"Sanctions influence": Airlines in Russia are becoming more dangerous - WP

It is reported that in the first eight days of December, civilian aircraft collided at least with eight serious mechanical malfunctions, as a result of which the pilots were forced to plant. According to the authors of the article, such cases indicate the increasing danger of air travel in Russia. According to journalists, in September 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organization expressed serious concerns about the country's ability to ensure the safety of its aircraft.

At the same time, the Russian Federation continued to insist that sanctions did not affect the safety of air travel. For his part, the director of the Russian Aviation Analytical Center "Aviaport" Oleg Panteleyev in December stated that the risks "increased in geometric progression". According to him, the number of technical checks decreased sharply.

Russian aviation analyst Andrey Menshenin added that "sanctions affect the safety of flights", but Russian airlines have softened their consequences by importing spare parts through Central Asia, Turkey, Singapore, Iran and other countries. According to Russian aviation security expert Andriy Patrakov, the Russian authorities allow airlines to use the details whose service life has expired, which leads to failures during flights.

Patrakov claims that he is afraid of repression by the Russian authorities for discussing the risks associated with aviation. He also noted that aviation security in the Russian Federation was a "complete catastrophe" before the imposition of sanctions. According to the expert, the planes continue to fly with defective parts such as cracks, even after a long time after they had to be replaced.

We will remind, on December 9 the media reported that due to sanctions the number of breakdowns of Russian aircraft during the year increased three times. Thus, since the beginning of 2023, more than 180 cases of malfunctions have been recorded in flight. In 2022, such incidents were 60. Yes, on December 8, the passenger aircraft Boeing 737 sat in the Tolmachevo Novosibirsk Airport in connection with the burning of engines.