It’s easy to play on Cold War propaganda myths that all Russian aircraft is junk and all that comes from the US is good. It sells aircraft too to maintain such legends. Let the accident and production figures speak.
Go to
http://aviation-safety.net/
A few examples of popular aircraft
US made aircraft
Out of 284 Lockheed 141 Starlifter manufactured, 21 were lost in crashes (15%)
Out of 131 Lockheed C5 Galaxy manufactured, 6 were lost in crashes (4.6%)
Out of 2159 Lockheed C-130s and L-100s (the civilian version) manufactured, 326 crashed (15%)
Out of 858 Boeing 707s built, 166 crashed (19.3%)
Boeing 727-200, 1114 manufactured 101 crashes, (9%).
Douglas DC-8, 556 produced, 83 lost (15%)
On the Eastern bloc:
Out 287 Ilyushin 62 built, 21 crashed, (7.3%)
Out of 1243 AN-12s manufactured, 158 were lost (12.7%)
Out of 57 Antonov 124 strategic aircraft manufactured, 4 were lost (7%)
Antonov 72/74, 169 built, 8 crashes (4.7%)
Tupolev 154, 923 built, 63 crashes (6.8%)
Out of 938+ Ilyushin 76 strategic/tactical aircraft manufactured, 54 were lost (5.7 %)
Does anyone see a large discrepancy between the Super advanced US products and the ancient Russian ones? I don’t.
Its true that Russia's aviation industry is in a deep crisis right now, and they are behind in certain areas, but to claim that their technology is junk just doesn't hold water.