Pulkovo TU-154 Crash
Other PPRuNers may be aware of my family connections with St Petersburg, and I had of course been following this one from the first, but it came as a shock this weekend to find that the FO (known in Russia as the "Second Pilot") was a longstanding friend of the family over there, and lived in the same apartment complex. Sometimes it's a smaller world than we think.
His family are a typical Total Aviation family, several being in the business. Our thoughts are with them. His daughter, who joined us for our New Year party last year, had recently started with Pulkovo as an FA. He was aged 57, older than the captain, and carrying on with the job due to the liquidation of the pension entitlements of himself and just about everyone else in Russia during the financial crises of the 1990s - the money having ended up in the pockets of the New Russian billionaires.
This is still the lead news story in St Petersburg, but there is little of the substance we are reading here about the incident.
I know Pulkovo well and have always had the impression they are a professional outfit. You can't say that about all Russian carriers nowadays but I would certainly say it about them.
His family are a typical Total Aviation family, several being in the business. Our thoughts are with them. His daughter, who joined us for our New Year party last year, had recently started with Pulkovo as an FA. He was aged 57, older than the captain, and carrying on with the job due to the liquidation of the pension entitlements of himself and just about everyone else in Russia during the financial crises of the 1990s - the money having ended up in the pockets of the New Russian billionaires.
This is still the lead news story in St Petersburg, but there is little of the substance we are reading here about the incident.
I know Pulkovo well and have always had the impression they are a professional outfit. You can't say that about all Russian carriers nowadays but I would certainly say it about them.
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TU154
and yet it makes me smile when I see all the happy holiday makers marching freely out to the Balkan Airlines TU154 every day at Manchester AND they pay for the priveledge. Makes one wonder eh? 
