Tu-95MS Bear - single mode of failure?

[Caygill]

Mystified by two recent accidents of a probably very well tested military aircraft. What could be the reason other than catastrophic in-flight fire or mechanical brake up?

Anyone familiar with the bomber or these accidents?

[sandiego89]

Not aware of a single cause- and rarely are there single causes. This article Russian pilots of 'bear bomber' plane die after crash | World | News | Daily Express (http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/591168/Russian-pilots-bear-bomber-plane-die-crash)

includes: "but TASS news agency cited sources saying a failure of the plane's fuel valves led to the simultaneous failure of all four engines."

If you are asking about speculation on contributory causes they could include a host of items:
- Aging systems
- Maintenence
- Funding
- proficiency- crews, maintainence, support teams
- An uptick, or surge in flying. There does seem to be a surge.

Most likely a combination of several factors. Pushing aircraft and crews that have not been pushed for years; perhaps deferred maintainence; shortage of parts/funding.....could be a real recipe for problems.

[AreOut]

they are 60yo on average, with russian casual maintenance it's kinda expected

[Willard Whyte]

I think the 'MS' varients were built in the 80s & 90s.

Production of the Tu-95MS continued at Taganrog to 1983, when production was transferred back to the Kuibyshev plant. It seems the last Bear was rolled out in 1994. (http://www.airvectors.net/avbear.html#m5)

[Biggus]

Caygill,

I think that the content of this thread is already pretty much covered by this one here on Pprune:

http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/564372-russian-af-showing-signs-age-2.html

Perhaps you should continue on that one, or get the two merged?

[Caygill]

Thanks Biggus & sandiego89

Still rather confusing. We have a plane with an ”enviable reliability” (quote), based on Soviet-era design philosophy of total and multiple system redundancy, and a landing gear suitable for rough airstrips.
http://www.airvectors.net/avbear.html#m5 (http://www.airvectors.net/avbear.html#m5)

[Courtney Mil]

I think Sandiego hit the nail on the head with the list of probable causes. Probably a mixture of all, or some, of the above.

[AreOut]

it's really reliable...when it's serviced properly

[dat581]

Courtney did you ever intercept a Bear during your time in the Phantom or F3?

[glad rag]

They carry an individual ID on the nose gear doors.

I believe it took a bit of doing to note it and a "co-operative" bear crew.....

[Courtney Mil]

Dat, yes, many times over the years, especially in the 80s before they ran out of money.

A s glad rag says, getting close enough up underneath the Bear at night to read the door numbers (the only place the aircraft's number was displayed was on the nose gear doors) was a tricky game.

[dat581]

I recently listened to a pod cast with former RAF pilot Nick Anderson as the interviewee and he tells some stories about various interceptions over the Atlantic and North Sea. A night interception with a non cooperative Bear sounded a bit on the scary side especially in poor weather.

He gave the impression thst the Russians did not care what problems they caused civilian air trafic around the UK and the technology on those aircraft could be a little crude. I was wondering if the Russian "sod the world" attitude along with a poor safety culture may have contributed to the accidents.

One of his stories was about a Russian crew member trying to take a photo of his Phantom with a very old and large camera that took almost half an hour to set up. When this poor guy was almost ready the Phantom would just slide under the Bear to the other side and the game would start again. Sounds like those missions weren't all boring at all.

[Courtney Mil]

Nick and I were at Leuchars together, Dat. Nice bloke. I'm guessing it's on Aircrew Interview on Facebook?

[dat581]

omegataupodcast.net

[Courtney Mil]

Thank you, Dat!:ok:

EDIT: 2:20 later, bloody good. It was a great interview. So, again, thank you for pointing me to it. :ok:

[Bicster]

Just finished listening to the Podcast. I thought id listen to a few minutes of it, its now 02:53. I recommend anyone with an interest in aviation to listen to that.

Thanks Dat :ok:

[dat581]

No problem.

Very entertaining for a non military type such as myself and gives a small window into the Cold War from a man on the frontline. You weren't on the "Girls School" were you Courtney?!

[BEagle]

...a non cooperative Bear...

Apart from the -Ds, who were always rather serious, other Bear crews would be a lot more cooperative once we held The Sun Page Three calendar up in the flight deck window.....:ok:

Sam Fox didn't know (at the time) the part her rather impressive parts played in perestroika / glasnost. The September 1985 page was particularly appreciated by the Ivans!

[Courtney Mil]

Too true, BEags!

You weren't on the "Girls School" were you Courtney?!

Absolutely not, Dat. The Fighting Cocks both times, once on the F-4, once on the F-3.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/43_Squadron_RAF.jpg