‘The captain should have landed in Omsk!’

Sanctions-related “costs

“For instance, I think that it is the captain’s big mistake not to have landed in Omsk. But this is my personal opinion. I can be wrong. He was almost on the final approach. 2.500m (Editor’s note: the length of the runway), 500 metres won’t make big difference. It could have been possible to stop within the runway with smart landing, without flaps. And of course, he should have taken this into consideration that it won’t have enough fuel with its landing gear out it won’t have enough fuel, it cannot be enough. He should have made a smart decision and landed in Omsk,” said ex-Director of Tulpar Air Azat Khakim told Realnoe Vremya.

Talking about possible causes of technical issues, the expert didn’t rule out the indirect influence of Western aviation sanctions, due to which there is a deficit of spare parts for foreign aircraft used in Russia. Also, they lost the opportunity of being services by producers. It is noteworthy that due to this Russia lost 85 Airbus and Boeing planes in 2022 — key passenger planes in Russian airlines.

“I think these sanctions have an indirect impact. There is a problem with spare parts. They aren’t rhythmical now. The delivery term is very long. These imports are illegal. Nobody will supply them directly to Russia. Both the prices and the times — everything has seriously made an impact. It is hard to judge how this situation directly influences these two cases. The planes were prepared. Nobody will let a broken plane fly. This is strictly followed and regulated in aviation. This is what could have influenced: due to the deficit of spare parts, some parts can sometimes be allowed to be used. They can be replaced and can be allowed to be used further,” Khakim noted.

It should be reminded that the refusal of hydrosystem was named as the main cause of Ural Airalines’ Airbus-320 aircraft’s technical failure. The reason for the plane’s return to the Tatarstan capital’s airport of the same company en route from Kazan to Sochi isn’t specified.

Weather and tiredness as factors for plane catastrophes

According to the expert, according to many years of statistics, the number of plane accidents increases from late August to late November. There are quite explicable reasons.

“The amount of trips suddenly goes up due to the tourist season. People get tired. Yes, all the requirement for crews’ rest time are followed, but there is still some tiredness. And not only they are tired. Dispatchers and technical workers are too. Attention decreases, there are mistakes in decision making like in this case with the captain (Editor’s note: from Novosibirsk). Also, weather gets worse in many places by this time, while people got used to flying in simple weather conditions for several months.

They relaxed, there suddenly have appeared fog, rains, poor visibility. The transition period seriously influences catastrophes, accidents, etc.” said Khakim said and reminded us that all big catastrophes in Tatarstan’s history happened at this moment.

“The most important thing that they will be home today with their families”

It should be reminded that the plane of Ural Airlines flying from Kazan to Sochi returned to the Tatarstan capital on 11 September due to technical failures an hour after takeoff. It took around eight hours to fix them. The aircraft took off again at 19.04 Moscow time. The plane had 165 passengers aboard.

A few hours later, a Ural Airlines AirbusA320 flying from Sochi to Omsk had an emergency landing in Novosibirsk Oblast. It has 170 people aboard, including 23 children and six crew members. The evacuation was successful without casualties. Regional prosecutor’s offices already started to investigate the causes of the accident. Civil pilot Damir Yusupov who landed a plane at a maiz field and received a start medal of Hero of Russia for saving 223 people’s lives quickly commented on the actions of his colleagues on his social media account.