Flying safer in Russia than USA

[newswatcher]

From the "Irish Times"

"The crash in Siberia of a Soviet-era TU-154 plane that killed 145 people on Tuesday night - Russia's worst air disaster in decades - again focuses attention on the safety record of the country's aviation industry.

Russia's passenger aircraft may be ageing and its airlines in dire straits financially but official international statistics suggest travelling by plane is actually safer in Russia than in the US.

But Russian and Western aviation experts agree that the risks involved in flying in Russia have decreased in recent years.

French experts based in Moscow said International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) figures show Russia's safety record is now better than that of the US and than the world average of countries monitored by the ICAA.

However, the experts warned Russia's aviation sector needed extensive modernisation and investment to avoid a rapid return to the black years of 1994-1996, when a series of accidents led some Western companies to advise their employees against flying on Russian aircraft.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, mammoth state monopoly Aeroflot was pruned back, with the sell-off of its aircrafts leading to the creation of around 300 separate companies. Most are tiny and financially shaky.

One of the major problems, the experts said, is that many airlines own too many planes. In total there are some 8,000 aeroplanes and helicopters, only 46 of them Western-built, of which too many are old. Ground infrastructures also suffer for lack of investment.

Despite these handicaps, the experts said safety standards in Russia had been maintained and even improved in recent years - partly because passenger numbers and therefore the number of flights have dropped 76 per cent since 1990, partly because airlines have improved safety measures

[BigJETS]

Anyone have any figure on how much traffic goes through Russia? Does it even approach the number flying in the US? I mean the place is eleven time zones wide! Do they operate their ATC the same way- routes etc?

[Ivan Ivanovich]

When Aeroflot ruled the Soviet Union they had some 14,000 aircraft on their books. The Timetable was absolutely massive - no computers, of course. The standard of pilots extremely high, the standard of maintenance comparitively low.

The accident rate was rather high, but largely went unreported due to various political and ideological reasons.

There was always a lack of interest and a great deal of apathy amongst Soviet workers and this seeped in to aviation. The result was of course a great threat to air safety. These days, post communism, the airlines must deliver results as they must in the west. This has erradicated many of the problems which jeopordised flight safety under the old system.

They probably have as many if not more airlines on the old USSR block of countries as they do in the US, but the difference is that the pilots are usually of extremely high calibre, and ATC somewhat further down the scale. Sorry Guys!

[ionov]

Privet, Ivan Ivanovich!
Let me disagree with you on some view of point.Of course,the standart of pilots extre-
mely high,but of pilots with experience more
then 20 years of flight job.The more younger
people who began to fly after disintegration
the Soviet Union they have highly average
training,especially in basic knowledge of
flight's rules.Because not yet enough of fi-
nance support from government and not yet
great interest from teachers of Flight Schools.I can compare two system of education
because for a long time I flew several types
of Russian aircrafts and now hold ATP lisence
The great threat to air safety left on
previous level,because main reason of almost
all accidents was and remain the human factor
Although Russian and Western aviation
safety specialists agree the risks to get
into disaster in Russia have decreased in
last years because decreased in few times
numbers of flights on the domestic airlines.

[newswatcher]

Additional info appearing over the weekend:

"Figures from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), however, show that the risks involved in flying in Russia have decreased in recent years and that the country's safety record is now better than that of the US and above average globally.

In 1997, 1998 and 1999, the number of plane crashes per 100,000 flight-hours in Russia was so low that it effectively counted as zero. Over the same three years, the number of US plane crashes per 100,000 flight-hours were 0.021, 0.006 and 0.012 respectively, while the world averages were 0.080, 0.060 and 0.050 respectively, according to the ICAO.

Aeroflot still features largely on Russia's international connections, with a 15 per cent market share. The other Russian carriers together have 32 per cent of the market, while foreign airlines control the remaining 53 per cent.

Aeroflot is also the largest domestic carrier, running 10 per cent of all internal flights.

Aeroflot's record of crashes was even better than the national average, a recent study noted.

Despite such findings, many Russian aircraft are older than the international average and there is a lack of investment in the necessary infrastructure on the ground. The average age of international air fleets is 8.7 years, while Aeroflot planes are on average 10.3 years old. The majority of planes used by Russian airlines are more than 18 years old. As a result, maintenance costs are high at a time when many companies are struggling financially.

In the early 1990s, Russian aircrews often allowed extra standing passengers on board in exchange for bribes in hard currency. Some crashes were attributed to the excess weight carried by the aircraft.

In one case in 1994, a pilot allowed his young son to sit at the flight controls. The boy accidentally switched off the automatic pilot, causing the Aeroflot plane travelling from Moscow to Hong Kong to nosedive into the ground, killing 75 people.

Stricter discipline has eliminated cases of this kind and maintenance schedules are now more punctually observed."

[Ivan Ivanovich]

I can certainly support the statement that flights had standing passengers. I've been on many an Aeroflot flight where passengers stood at the back. It wouldn't say it was down to passengers bribing the Captain with hard cuurency - these were Russian passengers. The service was very much like a bus service, passengers rarely checked baggage in. Most passengers carried on their luggage, regardless of size and weight. This obviously wouldn't do the load sheet calcs any good.

Flights would also take off in the most ridiculous of weather conditions and many accidents occurred under these circumstances.

It's all changed now as operators begin to adopt commercially oriented practices and mentality evolves.

[ 09 July 2001: Message edited by: Ivan Ivanovich ]

[Bokkerijder]

Oh well, there are lies, big lies and then there are statistics..... :D :D

[LatviaCalling]

I just wanted to add a few wordsto the so-called Russians surpassing the West in aviation safety.

In the past I've flown Aeroflot regularly, but not anymore. The basic work horse is still the TU134, built like a tank and will forgive you a drop of 20 feet down to the runway, but it is getting to be 30 years old.

As I have been told, the Tupoleve Co. does not make any more spare parts for these twin-engine types anymore and that's why you see many of these planes sitting at Russian airports in various stages of disintegration. They are being robbed or bought of spare parts and this can't go on for much longer.

As for the tri-engine TU-154, the rumor amongst Russians is not to fly on it. The word is that it has had too many engine failures.

As for the YAK-40, I flew in it once from Riga to Minsk. The cabin attendant was adamant about not smoking in the aircraft because there was a fuel line leak which went drip, drip, drip, into the rear part of the cabin.

The Russians may have been lucky to hold it together for so long, but one day soon it is all going to fall apart.