Ukrainian Pilot Explained Why Russian Civil Aircraft Break Down On The Fly

Even “cannibalism” does not save them.

A plane carrying radioactive cargo made an emergency landing in Moscow. More than 10 incidents involving Russian civil aviation have become known in just the last two weeks.

Why are Russian planes breaking down more and more often? Charter97.org interviewed Oleksiy Melnyk, a Ukrainian military pilot and flight instructor of the first class, Co-director of Foreign Policy and International Security Studies at the Razumkov Center, first assistant to the Defence Minister of Ukraine (2005–2008):

– This can be described in one short word: degradation. The Russian civil aviation fleet consisted primarily of foreign-made aircraft.

There are a little more than a dozen countries in the world that are capable of producing high-quality aircraft. Russia is among this small number of countries but has traditionally been focused on military production. If you look a little deeper into history, those civil aircraft that were produced in the Russian Federation, in most cases, were made based on bombers. For example, Tu-16 and Tu-104.

This is an important note because there are general principles, approaches and regulations in aviation. But military aviation differs from civil aviation. Passengers of the military aircraft are called “personnel”. There the requirements must be quite strict for aircraft and crew, but this is not civil aviation, where international rules (ICAO) apply.

As for the current developments in the Russian Federation, I would call it an attempt to militarily solve the problem that arose with civil aviation after the imposition of sanctions. We are talking about so-called cannibalism. There is nothing extraordinary when parts and assemblies are removed from an aircraft that cannot take off for some reason, and then installed on a functional aircraft.

However, any motorist who has encountered a similar problem understands what the problem is. After all, when you buy a used part, you are not sure that it will not fail the next day. This is not a new part. Also, during the process of dismantling and installation (especially by untrained specialists), the reliability of this part or unit is reduced even more.

There is also such a thing as the flight hours restrictions. While some military aircraft can be operated in some conditions, these requirements should be much stricter for civilian ones.

When they extend these restriction terms without consulting the manufacturer (they did it before), then the risks for such accidents increase significantly.

I would like to emphasize that the quality of service and training for the specialists are also very important. Russia has been disconnected from training centers and the international certification system for almost two years now. This affects everything, even the liquids for planes.

Some emergencies involve failure of the landing gear and flaps. Elementarily, if hydraulic fluid that does not meet the standard is poured into it, then, for example, in low-temperature conditions this can cause such failures. Just some differences in letters or numbers that don’t mean anything to a non-specialist can have an impact.

The very low level of training of Russian pilots, who are not trained to counter emergencies. It’s also important.

– What advice would you give to passengers of Aeroflot and Pobeda airlines?

– I don’t want to give them any advice. First of all, I don't think they have much choice right now. Either poorly maintained, stolen planes from foreign companies, or Russian-made planes, which (as far as I know) are even worse. They deserve it in many ways.