Reporting from The Moscow Times states there have been 11 air incidents in Russia in eight days for December so far; With this in mind, is a civilian airline crash inevitable?
Following the close call observed with the Ural Airlines plane in Novosibirsk earlier this year, as well as the other incidents (Which we will list), safety is being jeopardised significantly due to sanctions on spare parts.
According to a former Nordwind airline pilot, many began to fly relying on “Russian luck.”
The Air Incidents involving Civilian Aircraft in Russia…
As per the report from The Moscow Times, December 2023 has already seen the following incidents take place in the skies of Russia:
- Rossiya Airlines Airbus A319-111 depressurisation emergency on December 8.
- S7 Airlines Boeing 737 suffers surge in both engines on December 8.
- Aviastar Tu-204 engines caught fire on December 7.
- Fire onboard Aeroflot Boeing 777 on December 6 – The passenger noticed a short circuit in the wiring from under his seat.
- Antonov An-12’s rudder control system failed on December 5.
- Moscow-Kazan aircraft emergency landing in Sheremetyevo due to a failure of the stabilization system control on December 5.
- Aeroflot Airbus A321 suffered a left engine failure on December 2.
- Yamal Sukhoi SuperJet 100 suffered a technical issue on December 2.
- Aeroflot Airbus A321 air conditioning system tripped on December 1.
- Aeroflot Boeing 737 suffered a drop in landing gear pressure on December 1.
- IrAero aircraft suffered an autopilot and flaps failure on December 1.
All of these incidents are significantly concerning, and are highlighting the issues Russia is having at the moment with air incidents continuing to rise due to the continued effects of sanctions and lack of spare parts.
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Is A Civilian Crash Inevitable?
They are incidents in high frequencies which could cause a fatal air crash in Russia, with the Ural Airlines landing in Novosibirsk earlier this year an example of how lucky they were to land in the field.
The Russian Foreign Ministry complained to ICAO on October 11, stating that the sanctions have “jeopardized the safety of international civil aviation” in the country, as per reporting from The Kyiv Independent.
Such concern has already been stated by Russia, but it remains clear that the sanctions won’t lift because of this, and will remain in place due to the continued geopolitical tensions.
Kommersant has stated that there are over 2,000 aircraft using expired parts, and are awaiting additional spare parts from the likes of Iran & China, who have been willing to provide such materials to the Russians.
Either way, we are getting to the point now where we can begin to say with a bit more brevity that civilian air crashes could become more frequent the further these sanctions go on.
All eyes will be on how the next 12-24 months will look for the sector in Russia, as well as whether the volume of air incidents increase with that.
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