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Tougher Flight Safety Rules Enter into Force in Russia

01 July 2012 04:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Passenger planes that are not equipped with collision avoidance systems will be prohibited from carrying out flights in Russia starting from July 1, in line with new regulations approved by Russiaâ€™s Transport Ministry following a string of deadly crashes involving Russian-made aircraft in recent years,APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

The new rules were initially planned to enter into force on January 1, but were then delayed in order to allow Russian flight operators more time to take steps to comply with the regulations.

The new rules primarily affect the weary Tupolev Tu-134 and Antonov An-24 passenger planes, which are still widely used by flight operators in Russiaâ€™s Siberia and the Far East.

Out of some 530 Russian-made planes with a valid flight license, some 300 must be equipped with a midair collision avoidance system, according to Russiaâ€™s aviation regulator Rosaviatsia. Some 280 of those have had such systems.

Out of more than 530 domestically-produced planes that must have a ground proximity warning system (GPWS) on board, some 400 feature such equipment, according to Rosaviatsia.

There have been several deadly crashes involving Russian-made planes in the past few years, which have raised widespread public concerns about the nation’s air safety.

The most recent crash occurred on May 9, when a Superjet-100 passenger plane slammed into a mountain during a demonstration flight in Jakarta, Indonesia. All 45 people on board were killed.

At least 31 people were killed after an ATR 72 plane crashed shortly after take-off from the western Siberian city of Tyumen on April 2, 2012.

On September 7, 2011, an aging Soviet-era Yak-42 aircraft carrying 45 people, including the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team, crashed and burst into flames shortly after takeoff from an airport near Yaroslavl, to the northeast of Moscow. Only one person survived the crash.

On June 21, 2011, a Tu-134 plane with 52 people on board crash-landed about 1 km (0.6 miles) from the runway at the airport outside the northern Russian city of Petrozavodsk. The plane was party destroyed and burst into flames. Forty-six people were killed.

There have been at least five other deadly aircraft crashes in Russia since 2004.