PlayStation Can't rent Hertz to go Mos/Eur???
 

When I travlled from Fla to my summer house in Riga, Latvia, I had many occasions to fly with Aeroflot. In fact, twice I flew JFK/MOScow on them in a B-767...

My favorite part of the trip was always Moscow/Riga on a TU-154...

Very professional experience every step of the way...I'd rather fly Aeroflot than Air France...

Just my opinion, based on years of experience of Transatlantic flying/paxing...

Hey Goldminer
 

Goldminer maybe you have forgotten a few other Russian aircraft like the IL76 and AN24/26/72 of which there are too numerous to mention, crashes dotted all over Africa & Afghanistan which ARE NOT shot down !
Yes the Russian crews drink Vodka/Gin/any thing they can get their hands on before/during/after flights and this I have witnessed with my own eyes.They constantly lie about there radials/heights/distances in non radar environments to get a slot before you and yes once again I have witnessed all these acts.
I for one would not risk my ass on any such aircraft mentioned in this thread.
My condolences to all envolved in this incident ( I would not say accident ) as more than likely a factor of "technical problems " coupled by inexperience or poorly trained crew & a Macho attitude will surface as the root causes...it always does surrounding these antiquated and poorly financed aircraft.

Russian news agency RIAN, citing a government source, reports the focus is on whether there was an engine failure or low quality jet fuel.

YAK 42D production models built 125 number crashed 6 - 4.8%

Aircraft was never a great performer. It was a Soviet copy of a 727/Trident. Only a 193 airframes were produced of all models including prototypes, compared around a 1000 of the 154 that it was supposed to replace.

Yak-42 was not intended to replace the Tu-154, she was a replacement for the Tu-134 and for sure she is not a Trident/727 clone.

Very sad that this happend.

Here is excerpt from Russian Media:

English translation:

An acceleration/thrust shortfall where V1 itself becomes somewhat meaningless then ?

>Yes the Russian crews drink Vodka/Gin/any thing they can get their hands on >before/during/after flights and this I have witnessed with my own eyes.They constantly >lie about there radials/heights/distances in non radar environments to get a slot before >you and yes once again I have witnessed all these acts.

Nothing more than average western pilot, just to mention that western pilots take more medicaments

> as more >than likely a factor of "technical problems " coupled by inexperience or >poorly trained >crew & a Macho attitude will surface as the root causes...it always >does surrounding >these antiquated and poorly financed aircraft.

Ohhh you are such a good liar for "poorly trained" qualification of Russian pilots! I have friend in this sector and can assure you from first hand there is everything normal like everywhere.

Regarding "Macho attitude" and "poorly financed" aircrafts it is more common for some western countries like US...there was already couple of crashes involved with mooney cutting in maintance sector.

Obviously you are writing about african aviation

Regarding Russia we must stay on concrete accident!

p.s. this is classic politics (dirty economy) influence. Everything on other side (potential competition with Sukhoi super jet for example) is worse than ours...this is very insidious!

2 Flight Costing:
Actually one Il-86 has been lost near Moscow during ferry flight due to "MUCHO" style takeoff - they've set the stab trim too much nose up to make a show - then could not level off fast and lost the speed.....

About Yak-42 - I've got some experience with it 20 years ago.... IMHO one of the reasons could be the following:
1. Stab not in T/O range or
2. Flaps/slats not in T/O range (that's why they were running too long time, awaiting for proper setting) or
3. At least two engines problem. One engine lost can not lead to a crash with so low load (about 30% from max).

Runway photo
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/pilo698...302833/?page=7

Runway is 3000m long but on Russian aviation site they are speculating that aircraft start takeoff roll some 500m after threshold and than use approx 400m od grass behind other threshold. According to ATC worker thay gain not more than couple of meters in altitude...

They found that fuel quality and Flaps position was normal...

Meaningless statistics
 

To those posting % numbers of hulls built, this is a meaningless statistic.

I built 10 aircraft of type A and fly them 1 time per year for 10 years.... 1 crashes.

I built 10 aircraft of type B and fly them once every day for 10 years..... 1 crashes.

Which one is safer?

There are perhaps 2 meaningful statistics:

- hull loses per million miles flown
- hull loses per flight segment

Take your pick, but a crude % lost from hulls built is a useless number.

- GY

Agree with the previous poster & would like to add a few points:

First, there is no such thing as a "Russian" aircraft. They are Soviet aircraft, designed 20+ (more likely 30+ or more) years ago and hopelessly obsolete compared to any common western brand like A or B. I am not saying this is good, but it is not fair to compare the safety of old aircraft to new models.

Second, whether you like it or not, disregard to safety is a Russian national trait of character. Whoever doubts it, welcome to Moscow and try to drive a car here and you will understand. Obviously aircraft are not flown the same way but you get the point.

Third, and probably most important, Russia has many small air carriers that just privatized parts of Soviet Aeroflot and have been flying the same soviet aircraft ever since, without proper maintenance, with no hope of buying/leasing new ones (at best, buy some similarly old imported models...). So they fly those old plane like there's no tomorrow. Eventually the day comes when there is really NO tomorrow...

Thanks Kulverstukas. At least one fact of this flight seems to be that the flaps were extended…..

Not having Russian aero charts at the ready, is this the right airfield?

S. bank of the Volga, 15 km SE of Yaroslavl (57.560,40.160), single rw 06-24?

My guess is this is right, since the YAK42 appears in photos to have wound up on the river bank near the island.

Thats the one barit1 - former Soviet AF fighter base

Whats the old saying about there's nothing more useless than runway behind you at start of roll?

The description of the plane failing to gain enough speed, running out of runway, and then striking a navigation antenna as it tried to lift off, seems reminiscent of the Melbourne tail-strike incident in 2009 involving an Emirates A340. As I recall, that even later was attributed to a typing error by the flight crew when entering the plane's estimated weight (and calculating takeoff speeds and thrust required).

Is the Yak-42 suspectible to a similar error?

Passenger 389

There is no such thing as flex or derated takeoff on Yak42

So the engines were not delivering enough thrust, or the aircraft was overweight.

You forgot to include locked brakes etc.