Why planes are falling. Why did American planes start falling? Events preceding the occurrence of an emergency during flight

Why is Russia, which until recently was the world leader in aircraft construction, buys second-hand aviation around the world? Who should be responsible for the deaths of people transported on imported trash? Why is a KAI graduate, a certified aviation engineer Andrei Petrov forced to work as a realtor and how can this be related to the plane crash in Kazan? Why, if we are so poor, the Universiade in Kazan became the most expensive in the world?

November 18 was declared a day of mourning in Tatarstan by presidential decree. On Sunday evening, while landing at Kazan International Airport, a Boeing 737-500 of Tatarstan Airlines, flying 363 Moscow-Domodedovo-Kazan, exploded. 50 people were killed, including the head of the FSB department for Tatarstan, Alexander Antonov, son and President of Tatarstan Irek Minnikhanov. Both flight recorders have already been found, everyone is waiting for the reasons for this plane crash to be made public. Failure of worn-out second-hand equipment? Weather? Human factor? Fatal coincidence of a number of circumstances?

Who knows ... A fatal coincidence happened earlier, much earlier, namely, when Judas Gorbachev betrayed and sold the USSR, including the entire population living in it. My relative Andrey Petrov then studied at the Kazan Aviation Institute at the faculty of aircraft. Since childhood, he dreamed of building airplanes. At first, like all the other naive good citizens of the Soviet Union, he was even glad that now he would finally heal “like people”. That is, in accordance with the picture, which for several years in a row was so diligently forced to the people under the sweet sauce of liberalism, democracy and an abundance of foreign rags and sneakers ...

In general, when adults, many of whom had a state-funded higher education (note, excellent by international quality standards), realized that they, like children, were cheated, it was already too late. As is customary in such cases of murder by organs, the country was dismembered, thoroughly gutted, then ... What happened next - we all know very well, as they say, we have the opportunity to experience the whole gamut of sensations from what is happening.

But all patience certainly has a limit. It is one thing to be a citizen of a great state, it is another to realize that your homeland is no longer as powerful as it used to be, but still, wow, the third is to understand that you no longer even live in a second world country. Even impoverished Africa and Gypsy Romania have given up on this plane, and we are picking up everything that even third world countries do not need. Stubborn facts state that Russia has dropped below African countries.

For the first 5 years (1990-1995), Europeans flew on the crashed Boeing in Kazan, as it should be, after which it went through the hands of the third world countries. First, the aircraft was sold to Uganda, where it was flown for another 5 years. In 2000, Uganda sold the plane to Brazil, where it was already starting to break down.

Moreover, already during the Brazilian operation, a tragedy almost happened to this aircraft. On December 17, 2001, when landing at the airport in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, the plane with 102 passengers and six crew members on board touched the ground even before the start of the runway. After that, the Boeing jumped and hit the strip with force, as a result of which the left landing gear broke. The plane stopped after 1800 meters, moving along the runway with support on the left engine. Then, as a result of the rescue operation, it was possible to evacuate all passengers and crew members. Thus, a serious accident did not result in human casualties, but the aircraft received significant damage, and significant repairs were required to return it to service.

After that, Brazil sold the aircraft to Romania, where the aircraft operated economy class flights for another 3 years. In the 18th year of operation, the plane was sold to Bulgaria, and, apparently, was already in such a state that Bulgaria sold it after six months ... that's right, to Russia. Where in 2012 he already made an emergency landing, but at the same time continued to operate. And it crashed in the 23rd (!) Year of use, taking with it the lives of fifty Russians.

the deceased Boeing, on which I also had a chance to repeatedly fly to Moscow

Two years ago, there were three emergencies at once on Boeing airplanes and an emergency situation in the Airbus A-320 in Novosibirsk due to a failure of the navigation system. All of Russia, with bated breath, was waiting for the formidable decree of President Medvedev banning the operation of aircraft of these brands. However, the decree was not followed. Medvedev's bans, when he was president, affected only Russian-made aircraft and river vessels, foreign aircraft in this regard turned out to be untouchable. He turned out to be a worthy successor of the Gorbachev-Yeltsin anti-national traditions.

Just one Medvedev statement made at a meeting of the operational headquarters for the elimination of the consequences of the Yak-42 plane crash (RA-42434, issue date October 1, 1993) near Yaroslavl in 2011, before the completion of the official investigation: “Of course, you need to think about your own , but if they are not able to "spin up", you need to buy equipment abroad. " What does it mean to "unwind"? And what kind of "promotion" can we talk about when there is total destruction? By the way, as a result of the investigation, it turned out that the cause of the plane crash was a crew error. Moreover, destroying our aircraft industry, Medvedev cynically declared: "that the value of human life should be higher than special considerations, including the support of a domestic manufacturer."

Meanwhile, Medvedev could not fail to know (this is cynicism) that it is Russian planes that provide the greatest safety for passengers in the world and, by refusing to support a domestic manufacturer, he deliberately endangers people's lives.

In our country, the safest aircraft in the world have been created, such as the Il-96 and Tu-204/214, which did not take a single human life. Moreover, the Tu-204/214 is the only aircraft of this class that can be landed without engines at all. Thus, the RA-64011 board is known for the fact that on January 14, 2002, it made a successful landing at the Omsk airport after the engines were turned off in flight due to full fuel consumption. This famous incident occurred during a flight from Frankfurt to Novosibirsk. When making a call according to the scheme to Novosibirsk airport, the crew received information about leaving for a spare due to meteorological conditions. Barnaul was chosen by him. However, at the Barnaul airport, the meteorological conditions also did not correspond to the minimum, and it was decided to land in Omsk. As a result, fuel ran out at a distance of 17 km from the airfield. The crew was able to successfully land. And even later, when on March 22, 2010, the same aircraft, which was performing a technical flight (without passengers on board) from Hurghada to Moscow, when entering lane 14R of Domodedovo airport in adverse weather conditions (heavy fog, limited visibility) collided with the ground at about 1 km from the end of the strip and collapsed in a collision with trees, there was no fire at the scene. The main thing is that none of the crew members (although they received injuries of varying severity), no one (!) Died. The cause of this plane crash was again the error of the crew, who decided to land instead of leaving for an alternate airfield, which speaks not of the technical imperfection of our aircraft, but of the poor training of pilots.

But the Boeing-737 crashed 174 aircraft, killed almost 4 thousand people. The largest crash in Russia with a Boeing 737-500 took place in 2008 in Perm. Then 88 people died. Now Kazan too ... Yes, I must add that Boeing 737-900s are already flying somewhere, but for some reason these modern aircraft do not belong to Russian airlines ...

Medvedev did everything to finish off the Russian aviation industry

For some reason, Medvedev's presidential ardent enthusiasm that "the value of human life is higher than all other considerations, including the support of a national producer ..." began to manifest itself in the following: do not support the national producer, and buy Boeings for "other reasons", regardless of their technical imperfection. Back in the mid-90s, the Boeing 737 model was officially recognized as the most emergency in the world. In addition, this model is 4 years older than our TU-154. And all the myths about the old age of our aircraft remain myths. In terms of their design features, our aircraft remain the most reliable in the world, and the ban on their production is just lobbying for the interests of foreign firms. Isn't that why, having declared the development of the domestic aviation industry a national priority, the Russian Government has increased the production of civil aircraft to 7 units per year, and the purchase of Boeings to 50 units? They do not hide abroad that they have found a large sales market in Russia. Airbus management reported that in the next 20 years, Russian airlines will purchase 1,006 passenger aircraft worth about $ 95 billion, half of which will be Boeings. When at the government level, priorities are given to foreign technology, then, naturally, the domestic aviation industry will not rise. They don’t allocate money for science and development. State support is denied. Is this called a priority national project?

The last nail in the coffin of the Russian aircraft industry, President Medvedev has hammered, speaking not only against the operation of domestic aircraft, but also against their production. And this is called the priority national project for the development of the aviation industry! Which one? American?

These and many other questions can be answered if we understand the orientation of the activities of the top leadership of Russia. Stalin wanted the USSR to have the best aviation in the world, and it did.

V.V. During his previous presidency, Putin actively fought for the restoration of the domestic aviation industry (agreements with Russian airlines on the purchase of 145 Tu-204/214 and Tu-334 aircraft plus the supply of 130 aircraft to Iran) and, in particular, engine building (production of PS-90 and NK engines -93), which, by the way, he continues to do now.

Medvedev terminated all contracts concluded by Putin and set a personal example in neglect of Russian aircraft - instead of the presidential Il-96, he decided to fly the French Dassault Falcon X7 business-class aircraft. In order to fly this plane, Medvedev sacrificed the international status of Russia, because the choice of the plane by the first person of the state means a specific sign of whose aviation industry he supports. Medvedev showed everyone that he would support non-Russian industry. And he proved this by deeds, having concluded a contract with the United States for the supply of Boeings, which is really killing the Russian aviation industry. In continuation of the line he had chosen, the ex-president agreed with the United States on the purchase of 50 narrow-body Boeing aircraft and signed an option for another 15 wide-body Boeings with an estimated value of $ 4.2 billion. In his response, Obama thanked the Russian president for the contract "will provide America with 44,000 jobs." For Russia, this is a direct loss of profit in the form of 400 regional aircraft of its own production: deprivation of the load of enterprises, jobs, and in general - a cross on the restoration of the domestic aviation industry.

In his response, Obama thanked the Russian president for the contracts for the purchase of American aircraft, for which the latter had to break the constitutional oath, betraying the interests of the people of Russia

So, Medvedev did everything to prevent Russian civil aviation at all. But the problem is somewhat deeper than it might seem at first glance. The fact is that aircraft construction is only a derivative of engine construction. My relative Andrey Petrov told me about this, who dreamed of building airplanes since childhood. You can design and build beautiful aircraft, but if there are no engines for them, then aircraft without engines will be nothing more than metal boxes. As long as Russia has its own engine building, Russia may have its own aircraft. Best in the world. Because our aircraft engines are the best, and some of them, like the NK-93, have no analogues in the world at all. Experts say that in ten years everyone will fly on engines of this type: Germans, Americans and French.

Invented by the Russian designer Nikolai Kuznetsov, the NK-93 engine is the aircraft engine of the future

NK-93 is the first Russian fifth-generation engine with outstanding performance characteristics, outstripping all engines of comparable power in the world, including promising ones. The NK-93 is intended for a whole line of existing and future long-haul medium and long-range passenger airliners - Tu-204, Tu-214, Il-96-400, military transport aircraft - Il-76, Tu-330.

Meanwhile, this engine, which for more than 15 years cannot be launched into the sky, neither in Samara, nor in Moscow, although Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is among its ardent supporters. Apparently, the current anti-crisis managers from Rosoboronprom put an end to the domestic aircraft engine building: the enterprise that developed NK-93, the Samara Scientific and Technical Complex named after Nikolai Kuznetsov, is essentially already bankrupt. But what about the engine, without which independent Russia is doomed to aviation slavery to the American and British Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce? Without which you can put an end to the domestic aircraft industry: no engine - no aircraft.

There is also a liability issue. At the suggestion of Yeltsin's son-in-law Okulov, the aviation business in Russia was left to private owners. Used planes fall, people die. Who is responsible in the event of equipment failure? For some reason, everything here somehow comes down exclusively to the material side of the matter. For example, representatives of the Boeing manufacturer have already rushed to Kazan to find out the causes of the disaster. Can you really count on an objective assessment of what happened from the position of such an interested party? Of course, the manufacturer will try to carry out such an "investigation", as a result of which the weather, human factor, improper maintenance and operation of the aircraft (with possibly fair claims regarding replacement of spare parts for cheaper used or counterfeit ones) will be to blame. The owners of airlines, on the other hand, are more profitable when the manufacturer is to blame. Air carriers, of course, In addition, no matter how seditious this thought may sound, the fall of aircrafts is beneficial for air carriers from an economic point of view - because the planes are insured, and insurance payments are many times higher than the cost of the planes ...

One of my acquaintances received a message from her friend - he turned out to be a passenger on the previous flight of this ill-fated plane: “And I flew on this particular plane. 4 hours ago. To Moscow ... So happy birthday to me. And let these bitches not even open their mouths about the weather or the pilot's mistake: the plane was already out of order when landing in Moscow, we almost crashed while landing ... "In confirmation of his words, Grigory attaches a photo of the boarding pass ...

Screenshot of the phone screen with a message from the passenger of the crashed plane, Grigory Busarev, who flew in it on a previous flight 4 hours before the tragedy

A separate thread in the general outline of the problem under study is the current process of education and training of flight crews. What kind of education - so are pilots. As, in general, both doctors and builders. What do you think? So, cautious people do not recommend living in new buildings or getting sick. And at the new large stadiums, it may be better not to appear, and at other grandiose facilities, you never know ...

But last summer, Kazan hosted the World Student Universiade ... Yes, sport is good, it is necessary, you cannot argue with that. It is necessary to invest in sports facilities, the city needs to be developed. This is in general. And if you take a closer look? Well, why do we, one wonders, in cold Kazan, a city with the climate of central Russia, in which even in the summer of a year with a gulkin's nose, an open stadium with 45,000 seats, and even for 15.5 billion rubles? We won't fill this stadium in our life after the Universiade (if only for the World Cup). In addition, they say that something was wrongly built there, and our new, rather big and expensive stadium will be remodeled! Again, budget funds, of course. But what can I say, the stadium is generally a penny in the general budget of the Universiade. A total of 7.5 billion dollars (230 billion rubles) was spent on it, which is four times (!) More than for the preceding Universiade in China. Give the managers of our people's money only freedom - they are always ready to show off. And then it is not so easy to calculate how much money was actually burned in all these fireworks ...

Why does cold Kazan need an open-air stadium for 45 thousand spectators?

We dance and sing, we arrange a feast for the whole world - there are funds for this. Holidays, mass festivities are held everywhere, with or without reason. On TV there are endless concerts and humorous shows - you laugh. What are we happy about? Who and, most importantly, why arranged such a merry life for us? To make it more fun to slide into the abyss? Before slaughtering the pig, an intelligent owner also pleases, scratches its belly in order to lull the pig's vigilance. And then, when she begins to grunt with pleasure - a knife in her heart. Here we have - solid entertainment. For example, in Samara, on the site of the former aircraft plant, a shopping center is being built ...

In the light of all these bright fireworks, Tatarstan shouldn't be buying pretty second-hand American coffins with armrests tied with duct tape. On the photos of the crashed plane made public by the photographer Andrey Steklov three years before the tragedy, all this shame is in full view of the photos of the crashed plane, published today by the Kazan Internet portal "BUSINESS Online". As Steklov said, then he received an order for a photo shoot for the magazine, which was distributed on domestic flights. Even then, the aircraft was not “the first freshness”: “I filmed the Boeing both from the outside and from the inside. Look at the photo, everything is not new enough: the armrests are tied with tape, stains on the carpet. Then the customer wanted to show the full scale of the action - the possession of a Boeing ... Photos, by the way, did not go to the order at that time, "Steklov said.

The armrests tied with duct tape are too much!

It is especially offensive that this happens when we have on the territory of KazanKAPO im. Gorbunova, an aircraft manufacturing enterprise that was the flagship of Soviet aviation. Now the enterprise produces from 1 to 3 Tu-214 aircraft a year, and when my relative Petrov, a KAI graduate, came to this plant in 1992, 30 aircraft were produced there a year.

Then at the plant (as well as at other plants throughout the country) devastation began, a certified aviation engineer was no longer needed by anyone ... Now he is forced to work as a realtor. He doesn't like his job, so Andrei happily takes on any sabbat, so during the Kazan Universiade he worked as a driver delivering athletes. From him I learned that for this purpose as many as 1000 brand new (in contrast to the old airplanes we are purchasing) were purchased for cars, again not of the domestic Hyundai brand. But at the Universiade in China, its participants calmly moved around the city by public transport, tea is not disabled, but athletes. Where did all this vehicle fleet go after the Universiade? Nobody notified Petrov about this when he handed over his board after the end of the competition in order to return to boring real estate everyday life. Now, in order to pay off the mortgage for another half of his life, he will again look and show other people's apartments, bargain, persuade ...

What can he do? He does not want to go over the hill, as many of his friends at the Aviation Institute did. Because he loves his homeland, unlike, unfortunately, high-ranking corrupt officials who ruined his dream of building airplanes. And now this cherished dream of his has turned into a heap of fragments. It looks like the wreckage of an imported plane that fell near its native Kazan ...

People and people
Quite often, an accident occurs due to a violation of interaction along the "commander-crew" line. It is clear that pilots rarely conflict with flight attendants. Therefore, when they say "commander-crew", experts, first of all, mean the relationship between the first and second pilots. After all, they actually control the plane together: their two steering wheels are mechanically connected to each other like the pedals for the trainee and instructor, which are equipped with training cars. And the engine control levers are most often the same for two: they are located between the pilot's seats. Therefore, the safety of passengers ultimately depends on how well one or another couple behaves in a critical situation. The same applies to the pairs "pilot-navigator", "pilot-flight engineer".

People and devices
The experts of the IAC include failures along the "man-machine" line to the second group of problems. Even the most modern device can bring harm rather than benefit if its developers did not take into account the peculiarities of human perception. The most striking example of an unsuccessful design, according to the IAC, is a device that shows the pilot the position of the aircraft relative to the horizon (the pilot does not see the ground most of the time).
There are two fundamentally different types of artificial horizons - American, invented in 1929, and Soviet, created thirty years later. On our planes, of course, the "native" was originally installed. Its difference from the American one is that the pilot sees in front of him on the instrument an always motionless horizontal line of the earth's surface and the silhouette of an aircraft swaying above it: the car has gone to the left bank - and the silhouette on the artificial horizon rolls to the left. The plane fell to the right - the same thing happens with its silhouette. "Soviet" artificial horizons were used in our country until, in the mid-70s, the American Collins fell into the hands of a high-ranking aviation official. It is arranged differently - the fixed element on the screen is the silhouette of the plane, and the movable element is the surface of the earth (see figure). Collins was very handsome and the official liked it - the American artificial horizon was set in motion. Since then, it was with a model similar to the Collins that Soviet, and then "SS" civil aircraft began to be equipped, although this device is extremely inconvenient. If at small roll angles the pilot can easily navigate by any of the instruments, then in a situation when the roll is large, the pilot is more quickly oriented according to the Soviet artificial horizon.
A classic example of Collins' deviousness is the December 1995 plane crash in the Khabarovsk Territory. Shortly before landing, the liner began to roll to the left side and, in order to balance it, the flight engineer began to perform the procedure sometimes used in such cases - to pump fuel from the tank located in the left wing to the right. Before starting the descent for approach, the flight engineer was distracted by the standard procedures in such cases. As a result, he and the pilot forgot that the fuel was still being pumped. They realized it only when the liner, unbalanced by the overflowing fuel, was already in a deep right bank. “The plane could still be taken out of the roll,” they say at the IAC, “but the commander, who had never seen such a“ picture ”on the artificial horizon in his life, did not understand the instrument and turned the control wheel to the right. As a result, the plane entered a deep spiral, from which he was no longer destined to leave. " Eight crew members and 90 passengers of the liner were killed.
A similar situation developed in Irkutsk on July 3, 2001, with the Tu-154M of the Vladivostokavia airline, which had nine crew members and 136 passengers on board. The aircraft was making the third turn and was in the left bank. The situation was complicated by the fact that at a speed lower than the recommended one, the warning device of a large angle of attack was triggered, which occupied the attention of the pilots for some time. When the commander finally paid attention to the instruments, it seemed to him that the car, on the contrary, was tipping to the right. The problem of psychological compatibility also played a role here: the co-pilot, as it followed from the printout of the negotiations of the deceased crew, understood that it was necessary to "withdraw" to the right, but did not show persistence.
The western artificial horizon also bears its share of the blame for the well-known disaster near Mezhdurechensk in March 1994. It is believed that the passenger Airbus A310 was then killed by a teenager, whom his father, the ship's commander, "gave to steer." In fact, when the 13-year-old Eldar sat down at the helm of a liner under autopilot, nothing catastrophic actually happened. The situation did not become critical even after the boy, having "overpowered" the autopilot, switched the car to manual control. The danger began to grow along with the roll to the right, into which the plane gradually went. And here you should think not about the boy, but about why the three pilots in the cockpit noticed what was happening only when the right roll was 95 ° and the co-pilot saw the ground from the cockpit. To the commander, the right roll seemed to be left, and he sharply turned the steering wheel to the right. Only a test pilot could get it out of the flat spin into which the plane fell.

People and professionals
According to experts, in almost all situations described above, a professional test pilot could have avoided a disaster. “Even on a heavy civilian plane, you can get out of a spiral or a flat spin,” says the honored test pilot of the USSR Viktor Aleksandrov. the same road from home to dacha. Yes, the experience is huge. Yes, the mileage is over a million. But if you ask this driver to go through a snow-covered corner at a speed of 80 km / h, what result will he show? The same is true for pilots: you can at least ten Thousands of hours to "sleep" under the autopilot, this will not add professionalism. "
In some ways, the IAC experts agree with Viktor Aleksandrov. “The testers are the flight elite,” Ovcharov believes. “But they also“ stand ”accordingly. They joke that a 1st class test pilot costs the same as his life-size statue, cast from pure gold. In practice, pilots are reduced to training on simulators with a very small number of training flights. everything that can be encountered in real life, you will not take into account it. "
As a result, the pilots are forced to educate themselves. For example, in the late 70s, a passenger Tu-134 came in for a landing at the Samara airport. The weather was just perfect, and the pilot decided to practice an instrument approach, for which he closed the cockpit windows with special curtains. About a kilometer from the runway, the curtains had to be opened, but they were stuck. The pilot, instead of making a landing, began to fiddle with the jammed mechanism. The liner landed at too high a speed, overturned, and several passengers were killed.
Special skills are required for international flights. For example, just three months ago, an Aeroflot IL-86 sat on its belly at the Dubai airport (UAE). The pilots were disappointed by the difference in the landing patterns adopted at Russian and foreign airports. Our plane first lowers the landing gear, and then the flaps, and with them - vice versa. Accordingly, when our planes land overseas, the pilots are constantly disturbed by the roaring siren, which the pilots call rudely "bitch". It signals that the flaps are already in the landing position, and the landing gear has not yet been extended. Landing in Dubai, the pilots turned off the siren in advance, which is strictly prohibited by the instructions, but it is done all the time. But even that was not fatal. While the co-pilot was landing the car, the first, instead of controlling the actions of the crew, was just teaching his co-pilot how to land at foreign airports. As a result, the flight mechanic asked himself the obligatory questions before landing and answered them himself. "Airport frequency? Such and such, adjusted. Airfield pressure? Such and such, set ... Chassis? Released," he said, forgetting to actually perform the operation. There were no casualties, but the damage for the downtime of the airfield - the collapsed Il-86 was removed from the runway for many hours - amounted (according to the IAC) to about $ 10 million.

People and money
Finally, trying to understand what is happening with the pilots, one should not discount the social aspects as well - our aviation is not rich.
For example, about a year ago, during a training flight near Anadyr, the Mi-8 flight mechanic turned off both engines instead of one engine, which was stipulated by the assignment. The pilots, fortunately, managed to land the helicopter softly enough, so the damage was limited to a broken landing gear strut. When they began to deal with the flight mechanic, it turned out that he had been living in a hostel for many years, his family - hundreds of kilometers away.
This should also include overload, haste - in general, various attempts to save money. Of course, the management of a large, well-known airline will not force the pilot to take excess or even more left cargo, but in remote regions of the country, where the main carriers are small private airlines with only two or three planes or helicopters, this is common everywhere.

Flight recorder of the crashed plane. In fact, this is not a "black box", but rather an "orange box". There are two of them on the plane: speech and parametric. The first is to record the conversations of the pilots. The second one automatically reads and saves the technical parameters of the flight. "Caskets", in which the devices are packed, are not afraid of water and can withstand impact when dropped from a great height. Only a very severe fire can destroy flight recorders. The device shown in the picture was also on fire. How high the temperature was, is evidenced by molten aluminum adhering to its wall. But the film removed from this "box" turned out to be of quite acceptable quality.

The pilots are not to blame Deputy Head of the IAC Department and Chief Specialist for "Human Factors" Vsevolod Ovcharov believes that most of the responsibility for accidents is borne not by pilots, but by officials. - All prevention of accidents in our country comes down to measures of a repressive nature. After each accident, "organizational conclusions" usually follow. In the best case, they can limit themselves to assigning a different flight mentor to the pilot. Worse, if they take away the ticket of violations - in this situation, the pilot will have to sit on the ground for some time. If the accident is serious enough, a case is initiated: for violation of the rules for operating an aircraft, criminal liability is provided. But even if it doesn't come to this, the pilot can be fired, which for him, in fact, is tantamount to a sentence - it will not be easy to get a job later, and he cannot live without air! It is convenient for officials to do this. On the one hand, there is no need to spend money on a deep and comprehensive analysis of the causes of accidents. On the other hand, there is an opportunity to once again demonstrate to the pilots their power over them. "The profession of a pilot is first of all dangerous, risky and only then romantic," says academician Vladimir Ponomarenko. "It requires constant improvement from a person ..." Our pilots are truly golden people of a special breed and do everything in their power to ensure the safety of passengers. And if an accident does occur, it is rather the pilot's misfortune, not his fault. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to help the pilots in solving their social and professional problems. And only then demand something from them.

With the development of the mass media, the public is showing an interest in the patterns of aircraft accidents and the statistics of aircraft crashes. This is due to the review of major civil aviation accidents. Having conceived a trip on vacation or on a business trip, a person often wonders if trouble will happen to him. The answer can be found by resorting to aviation statistics, which determine how often planes crash and for what reason.

Air crash statistics

Plane and train are considered the safest means of transportation. Having familiarized yourself with the statistics of accidents on different types of transport, you can see that getting into an accident on the bus is much easier than becoming a victim of an accident in the air. Most of the crashes are associated with an oversight of the authorities (terrorist attack) or with the error of the pilot and technical services.

About 10 thousand flights (3.65 million per year) take to the skies every day. Of the total annual air passenger traffic, the number of 1000 people is called, how many, on average, die per year. The mortality rate over the past 50 years has decreased from a probability of 1: 264 thousand to 1: 127.5 million. During the entire existence of aviation (100 years), about 150 thousand people died.

In Russia

Today the situation with disasters is unpredictable. About 60% of the Russian-made aircraft fleet is worn out. The rest is purchased abroad. Basically, these are Boeing models and Airbuses. The likelihood of a fall in passenger transport will only increase over the years: it is not known how the equipment will behave at the end of its service life.

Over the past 20 years, Russia has consistently ranked 2nd in the number of plane crashes after the United States. If private aeronautics were developed in Russia, perhaps the country would already be on the first line of the rating. Since 1945, about 350 accidents have occurred in Russia, excluding military and private plane crashes. More than 8 thousand people died.

The smallest number of aircraft crashes was recorded in 2006-2007: 7 per year.

According to the CIS Interstate Aviation Council (IAC), 2016 showed the worst statistics: 56 crashes with a total number of victims of 143 people. Since the beginning of 2018, there have already been 32 accidents with 116 casualties. The most significant was the recent crash of the AN-148 "Saratov Airlines" flight 703 Moscow-Orsk, which occurred on February 11 near the village of Argunovo in the Moscow region. The board fell near Domodedovo, without gaining altitude, 71 people died.

The latest version of the prosecutor's office put forward the assumption that there is no treatment of the fuselage with an anti-icing fluid. The decoding of the voice recorder recordings testified to the dispute of the pilots about the "frozen" pressure and speed sensors. Clarifications continued until the fall.

According to eyewitnesses, the plane collided with a Russian Post helicopter: letters and parcels on board were found at the scene of the accident. According to information from the media, at the time of takeoff, the stewardess talked with her grandmother that they took off (everything is in order).

According to statistics, the percentage of falls during takeoffs is 17%. But the crew made a fatal mistake. On the same day, a small plane of a Turkish airline with 11 passengers crashed.

The aircraft crash specialists managed to deduce the circumstances of the accidents and their likelihood:

• crew errors during landing - 51%;
• malfunctions and weather conditions during climb - 8%;
• with a decrease - 3%;
• during loading - 5%;
• during the landing approach - 7%.

After accidents, scary photos, videos, details of the crashes appear on the Internet. Anxiety and concern of people about their own safety is increasing. Over the past 10 years, Russia has been the leading country in terms of the number of crashes. Unfortunately, most of the passengers had no chance of escape, even when the board was at low altitude. There are also lucky ones who managed to survive after incredible falls. In most cases, these are flight attendants and crew members.

In the world

Most of the crashes occur in the United States, Russia and Canada (over 1,300 as of 2018). The number of victims is approaching 20 thousand. This is followed by Brazil, Colombia, Great Britain, France, India, Indonesia and Mexico.

Over the past 10 years, the first positions have remained with the countries: Russia, USA, Ukraine, Congo and Germany. At the same time, the United States remains the leader in terms of the number of victims. This is due to the increased cargo and passenger traffic. A large number of accidents of private planes and helicopters, as well as small aeronautical vessels, are recorded every day.

Over the past 5 years, there have been no major aircraft crashes in the United States. After the September attacks with two Boeings, the planes fell, but with the number of passengers not exceeding 50 people.

A huge number of disasters are registered in the military sphere during training missions or in the course of performing combat missions.

The largest number of tragedies was recorded in the 70s of the XX century. Among them, the collision of 2 aircraft on 03/28/1977 in the area of ​​the island of Tenerife stands out, in which 583 people died.

The tragedy of April 10, 2010 is considered an international plane crash. The crash occurred on the territory of the Smolensk region. On board the Tu-154 flight Warsaw-Smolensk were the top management of Polish officials and President Lech Kaczynski. According to the official version, the plane crashed while lowering the altitude due to a hold on the tops of trees, which were difficult to notice in foggy conditions. Smolensk air traffic controllers allowed landing at an aerodrome that was not technically equipped for "carcasses" on the urgent initiative of one of the ministers. A delegation of 96 people hurried to the funeral procession on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.

A significant political catastrophe of our time was the shelling of the Malaysian Boeing 777 from Buk installations from the territory of the Donetsk Republic (Ukraine) on July 17, 2014. The plane flew KL 4103 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 passengers on board. The wreckage after a rocket attack was found near the village of Grabovo. The flight had a duplicate (Boeing flight MH17) that departed for Malaysia 17 minutes late. When the first Boeing was detected on radars, Ukrainian dispatchers sent it through the air corridor over the territory of the DPR (as usual), and MH17 - through the southern corridor (Russia), which became the main clue in the investigation of the incident.

During the examination of the Boeing-777 by the DPR militias, conclusions were drawn about the death of passengers long before takeoff. Their bodies were exhausted by the cadaverous odor that appears for at least 3 days. It also seemed unusual that there was a large amount of medicines and blood serum among the wreckage, which is not typical for a passenger airliner. There was practically no blood in the general compartment, while the cockpit was flooded with it.

Most conspiracy theorists consider the disaster to be staged. Presumably, the bodies were taken from a Malaysian liner that disappeared without a trace in early March. The incident itself was necessary to charge Russia with the use of force. The true circumstances are still unknown. The final investigation is unlikely to clarify the situation.

It also remains unclear who the people on board were and who were mourned by the relatives of the victims, most of whom were Dutch. Local residents of Donetsk are sure that the rebel BUK MANPADS installations were not the cause of the explosion. Shortly before the crash, a Su-35 was seen in the sky.

On August 26, 2006, Tu-154M of the Anapa - St. Petersburg flight crashed on the territory of the DPR. The reason was a thunderstorm, which brought the board into a flat tailspin; 170 bodies of the dead were found.

In terms of the number of victims in the course of aviation accidents, a different picture is obtained. The three leaders include the United States, Russia and Colombia. The list is continued by Brazil, France, India, Indonesia, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico.

Photo from the crash site of Airbus A321 in the Sinai Peninsula

Some of the largest accidents are the crash of Airbus A320 in the Java Sea (Indonesia) due to a thunderstorm, Airbus A321 in the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt) as a result of a terrorist attack and Airbus A320 due to the suicide of a German pilot, as a result of which the plane crashed into the ridge of the Provencal Alps ( France).

Why planes are falling: the main reasons

Human factor

Among the reasons for aircraft crashes, in most cases, the human factor is called: the inexperience of the pilots or the inability to correct the situation. As an example, we can cite the tragedy with the Alexandrov ensemble, who flew to a charity concert on December 25, 2016.

Tu-154 of the company Utair, en route to Syria, crashed due to a violation of spatial orientation in the 2nd minute after takeoff from Sochi. The plane crashed into the Black Sea. No one managed to survive.

Another Tu-154 disaster near Khabarovsk on December 7, 1995 occurred due to improper fuel consumption in the wings. None of the survivors: The board collided with Mount Bo-Jaus and exploded.

Violation of safety precautions

The second most frequent cause of crashes is considered to be a safety violation. On the night of March 23, 1994, the plane crash occurred due to the transfer of the main helm to the pilot's 15-year-old son. The hope for autopilot did not materialize. The boy, imitating the captain, began to turn the steering wheel and accidentally turned off the autopilot. The vessel managed to gain a rather high list. It was possible to restore balance at the level of the edges of the trees, which caused the final fall. Flight SU593 Moscow-Hong Kong ended near Mezhdurechensk. No one managed to escape.

technical issues

Technical malfunctions become the third in the list of reasons. Common are chassis failure, electronics and sensor failure, or engine failure (fire). Such incidents happened to the planes of the Ural Airlines.

On December 2, 2002, an experienced command without a chassis landed a TU-154 at the Pulkovo airport. There were no casualties.
The crash of the A310 of Siberia Airlines in Irkutsk on July 9, 2006 was due to the transition of one of the engines to takeoff mode during landing. As a result, the board stopped only after hitting the garage complex. The total death toll was 125. Those who were in the tail managed to survive (63 wounded and 25 unharmed).

Depressurization of the cockpit can become one of the possible causes of accidents. Such an incident occurred with a Helios Airways Boeing on August 14, 2005. As a result of a malfunction in the pressurization system in the cockpit, air ran out, causing the pilots to lose consciousness. The plane hovered over the territory of Greece until it ran out of fuel. The board exploded on impact on a rock 40 km from Athens.

The Belarusian airline "Belavia" constantly has technical malfunctions. Particularly publicized was the case when the plane broke into 2 parts right on the runway. Bombardier CRJ-100 was supposed to fly from Yerevan airport to Minsk on February 14, 2008. Due to the roll of the wing, the side turned over, as a result of which a rift was formed in the bow compartment. A fire broke out due to fuel spillage. There were no casualties, as people hurried to get out on their own through the resulting crack.

Lack of professionalism

The next reason on the list is ignorance of their business. So, through the fault of the pilot of the Yak-42 flight Yaroslavl-Minsk, the Lokomotiv hockey team, flying to the KHL, died. The tragedy occurred on September 7, 2011 as a result of repeated pressing on the brake during takeoff. The board took off from the ground outside the runway, as it did not have time to accelerate. A few seconds later, at a height of 6 meters, there was a collision with a lighthouse by the river. Only one of the crew members (engineer) survived. Despite the absurdity of the situation, there are rumors in Russian aviation about the lack of education of pilots and purchased diplomas.

Terrorist attack

Terrorist attacks are not counted in aviation statistics, but a large number of accidents are caused by recruited criminals. The biggest plane crash in the last 10 years was the accident with the A321 (VP BOC) Kogalymavia, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg at the end of October 2015. Recordings of black boxes revealed the sound of an explosion in the tail section. The wreckage of the liner was scattered over many kilometers in the deserted desert.

Weather

Weather conditions play a significant role. For example, in March 2016, a Flydubai Boeing 737 800 crashed during a second landing in Rostov-on-Don, which lasted about 2 hours. As a result, the liner did not have enough fuel to complete the maneuver.

Aircraft are also crashed due to the mistakes of dispatchers and the greed of airlines, which save on new parts, maintenance and do not delve into the problems of vehicle wear and tear.

List of largest aircraft accidents from 1990 to 2018

Over the past 20 years, the chronicles of plane crashes tell of the many victims of air travel. When compiling the list, disasters with more than 60 victims for the period from 1990 to 2018 were taken into account (the number of deaths is indicated in brackets):

• 05.91: B767 Thailand (223);
• 07.91: DC-8-61, Saudi Arabia (261);
• 10.91: C-130H-30 Indonesia (135);
• 08.92: Tu-134, Ivanovo region (84);
• 09.92: C-130H-LM, Nigeria (158);
• 09.92: A300, Nepal (167);
• 12.92: B727 Libya (157);
• 01.94: Tu-154, Irkutsk region (125);
• 03.94: A310, Kemerovo region (75);
• 04.94: A300 Japan (264);
• 06.94: Tu-154, China (160);
• 12.95: Tu-154, Khabarovsk Territory (98);
• 12.95: B757 Colombia (159);
• 01.96: An-32, Zaire (298);
• 02.96: B757, Atlantic Ocean (189);
• 07.96: B747, US (230);
• 08.96: Tu-154, Norway (141);
• 11.96: B727, Nigeria (144);
• 11.96: collision of B747 and Il-76, India (349);
• 08.97: B747 Guam (228);
• 09.97: A300 Indonesia (234);
• 02.98: A300, PRC (203);
• 09.98: MD-11 Canada (229);
• 10.99: B767, Atlantic Ocean (217);
• 01.2000: A310, Côte d'Ivoire (169);
• 08.2000: A320, Bahrain (143);
• 07.01: Tu-154, Irkutsk region (145);
• 09.01: terrorist attacks B767 and B757 (2977);
• 10.01: shot down by air defense missile systems, Tu-154, Krasnodar Territory (63);
• 10.01: A300B4, US (265);
• 05.02: BAC 1-11, Nigeria (149);
• 05.02: B747, Taiwan Strait (225);
• 07.02: Tu-154, Germany (71);
• 02.03: Il-76, Iran (275);
• 05.03: Yak-42, Turkey (75);
• 12.03: B727, Benin (141);
• 01.04: B737, Egypt (148);
• 08.04: terrorist attacks Tu-154 and Tu-134, Rostov and Tula regions (89);
• 08.05: MD-82, Venezuela (160);
• 11.05: B737 Indonesia (149);
• 05.06: A320, Krasnodar Territory (113);
• 07.06: A310, Irkutsk region (125);
• 08.06: Tu-154, Ukraine (170);
• 09.06: B737 Brazil (154);
• 07.07 : A320, Brazil (199);
• 08.08: MD-82, Spain (154);
• 09.08: В737, Perm region (88);
• 06.09: A330 Atlantic Ocean (228);
• 06.09: A310, Comoros (152);
• 07.09: Tu-154, Iran (168);
• 04.10: Tu-154, Smolensk region (96);
• 05.10: B737, India (158);
• 07.10: A321 Pakistan (152);
• 06.12: MD-83, Nigeria (163);
• 03.14: B777, Indian Ocean (239);
• 07.14: B777, Ukraine (298);
• 12.14: A320 Indonesia (162);
• 10.15: A321 Egypt (224);
• 03.15: A320, France (150);
• 06.15: KC-130B, Indonesia (143);
• 03.16: B737, Rostov region (62);
• 05.16: A320, Mediterranean (66);
• 11.16: Avro RJ85, Colombia (71);
• 12.16: Tu-154, Krasnodar Territory (92);
• 06.17: Y-8, Myanmar (122).

Recent crashes

Since the beginning of 2018, many terrible tragedies have occurred, primarily affecting Russia. This is largely due to the situation in Syria, where the Russian military is providing humanitarian assistance. By coincidence, several military vehicles were shot down from the air.

• 11 February 2018: An-148, Moscow region (71 victims);
• 18 February 2018: ATR-72, Iran (66 dead);
• April 11, 2018: Il-76TD, Algeria (257 victims);
• May 18, 2018: B737 Cuba (112 fatalities).

If we consider the global picture of crashes in 2018, they occurred on charter flights. Several accidents occurred with helicopters on the day of the wedding: one couple died while approaching the church due to heavy fog, the other couple escaped with a slight fright and continued the festivities after falling from a height of several meters.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify information about whether objects were broken from classified missions.

Which planes crash most often

The Russian aircraft industry is one of the largest in the world market in both civil and military aviation. Serial production of passenger airliners has been launched for the Tu-204, An-148, SSJ100, Il-96, CR 929 models. PAK TA, Il-114-300 and Il-76TD-90A are under development. The MC-21 model is undergoing flight tests.

Due to the modernization of the aviation industry, some models have lost their relevance. Among them are Tu-134 and Tu-154, developed back in the USSR. Some airlines still operate worn-out Tu-154s, which were taken out of production back in 1998. Accident statistics rank these two models as the most dangerous and unreliable. Throughout the history of flights on these sides, there have been many emergency situations that have caused more than one tragedy. IL-76 closes the top three in the incidents of Russian flights.

An example is the unsuccessful landing of the Tu-134 in Samara on March 17, 2007. The chassis could not withstand traction during the landing approach in poor weather conditions. As a result, the fuselage of the airliner began to fall apart, the wing and engine were torn off the plane. Most of the people managed to escape. 6 of 57 passengers were killed.

The crash with the amazing rescue of flight attendants took place on board the IL-86 in Moscow on July 28, 2002. It should be noted that this was the only fall of this model due to a technical malfunction. On board the airliner flying to St. Petersburg, there was only a crew of 16 people. The aircraft fell within a minute after takeoff in a forested strip near Sheremetyevo due to the failure of the stabilizers. The pilots did not have time to bring into action the reserve control of them. Only the female half of the composition, Tatyana Moiseeva and Arina Vinogradova, miraculously managed to get out of the flaming cabin. The fall was a foregone conclusion due to the illogical actions of the pilots.

In world practice, the most unpredictable aircraft is the Boeing 737 (made in the USA). In all disasters, people practically did not have a chance. According to statistics, at the end of September 2018, 189 units were lost. models where the largest share is occupied by the Boeing 737 800.

The last major plane crash occurred on May 18, 2018 in Cuba. The number of victims is 112 people. Flight Havana-Holguin crashed due to engine fire. The plane crashed into a farm. The list of survivors included a man and three women. Only 1 passenger managed to survive. Born in a shirt, 19-year-old Meilen Diaz Almager was sent to rehab for spinal injury and extensive burns.

The list of the most dysfunctional aircraft according to BusinessWeek is presented. The rating survey included aircraft operated around the world in quantities of 100 or more. When comparing the models, the indicator of the number of plane crashes for a certain number of flight hours was taken into account.

Anti-security rating

1. Boeing 737 JT8D;
2. IL-76;
3. Tu-154;
4. Airbus A310;
5. McDonnell-Douglas DC-9;
6. Tu-134;
7. Boeing 727;
8. McDonnell-Douglas MD-80;
9. McDonnell-Douglas MC-10;
10. McDonnell-Douglas MD-11;
11. Boeing 737 CFMI;
12. Boeing 757;
13. Airbus A320;
14. Boeing 767;
15. Boeing 737 NG;
16. Boeing 747.

Based on the data, it will not be possible to predict the outcome of the flight, since no one is immune from the tragedy. But the picture of plane crashes and their causes still allows us to reflect some statistical probabilities.

Safe aircraft

The Boeing 777 ranks first in terms of safety: not a single plane crash for 200 million hours. and 4 minor accidents. Despite the volume and capacity of up to 500 people, the engines do their job perfectly.

Airbus A340 is in second place: 5 accidents in 13 million hours. Due to the expensive service, not every airline can boast of this liner.

The predecessor model Airbus A330 takes the honorable 3rd place. No breakdowns or malfunctions. Only one disaster: 228 people drowned in the Atlantic Ocean in 2008. Aeroflot has more than 15 A330 models (VQ BEK, VQ BCQ and other board numbers). Pobeda has 20 Boeing 737 800 in its fleet (VQ ​​BTI, VQ BTG, VQ BWG, etc.).

Reliable airlines

Various agencies and air safety committees of countries rate airlines on different characteristics. Airliners that fell in different periods (their number) and model range (safety) are taken into account.

British research examines airline punctuality based on total passenger traffic and number of flights.

In the world

According to EASA, the top twenty includes companies with a perfect reputation. They are recognized as the safest.

These include airlines:

1. Air New Zealand,
2. Alaska Airlines,
3. All Nippon Airways,
4. British Airways,
5. Cathay Pacific Airways,
6. Emirates,
7. Etihad Airways,
8. EVA Air,
9. Finnair,
10. Hawaiian Airlines,
11. Japan Airlines,
12. Lufthansa,
13. Qantas,
14. Royal Jordanian Airlines,
15. Scandinavian Airline System,
16. Singapore Airlines
17. Swiss,
18. Virgin Atlantic,
19. Virgin Australia,
20. Qatar Airways.

In the entire history of the existence of these companies, there has not been a single crashed flight.

In Russia

The Federal Air Transport Agency provides a transparent profile of each airline. The rating given below was built according to the volume and growth of passenger traffic, as well as depending on the kilometers flown.

Popularity rating

1. Aeroflot,
2. Siberia,
3. Russia,
4. Utair (UTair),
5. Ural Airlines (Ural Airlines),
6. Victory,
7. Globus (Globe),
8. Azur Air,
9. VIM-Avia,
10. Nordwind Airlines (North Wind).

Safety rating

Since passengers are more concerned with safety, there is another rating that takes into account both the number of plane crashes and accidents over the past 30 years. Human losses (death of passengers and bystanders) are also estimated.

1. Victory,
2. Ural Airlines,
3. S7 Airlines (Siberia),
4. Yakutia,
5. Nordavia,
6. UTair,
7. Yamal.

Transaero could have entered the top ten if it had not gone bankrupt back in 2015. She had a powerful new aircraft fleet and not a single disaster. The company's image is determined by technical equipment, and not by popularity among tourists for a certain period of time (including package tours).

Modern technologies and developments in aircraft construction make flights the safest. The probability of crashing is negligible. High-quality pilot training will be a factor influencing the development of the industry in the future. In Russia today there is a shortage of professional personnel. Old-school crews will soon be retiring, and young pilots may not be able to cope with an abnormal situation. Therefore, the quality and reliability of the liner come to the fore. This will significantly reduce the number of air crashes with insufficient experience or in difficult weather conditions.

Related Videos

More and more often you can hear on the news that a plane crashed in a particular region and many people died. Alas, today such disasters occur so often that many are no longer very surprised by such news. Some Russians believe that the crashes of airliners in their country are due to the fact that they are outdated, as they were assembled back in the years of the Soviet Union. However, planes fall in other countries, to which Soviet designers have nothing to do.

Moreover, American, German and French airliners are considered the most powerful and reliable. What then is the reason? In general, planes fall for completely different reasons, and this is not always due to a malfunction of the aircraft itself. Quite often, the reason is in the pilot himself, who operates the airliner. Let's take a closer look at why planes fall and can this be prevented?

Causes of plane crashes

Pilots are to blame for half of the accidents, because they are responsible for ensuring that the plane takes off and lands successfully. Often there were disasters due to the fact that the pilots could not quickly make the right decision in adverse weather conditions. Also, the cause of tragedies was often poor health or fatigue of the pilot aircraft operator.

All pilots are checked before the flight:

• Health status: This includes measuring heart rate, blood pressure and temperature.
• The presence of alcohol or drugs in the blood using special screening tests.

In order to obtain a license and operate aircraft, applicants for the post of a pilot have to go through many medical commissions, pass a lot of tests and go through a long probationary period. However, as practice shows, even with high qualifications and work experience, some make mistakes that cost the lives of not only them, but also the passengers.

Also, the causes of accidents can be:

1. Aircraft malfunction or obsolescence of technology - quite common reasons for a plane crash. Not necessarily old liners can crash; modern aircraft quite often end up in disasters. It is very important that the aircraft is in good working order and that all of its mechanisms are in excellent condition. In the event of a breakdown of any part, it is necessary to make a thorough repair and check the device several times before sending it on the flight. A terrible disaster occurred in 1985 when a Boeing 747 collided with Mount Otsutaka, killing 520 passengers. The reason was that the plane was poorly repaired and in the air it could not cope with the obstacle.
2. Unfavorable weather conditions... Before the plane is sent on a flight, it is necessary that authorized people thoroughly study the weather conditions that await it on the way to its destination. If there is a risk of a thunderstorm or a strong hurricane, the flight must be rescheduled for another time. But often people neglect this, resulting in disasters.
3. Dispatcher error... For this reason, only 6% of accidents happen. Wrong decisions of the dispatcher, aircraft reloading or fuel contamination can also lead to a terrible tragedy.
4. Terrorists... In situations where an aircraft needs to fly to hot spots, there is always a risk that it could be "knocked out" by terrorists. Recently, such an incident happened to the Malaysian B777 aircraft, which was flying through the east of Ukraine, where hostilities have been continuing for several years. He was knocked off the ground, killing 298 passengers.

These are the most common causes of a plane crash. But history knows cases of quite terrible tragedies, the causes of which were rather unforeseen circumstances. They could be called ridiculous if they did not entail human deaths. These include:

• disaster on August 25, 2010 in the Republic of Congo, when one of the passengers managed to carry on board a live crocodile. When he unexpectedly escaped from the bag, panic began on board, people rushed to one end, which led to an imbalance. As a result, the plane crashed and claimed 20 lives.
• On November 23, 1993, several prisoners who had escaped from prison hijacked a liner that was flying from Ethiopia. They demanded to go to Australia, but did not allow the plane to refuel, because of which it ran out of fuel and fell near the coast. In this tragedy, 127 people died.
• in October 1996, an equally strange and at the same time sad incident occurred when someone forgot to remove the tape from the sensors, due to which the instruments showed inaccurate data, and the pilot could not accurately determine the speed and altitude of the aircraft, which led to accident that claimed 70 lives.

Of course, any unforeseen situations can happen in the air, in the conditions of which it is difficult to navigate and make the right decision. But this is what pilots are needed to guarantee a safe flight for the passenger. It is not in vain that they study this for many years, undergo a long practice and training before flying airplanes. It is very important that the pilot is not only experienced, but also responsible and courageous. He should not be afraid of difficulties and unforeseen situations. It is also important to prepare the plane well for the flight, which is what specially trained people do. Their duties include careful control over the operation of all systems and devices of the aircraft. They must eliminate all malfunctions in the operation of the aircraft in order to prevent dire consequences.

After the terrible plane crash that happened on Sunday in the Moscow region, the editor of one of the Mail.ru portals contacted me and asked several questions that are of concern to most air passengers today. I answered all the questions on Monday, but for 3 days the article has been undergoing approval from the editor-in-chief, journalists have doubts, they want to take a comment from an aviation engineer, but no one gives them, and the interview is losing its relevance. You can even see the date of creation of this text a little higher now. I don't like such bureaucracy, I publish all interviews on my channel.

Everything has its own lifespan, but I would not now focus on the age of the aircraft and recommend that passengers, with panic in their eyes, look for signs of aging just before the flight. A catastrophe can happen with a new plane, and the old one can safely fly for a long time and without incident. From my point of view, competent and timely aircraft maintenance plays an important role. It is very expensive. Very. On airplanes, something is constantly failing, this is normal. As a rule, these are some kind of minor breakdowns - from a broken coffee maker in the kitchen to a burnout of some indicator light. Airlines that have sufficient funds to maintain their own team of technicians and the ability to purchase spare parts in advance, quickly repair their aircraft. Technicians come on board right after the passengers leave and change what is needed, literally in an hour, while the cleaning services are engaged in cleaning, and the flight attendants hand over and take food. When the system is put on stream, even the elimination of serious problems is quite fast.

Small charter or local airlines often “accumulate” malfunctions, and then send the plane for full repairs. It's cheaper. Therefore, first of all, I would recommend everyone to weigh the risks in advance. Simply, without any fear, soberly analyze the ticket price, the size of the airline, its recognition, and imagine yourself in the CEO's place: how much money would you be willing to allocate for timely operational repair of aircraft, would these expenses pay off? After that, you will not have any questions about whether it is worth flying with this or that airline. By the way, I'm not against low-cost airlines, they save money on lack of food service, and not on security, although such companies are also different. I don’t go to travel agencies, I don’t fly charter airlines, they are often actually run by the heads of travel agencies, who are at the forefront of the number of tickets sold, and not the safety issues in air transport.

As for small local airlines, I don't fly with them either. Perhaps, if some small local airline buys or leases modern aircraft and receives sufficient funding from the regional budget, my opinion will change. Now I more often observe that planes decommissioned by large carriers or new, but very old aircraft models that are outdated and lagging behind technological progress for a long time fly on local routes, so they are certainly less safe than their modern counterparts. The claim that short flights are more dangerous is just a myth, it's all about the planes operated by local airlines and their level of maintenance.

In addition, the level of training of pilots, flight attendants and other personnel of large airlines is very different from that of workers on local or small charter airlines. Small and little-known companies often employ those who were not hired by larger ones or were fired from them due to some irregularities or poor results of regular exam testing. I wrote about this and.

It is sad that there are very few items on my list of priority airlines. I will not list anything now, you can find everything on my channel, but I am for healthy competition, of course, I do not like this situation. It is especially insulting for the residents of remote settlements. From my point of view, at the moment it is really safer for them to get by train or by car to the regional center, and then get on the plane there. But I in no way call anyone to anything, this is my personal point of view. Everyone takes risks as they see fit. If we take general statistics, then the plane is indeed the safest form of transport, the death rate on the roads is several times higher.

If you have already bought a plane ticket, checked in your luggage and boarded, it is better to just relax and calm down, distract yourself with something from negative thoughts. Protect your nervous system and heart. Read more about how to overcome your fear of flying. Nobody will thank you for a long flight delay due to the removal of already loaded baggage. This process is quite long and expensive. For every hour of downtime, the airline loses a lot of money, especially at a foreign airport. When a passenger is removed from the board, his luggage is also taken off with him, for this they unload all the suitcases back, find the necessary luggage, and then load it back again.

If, after all, we talk about the visual signs of an old aircraft, then this is, first of all, an old model, mass-produced 100,500 years ago, as well as the presence of technical inscriptions on the doors, in the toilet or other places in languages ​​unusual for this country, in Russia it is customary to write "open the door", "flush", etc. in Russian and English. I flew on an airplane that was previously operated at AeroMexico, in some places technical inscriptions were preserved in Spanish. These are the plates that were inherited from the previous airline. The main thing to remember is that, for example, for Turkish airlines, inscriptions in Turkish and English will be the norm. In America, all signs are often duplicated in Spanish, including on airplanes. If you see the logo of another airline on a cart or container in the kitchen, this is not a sign of an old plane. This only suggests that the catering service serving food for several airlines at once has mixed up containers and carts or simply did not find the amount of equipment needed for this flight with the logo of this company.

If we talk about the plane crash that happened, then yesterday almost all the media spread the news that the icing was the cause. This is fundamentally the wrong wording! In the event of icing, the An-148, most likely, would not have been able to gain altitude and would have fallen immediately, only breaking away from the runway. As far as I understand, he managed to gain altitude, and he did not fall instantly. Therefore, it is definitely incorrect to say that anti-icing treatment was not performed before departure.

I definitely don’t want to make any diagnoses right now, I don’t have the necessary data in front of my eyes, I didn’t witness the disaster, I’m not a member of the accident investigation commission, I’m not even an aviation engineer or a pilot. But one thing I can say for sure. According to preliminary data of the IAC (Interstate Aviation Committee), “... a factor in the development of a special situation in flight could be incorrect data on the flight speed on the pilots' indicators, which, in turn, was apparently associated with icing of the RPM (full pressure receivers) when the state was turned off their heating systems ... ”This suggests that either something was malfunctioning in the plane, or the pilots did not turn on the RPM heating system, or it did not work. Airplane icing is when the fuselage, wing, engines are covered with a thin crust of ice, and not freezing of the total pressure receivers. Therefore, even in the very title of the article, you need to write about RPM icing. Missing one seemingly small detail can radically change the meaning of what was said, confusing everyone. I understand that the headline should be bright, but not enough to lie.

One reader recently wrote to me. I hope I answered the question.

PS: A resident of Orsk wrote to me, I am publishing her long, emotional, but very informative letter.

In conclusion, I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the An-148 plane crash of the Saratov Airlines.

I wish everyone that such disasters do not happen again, and the number of take-offs always equals the number of successful landings. Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Love!