The crashes of two jetliners minutes apart raised fresh questions on Wednesday about aviation security in Russia, but though experts admit shortcomings they said the industry is far safer than it was a decade ago.
Yefim Gordon, a respected Russian aviation historian who has authored a series of books on the subject, acknowledged that industry safety flaws rooted in lax standards persisted despite progress since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
He said Domodedovo airport, from which both planes departed before going down soon thereafter, is ”too busy now”.
”Many companies are now trying to switch to Domodedovo, because Sheremetyevo [Moscow’s main international airport] is no longer adapted to a number of aircraft,” he explained.
Gordon also described the avionics still in use aboard many planes used on domestic routes as outdated and said airline safety is compromised because many companies do not have the funds needed to modernise.
”I think electronic equipment in Russian aircraft is the main problem,” he said. ”Its quality is much lower than in the West. The Russian government doesn’t want to buy foreign equipment because it is expensive and this will put many Russians out of work.”
Despite its shortcomings, however, Gordon and other experts vigorously defended the safety progress made in the Russian aviation industry over the past decade, noting that even the best systems cannot offer 100% safety.
Boris Rybak, a civil aviation analyst at Infomost, an airline consultancy, said the planes that went down overnight Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of 89 people aboard, were safe and their pilots well-trained.
”After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian aviation safety deteriorated,” Rybak admitted.
”But towards the end of the 1990s it improved again. In the past few years, aviation safety in Russia has been above world average.”
He noted that only 34 people died last year in Russian in accidents involving aircraft, including helicopters.
”Even adherence to all safety standards cannot guarantee that an accident won’t happen,” he said. ”This is true here just like it is true in the United States or anywhere in Europe.”
One of the planes that crashed overnight was a Tupolev 134 carrying 43 people and operated by the company Volga-Express. The other, a Tupolev 154, was carrying 46 people and was operated by Sibir.
Both are among the dozens of private regional carriers that were spawned with the break-up of the Soviet Union and its flagship airline, Aeroflot.
Those planes are widely regarded among international aviation industry experts as among the safest. The two companies, however, were not among those listed by Gordon as having made the investments needed to upgrade navigation equipment.
Officials said on Wednesday they were investigating the possibility that a terrorist action brought the planes down, but said they were also examining other possible explanations including bad weather, pilot error or bad fuel pumped into the planes. — Sapa-AFP
Russia on alert after double jet crash