Russian plane with radioactive cargo and 104 passengers makes emergency landing in Moscow
A Russian UTair plane carrying 19 kg of radioactive cargo along with 104 passengers and 5 crewmembers made an emergency landing at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport due to a landing gear malfunction, Russian telegram channel Baza reported on Dec. 11.
The plane was on a night flight from Khanty-Mansiysk to Moscow. It landed safely at 2:30 a.m. Moscow time, Russian officials claimed.
Breakdowns of Russian civilian aircraft have become more frequent after sanctions imposed over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine cut Russia off from aircraft maintenance and the supply of original spare parts.
A Boeing 737 en route from Novosibirsk to Moscow made an emergency landing on Dec. 8 following an apparent engine fire, with Russian authorities reporting that all passengers emerged unharmed from the incident.
On Dec. 7, a Tu-204 cargo plane caught fire in Russia during takeoff from Ulan-Ude, Buryatia.
A passenger plane carrying 182 passengers and 6 crew members from Kazan to Moscow made an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after the stabilization control system failed. This was the sixth Russian plane to experience amid-air breakdown in a week.
An Aeroflot Airbus A321 flying from St. Petersburg to Moscow on Dec. 2 requested an emergency landing due to the failure of the left engine.
The United States and the European Union banned the supply of aircraft and components to Russia, and also obliged lessors to return leased aircraft, which make up as much as 40% of the Russian fleet. A number of Russian aircraft have been seized.
Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, issued aircraft manufacturers' certificates to airlines to keep the planes in service. This allowed airlines to make repairs themselves, after which they began cannibalizing some planes for components to service the rest of their fleet.
Since spring 2022, airlines have required their staff not to record equipment defects in their logbooks, which often resulted in planes being rendered inoperable.
Sanctions are accelerating the collapse of Russian aviation, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported. The comments were made after analyzing classified official documents HUR obtained in a complex special cyber operation against Rosaviatsia, which is responsible for flight safety and records of all emergencies.
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