu-154M, as well as 5 regional An-148 aircraft. At the same time, domestic airlines purchased almost 10 times more aircraft abroad - 78 aircraft. Of these, 54 are mainline and 24 regional liners. It should be noted that the leadership in the number of deliveries to Russian airlines is gradually being won by the most advanced and competitive aircraft on the world market: the B-737 Next Generation, A-320, B-777 and A-330 aircraft. In the regional fleet, 50-seat aircraft are still in steady demand, so the An-148 aircraft immediately got into the top five.
Modern short-haul aircraft An-148
The need of domestic airlines for modern aircraft is objective, since the basis of the country's fleet is still made up of models of previous generations that have long lost their competitiveness. For example, the Western-made aircraft supplied by him for replacement provide almost half the fuel consumption per unit of work performed. Aircraft of the Tu-204/214 family are close to them in this indicator. At present, the operating fleet of these aircraft has quadrupled compared to 2000, and the volume of transport operations they perform annually has grown 12 times. Their share in the total passenger turnover of Russian air transport grew against the background of the crisis and bankruptcy of a number of airlines.
At the end of 2009, Russian airlines began to receive new regional An-148 aircraft (Russian-Ukrainian production) capable of carrying 70-80 passengers over a distance of 4500 km. This aircraft was developed taking into account the Russian operating conditions, and in its transport capabilities and technical perfection it surpasses the outdated Tu-134 by a head, and is quite comparable with foreign counterparts. At the same time, its advantage is lower requirements for the quality of airfield pavements. In addition, there is the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which is fully competitive with the most modern foreign counterparts in terms of the maintenance system and flight performance. In 2011, the commercial operation of this liner began in Russia. At present, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft has contracts (already concluded and under negotiation) for 343 aircraft. By 2014, the company plans to reach the planned production rate of 60 cars per year.
