Dangerous sky
The urgency of the problems in modern Russian aviation is confirmed by the series of plane crashes of the current year. The last of them occurred less than two months ago. 11 July 2011 in the Tomsk Region was forced to make an emergency landing on the water of the An-24 aircraft of Angara Airlines. The plane following the route Tomsk-Surgut splashed down a kilometer from Cape Medvedev. On board were 33 people, 5 of them died, 4 received serious injuries. Shortly before the 21 June 2011, one of the largest plane crashes of the year occurred. Under the Petrozavodsk crashed Tu-134 airline "RusEy", flying on the route Moscow-Petrozavodsk. On board were 43 passengers (including 8 children) and 9 crew members, 47 people died.
In March of this year, during the flight tests at the border of the Voronezh and Belgorod regions, the An-148 plane crashed and 6 people died. It is noteworthy that the year 2011 itself began in Russia with a plane crash. January 1, owned by Kolymavia Airlines, crashed as a result of the 154 accident of a person killed, 3 received injuries of varying severity. In terms of the number of aviation accidents and flight accidents over the past year, our country has come very close to the Congo, Iran and a number of other not very developed countries.
Causes and ways out of the crisis
According to tradition, after each plane crash, officials ordered to "ban and not let" the next types of aircraft in the air. However, in most cases, the cause of the crashes were mistakes made by the crew. The fact that quite old aircraft fleet is used in Russia also affects, and especially in the provinces, the infrastructure of the airports is not in the most perfect condition. Test pilot 1 class Vadim Bazykin is convinced that our planes are of the highest class, but all of them are the result of the work of engineers of the 70s of the last century. Our high-speed passenger planes give the crew very little time to make decisions. Modern aircraft land at a much lower speed, the time they give the crew more time to understand 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 dangling human lives. The conclusion suggests itself, Russia just needs a modern fleet, and it is not at all necessary that it be imported. At the same time, today only Moscow, St. Petersburg and several other airports in the country can meet all modern international requirements. And either the equipment does not correspond to airports or airports airports.
Opinions that in the field of flight safety in the Russian civil aviation situation is catastrophic and adhere to in Europe. Cockpit, the German pilots union, believes that the situation in Africa is deplorable. A statement about this was made on September 11 by the spokesman for the union Jörg Handverg. According to him, the main problems of Russia are - outdated aircraft, insufficient professional training, lack of money for maintenance and repair.
It causes criticism of the German side and the technical equipment of the ground services of Russian airports. With a few exceptions, several major airports have international status. At the same time, small airports in the province are experiencing enormous problems. Handverg, who, when he was a pilot, himself flew to Russian airports more than once, noted that the training of Russian air traffic controllers is far from ideal, many air traffic controllers in the province practically do not know English.
The Germans noted another Russian feature, this time of legal terms. Russian meteorologists are personally responsible for the weather forecasts provided. That is why they tend to be conservatism and often give forecasts for worse weather than is actually expected, referring to possible hail or gale. These reinsurance attempts are counterproductive in the opinion of German specialists. To improve the situation in the field of safety, it is necessary to take comprehensive measures that will require the involvement of large funds, the press secretary of the German pilots union summarizes.
The disaster near Yaroslavl was the last straw of patience for President Dmitry Medvedev, who made a number of sharp remarks on this matter. By presidential decree, up to February 1 of the year, the most urgent measures should be taken to ensure the leasing of civilian vessels that would meet all modern airworthiness requirements, regardless of their country of manufacture. By the same date, the government should develop a system of subsidizing regional and local transport. Also, before November 2012, measures should be developed to terminate the activities of airline companies that are not able to ensure flight safety. In addition, the Air Code plans to introduce a number of changes that will ensure the implementation of international standards for oversight of aviation personnel training, administrative fines for violation of flight rules will be increased, the possibility of extrajudicial stopping of aircraft operation that violate the requirements of air legislation will be provided separately.
According to the pilot, army general, former commander-in-chief of the USSR Air Force, Peter Deinekin, many aircraft crashes of recent years are associated with the so-called human factor. Many of them are the fault of flight crews and, above all, of aircraft commanders. According to him, during the restructuring, the main person in aviation - the captain - was relegated to the level below the plinth. In the USSR, the commanders of passenger aircraft that flew even on the Tu-104, met almost like astronauts, these were people who were respected in society.
Currently, the aircraft commanders have lost their face, and, if I may say so, personal courage. In the notorious case of the disaster near Donetsk (2006 year, 170 dead), the captain knew that there was a powerful thunderstorm ahead, but decided to go through it, although he could easily fly around it. The captain saved kerosene, while the innocent passengers sat behind him, for which he was responsible.
Today, the pilots have actually become slaves. Airline owners are only interested in profits, while they themselves at the controls never flew. The pilots can fly on foreign aircraft, know English well and at the same time they are mercilessly exploited, some pilots have 90 flying hours a week. Such a number of hours is very difficult to tolerate even with well-being, it is a very strong load and a lot of stress. As a result, the person becomes indifferent to the situation, which may require its detailed analysis. That is why blaming only the outdated domestic aircraft is wrong. It is necessary, as soon as possible, to restore the former image of the commanders of aircraft.
What fly today in Russia
Today, the current passenger fleet of Russian air carriers includes 986 passenger and 152 cargo planes, the largest number of foreign aircraft make up 46% of this number, while having an overwhelming advantage in long-haul flights. From 1998, the number of foreign-made long-haul liners has grown from 40 to 350 airplanes, during the same time the number of Tu-154 and Yak-42 has halved. At the same time, regional aircraft were and remain mainly Russian-made. According to the registry in the fleet of Russian companies is located near 130 old Tu-134, Yak-42, and An-24. The average cost of a new aircraft of this class is about 20 million dollars apiece, therefore, in order to replace them completely, more than 2,5 billion dollars will be required.
In 2010, Russian airlines acquired only 8 of new Russian-made aircraft. Three main liners - Tu-214, Tu-204-300, Tu-154М, and also 5 regional An-148 aircraft. At the same time, domestic airlines abroad purchased almost more 10 aircraft in 78 times. Of these, the 54 trunk and 24 regional airliner. It should be noted that leadership in the number of deliveries to Russian airlines is gradually winning the most advanced and competitive cars on the world market: the B-737 Next Generation, A-320, B-777 and A-330 aircraft. In the regional park, 50-local aircraft are still in steady demand, so the An-148 aircraft immediately hit the top five.
The need of domestic airlines for modern aircraft is objective, since the backbone of the country's fleet is still the models of previous generations that have long lost their competitiveness. For example, Western-made aircraft for replacement of airplanes per unit of work performed provide almost half the fuel consumption. The Tu-204 / 214 family aircraft are close to them in this indicator. Currently, the current fleet of these aircraft has increased by 2000 times compared to 4 in the year, and the volume of transport work performed annually by them has grown by 12. Their share in the total passenger traffic of Russian air transport grew against the backdrop of the crisis and the bankruptcy of a number of airlines.
At the end of 2009, Russian airlines began to receive new regional An-148 (Russian-Ukrainian production) aircraft capable of transporting 70-80 passengers to a range of 4500 km. This aircraft is designed to meet the Russian conditions of operation, and in terms of its transport capabilities and technical excellence it exceeds the outdated Tu-134, and is quite comparable with foreign analogues. At the same time, its advantage is the lower quality requirements for airfield pavements. In addition, there is the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which is fully competitive with the most modern foreign analogues in terms of the maintenance system and flight performance. In 2011, the commercial exploitation of this liner began in Russia. Currently, the company "Sukhoi Civil Aircraft" is in the hands of contracts (already concluded and being negotiated) on the 343 aircraft. By 2014, the company plans to reach the planned production rate - 60 machines per year.
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