Russian aviation is one of the sectors most severely affected by the punitive measures, writes The Moscow Times. The sanctions due to the war in Ukraine mean that Russian airlines cannot get new parts for their planes. According to The Insider, the number of serious and less serious accidents increased dramatically from the middle of last year, a few months after the sanctions against Russia were introduced. The Insider claims that the increase in accidents is due to Russian aviation being unprepared when the sanctions hit the country. Nine companies stopped flying altogether during the last year. Four of these were stripped of their license to operate air traffic, writes the Russian newspaper Kommersant. According to The Moscow Times, there were 130 serious incidents, including 28 plane crashes, in 2022. This is an increase from the previous year. President Putin visited the Aeroflot flight school on March 5 last year, shortly after the war against Ukraine began. The sanctions have hit Russian aviation. Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev / AP Rough start to the new year The newspaper and The Insider list a number of accidents and near misses at the start of this year which are said to be due to aircraft not being maintained and repaired. Several of these incidents have been confirmed through FlightRadar24.com, writes Simple Flying. List of alleged recent flight incidents On January 2, a Boeing aircraft in Sheremetyevo aborted its takeoff attempt due to problems with the landing system. On January 5, a Boeing 737 from Utair was forced to land in western Siberia because the air cooling system was not working. On 6 January, an Azur Air flight with 263 passengers on board had to return to Novosibirsk because the windscreen in the cockpit was broken in mid-air. The plane was then six hours into a flight to Thailand. On the same day, a plane from the low-cost airline Red Wings had to return to Kazan because the landing gear could not be retracted. On 8 January, a plane from Pobela Airline skidded off the runway so that the flight to Moscow was cancelled. On January 9, a door to the baggage compartment under the cabin opened while a plane was in flight over eastern Russia. It is said to have led to luggage being sucked out of the plane and to problems with the pressure in the cabin. On the same day, an Airbus A320 aircraft en route from Braisk to Moscow had to make an additional landing in Kazan because the toilets did not work. On 10 January, another Airbus A320 had to abort takeoff because one of the engines was not working as it should. The plane belonged to Rossiya Airlines. Sources: The Insider, Flightradar 24 The Insider writes that in January there were problems with the landing system on one or more planes every single day. Even with wear cracks in the fuselage and defective aircraft parts, Russian airlines will try to keep the planes in the air as far as possible, reports Radio Free Europe, which is an American state-funded broadcasting company. The plane crash that claimed the most lives in Russia last year happened in Yeysk in October when 13 died after a military plane crashed into a block of flats. One of the engines is said to have caught fire when the plane took off, writes the BBC. One of several accidents in Russia in 2022. The picture is from Irkutsk where a military plane crashed on 23 October. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP The Norwegian Airmen’s Association warns – No, I would not board a domestic flight in Russia, says deputy chairman of the Norwegian Airmen’s Association, Jo Bjørn Skatval, to news. He points to the uncertainty that prevails in Russia now. This means that he will not recommend anyone to fly domestically in the country. Deputy chairman of the Norwegian Aviation Association Jo Bjørn Skatval. Photo: jo bjørn skatlan / private – We have no guarantees from the Russian aviation authorities that it is safe to fly there now, says Skatval. He says that there are rumors circulating that a number of planes in Russia lack the safety equipment that every plane depends on. Russian aviation authorities have not been able to convince the outside world that these rumors are not true, says Skatval who, in addition to being deputy chairman, has a central position in the aviation safety committee of the Norwegian Aviation Association. – No plane should take off without all safety equipment in place, says Skatval. Nor would flight analyst at WinAir, Hans Jørgen Elnæs, take domestic flights in Russia now. – No I dont want to. – Aviation has strict rules. All aircraft must have regular checks and maintenance, and many components in an aircraft have a certain “lifetime” before they need to be replaced. As the sanctions began to take effect, the Russian aircraft fleet has not received the spare parts they need, says Elnæs. Flight analyst Hans Jørgen Elnæs. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB He confirms that Russian companies put planes on the ground from which they pick spare parts, so-called “cannibalisation”. Skatval in the Norwegian Aviation Association says that “cannibalisation” is fine because it means that original parts are taken from one aircraft to another. The problem is that aircraft in Russia do not get the original parts they need and the maintenance required. Aviation analyst Elnæs says that Russian airlines mainly use American Boeing, European Airbus and Russian-made aircraft. Even the Russian-made aircraft were affected by the sanctions after a while, Elnæs believes. – All aircraft manufacturers are dependent on subcontractors from other countries. Even Russian planes are, says Elnæs. Probably aircraft parts from Iran Russia’s lack of parts from aircraft manufacturers leads to the use of counterfeit aircraft parts, claims Andrej Kramarenko. He is an aviation expert from The Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Kramarenko has spoken to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – If parts are used, but with a history that we can verify, then it’s fine, says the aviation expert. – But when parts arrive from places that aircraft manufacturers have not heard of or vouched for – for example from a factory in Tehran in Iran – then we can have significant technical problems. A Czech-built aircraft of the type L-410 crashed in Menzelinsk in central Russia on 10 October 2021. After the war started, the number of aircraft accidents has increased sharply. Photo: – / AFP According to Andrej Kramarenko, Russia will receive aircraft parts from Iran. The Insider writes that Russia receives so-called pirated copies – counterfeit aircraft parts – from Iran, India and several countries in Africa. This has not been confirmed by the Russian authorities. Airplanes become spare parts Already in October last year, the director of Russia’s flagship, the state-owned Aeroflot, is said to have sounded the alarm, writes Business Insider. Sergej Alexandrovsky was worried about the company’s future because they are not getting aircraft parts. Aeroflot has a number of aircraft from American Boeing and European Airbus. Now the company is said to have put 25 planes on the ground so that these planes can be taken apart to be able to give parts to other planes. Aeroflot is said to have put 25 planes on the ground permanently so that the company can pick parts from the planes for machines that will still fly. Photo: DANIEL SLIM / AFP Founder of the flight safety company RunAvia, Andre Patrakov, says this process has become widespread in Russia. – In our situation, it has become the only way we can replace aircraft parts that we lack, he says to Radio Free Europe. – The obvious disadvantage is that it gives us fewer aircraft that work. This solves the problem of missing aircraft parts only for a shorter period, says Patrakov.
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Russian planes lack spare parts – fear of more plane accidents – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
