Russian pilots jailed in Tajikistan

[Sassy91]

Tajik-Russian pilot scandal continues | POLITICS | The Moscow News

Doubt that the western world heard much about this but in short two aircraft were denied landing in Tajikistan. When pilots of the 2 aircraft declared an emergency and landed they were arrested, charged with several things including smuggling contraband (an old aircraft engine) and now jailed for 8 years!!!

Lets see how Russia responds to this.

Some say that the aircraft were seized for the purpose of drug trafficking later on.

[jacek_flying]

Sad to hear

Nope Ive been on different forums over the last coupld of hours and can say that this is the first I have heard of this. Do you have other details what kind of emergency? which carrier ect? Hope they are released soon and able to go home to their families.

If you want to get the word out I suggest posting this on AvCanada as well.

[Sassy91]

From what I hear around the community here is that they were flying Kabul after a humanitarian mission. They were told to turn back to Kabul but then they could not be accepted for some bs reason so they continued to Kurgan-Tyube in Tajikistan declared an emergency due to low fuel, landed and got arrested.

Not sure what company. Aircraft not registered in Russia.

[jacek_flying]

Cant imagine what the crew must be going through.

Well I wish them all the best and a quick resultion to their situation. I cannot even imagine what they could possibly be going through but I think its every pilots responsibility to get the word out as much as possible because all in all it could be any one of us having an emergency and then being arested

Makes me think back to the Brazil corporate jet that had that mid air colision. Please feel free to let me know if I can offer any assistance in getting the word out.

Best of luck to all involved.

[Prada]

2 pilots

As much as I know, it was AN-72. It took off from Kabul, Afghanistan. Right before landing in Tadjikistan it was denied to land there by authorities. Then pilots declared emergency as they said they do not have enough fuel to return to Kabul and landed.
After landing pilots were arrested and accused in crossing border unlawfully and smuggling. AN-72 was carrying an aircraft engine (not in working condition). Also local authorities said that inspection of aircraft revealed that they had enough fuel for returning to Kabul. (I personally wouldn't trust that statment too much)

Local rumors here are that Tadjik government had interest in that particular aircraft engine AN-72 was carrying on board.

One of pilots is a citizen of Estonia (Aleksey Rudenko) and other citizen of Russia (Vladimir Sadovnich)

for me it seems like there is some hidden agenda we do not know. Political probably. And these 2 poor pilots are just used as tools.

aircraft probably belongs to Estonian company Enimex, as captain is estonian citizen and Enimex operates 2 AN-72 aircrafts (thats what I have seen here in Tallinn at 2008) Enimex - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Estonia is trying to act via German embassy in Dushanbe and via various other ways. While Russia is much more strightforward and sent out 100 Tadjik illegals and promising send more if there is no improvement, making life of Tadjik illegal workers hard in Moscow.

There is other rumors that jailing a russian pilot is a personal revenge of Tadjik president Emomali Rahmon, because Russian Authorities put his duaghters husband (Rustam Hukumov) in jail for smuggling narcotics to Russia.

[ENFP]

All flights in and out of Tadjikistan should be banned by the international authorities until the pilots and aircraft are returned.

[captjns]

Let's see how slow the UN is to act on this. Probably not news worthy enough for those parasites.

[rmac]

Covered extensively in Moscow Times. The charge is that "they were trying to smuggle a stolen jet engine which was on board the aircraft".

Definately a political play at Moscow, but MT suggests that it is a negotiation tactic around the lease of Russia's biggest foreign base which is in Tadjikistan.

[ATC Watcher]

If the UN security council had balls they would issue an order for each contracting State to intercept/ground any Tadjik registered aircraft overflying their territory until such time , the crew the aircraft and its cargo are allowed to leave the country.
That would put a stop to all this nonsense once and for all.

[Karel_x]

It were two An-72-100, reg. 4L FAS, 4L NAS. After request for approach to the target airport "Kurgan Tyube" (in accordance with fligt plan), they were asked by ATC to read the number of permission for crossing the border. They read one that they get from their company. In that moment they was told that they are not alowed to cross the border and they must go back to Kabul. They had not enouht of fuel for safety return (1.2 tons). So they request for emergency landing.

This is version of pilot.

[JCviggen]

Moscow has responded by detaining around 300 Tajik nationals and is threatening to expel them so we can probably expect this to be solved in the near future.

[Levraimatt]

Strange, DYU-KBL is only 40 minutes away with a t-prop... They took off with enough fuel for just one short leg ?

[AucT]

The latest news confirm that both aircraft were flown without COA and COR. Tadjikistan requested arrest of company director for failing to ensure the safety of aircraft.

[torquemada60]

On the Beeb

BBC News - Row between Russia and Tajikistan escalates

[Flyingmac]

Urgently


Tajik Academy of Sciences marks its 60th anniversary

CAREC ministers celebrate a decade of cooperation



18/11/2011 10:52
Avaz Yuldoshev

Views: 196
DUSHANBE, November 18, 2011, Asia-Plus -- On Thursday November 17, Tajik Defense Minister Sherali Khairulloyev met in Almaty, Kazakhstan with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov on the sidelines of the 61st meeting of the Council of Defense Ministers of the CIS Member Nations.
Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) of Tajikistan, says the two discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral military and technical cooperation between Tajikistan and Russia.
“Asked about the further fate of Russian pilot Vladimir Sadovnichiy, who was sentenced to 8 ˝ years in Tajikistan on November 8, Khairulloyev said that the issue is under personal control of the president of Tajikistan,” Mahmadaliyev noted.
Meanwhile, Russian media outlets report today that Tajik defense minister allegedly told his Russian counterpart that Tajik President Emomali Rahmon ordered him to “solve the issue regarding the fate of the Russian pilot, who was recently convicted in Tajikistan, positively.”
Itar-Tass quoted Irina Kovalchuk, a spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, as saying that “The Russian minister urged his Tajik counterpart for practical steps to release the sentenced Russian pilot.” “General Khairulloyev, for his part, informed about the order of the Tajik president to settle this issue positively,” she added.
On the same day, Sherali Khairulloyev also held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Kazakhstan (Adilbek Jaksibekov), Ukraine (Mikhail Yezhel) and Azerbaijan (Safar Abiyev).

[hawker750]

Dushanbe
On another matter I was in DYU last month and the handling agent pointed out about 5 army trucks under heavy guard. The trucks had been unloaded from a russian IL76 and the manifest showed "food stuffs". The cargo was opened up and yes you guessed it a load of arms.
I think the plot thickens and this latest episode was a Russian ruse to defuse this situation

[Prada]

Pilots Released

It appears that both Pilots were released from prison after formal proceedings in court. President of Tajikistan is really powerful man. Courts independence is under question.

[remote]

Innocent??

For the high and mighty "pilots should not be arrested" brigade, may I suggest you read a recently published book, OUTLAWS INC by Matt Potter

Even the same dodgy landing strip these unfortunate guys put down on was mentioned

Page 181 reads...

Russian smugglers facilitated rendezvous between Russian arms dealers and Taliban drug lords at bazaars in the Tajik desert..a huge unpoliced wasteland....albeit dotted with landing strips once used by Soviet crews to fly missions into Afghanistan during their occupation

The ex Soviet Air Force pilots flying in and out of Kabul are at home there

Looks like someone didnt get paid on time

The investigation tells us that the black market heroin trade out of Afghanistan is now worth $6bn per annum...up from $1bn before the US "invasion"

$10m flies out in cash (unrecorded) from Kabul EVERY DAY...mostly to UAE...this statement comes from the Afghani Finance Minister, Omar Zhakhilwal

Now where does all that money come from???...Yanks giving out cash in the streets (instead of stockings and chocolate)

CIA just had to get in there and control the drug deals

As for those Russian (Estonian) pilots....perhaps they had some special cargo...flying out a broken engine from Kabul?....there are loads of those lying around in Russian air force bases inside Russia still attached to aircraft no longer flying

Mickey and Sergei

[Green Guard]

The investigation tells us that the black market heroin trade out of Afghanistan is now worth $6bn per annum...up from $1bn before the US "invasion"

-------------------------------------------------------
CIA just had to get in there and control the drug deals

Hello Mickey and Sergey, are you trying to tell us that Talibans were better to control heroin production ?

Or was that the reason they were romoved from power ?

[nickpozz]

The investigation tells us that the black market heroin trade out of Afghanistan is now worth $6bn per annum...up from $1bn before the US "invasion"

$10m flies out in cash (unrecorded) from Kabul EVERY DAY...mostly to UAE...this statement comes from the Afghani Finance Minister, Omar Zhakhilwal

Now where does all that money come from???...Yanks giving out cash in the streets (instead of stockings and chocolate)

CIA just had to get in there and control the drug deals

You couldnt be more correct! The yanks have no solid reason for the war in Afghan, they spread propoganda like "WMD's" so the ignorant tax payers have a reason to believe their money is being well spent on their safty.

Why would the goverment spend hundreds of billions on a war (with no end in sight) during a global recession? Because there is money to be made!

Rant over