Summary: Under pressure MAK reverses certification suspension
17 February 2003
According to Svetlana Volodina, spokeswoman for KrasAir, MAK has decided not to ground the airline’s Il-86 after the
aircraft’s designer OKB Ilyushin, RAKA and the GSGA provided the agency with documentation which was reported to include
changes in the aircraft’s operations manual.
The new materials were discussed by the various agencies and the airline’s operating the aircraft, at a meeting chaired by
the GSGA on Friday 14th February. The meeting then led to what was reported as a “unanimous decision” to reverse the
suspension of the aircraft’s certification only a day after it was imposed pending further work on the 28th of July 2002
Il-86 crash.
The MAK change of heart on the status of the Il-86 is reported to have involved no physical changes in the aircraft.
According to Volodina, the GSGA had rechecked KrasAir and other operators of Il-86, to confirm the correct operation of the
aircraft’s horizontal stabilizer and had found no problems. Krasair’s Director of Operations Alexander Zosimov, stated that
the airline had had no problems with the Il-86, and believed the aircraft’s safety levels to be as good as or better than
foreign equivalents.
MAK’s rather speedy reversal of its decision to ground the Il-86, suggests that it may have backed off in the face of
widespread industry and government criticism and the potential crisis in capacity that any prolonged grounding could cause.