The Russian mentality needs to be changed. They are trying to save money, by using outdated and inoperable aircraft. Too many crashes are occurring recently. Just a few days back, one of their aircraft crashed in to Tiksi.
That can be so sad, if true. Maybe they are still harboring some kind of mentality dating back to the Cold War era. We are now modern times so they should upgrade to avoid the same incident again from happening. WE are talking of lives here that can not be taken back once they are gone for good.
We never hear about similar incidents in the Western nations. Even third world nations such as China and India have moved ahead of Russia as far as aircraft safety is concerned.
The above is trying to belittle the Russian reviving airplane industry in general. Tu-154, like any plane undergoes constant modernisation, with newer technology applied in newer editions. If you say the above about TU-154, then you with even greater vigour should be saying the same about Boeing and its 737 (remember the crash of FlyDubai's Boeing 737-800 at Rostov-on-Don on the 19th of March this year?), which is even worse off.
Tu-154 still has over 230 operational planes and has an average crash rate of 1 per 1 million flying hours.
Source:
http://www.fearofflying.com/resources/safest-airliners-and-airline-safety.shtmlThe liner that crashed in Tiksi was, indeed, an old IL-18. It is out of production and only a few are still flying for the military.
As for the general state of affairs, Russia is returning back, after a tremendous, near-death setback of the country in the Wild 90s. Also, when speaking about the number and frequency of the crashes, take into account the size of the country and the number of flights, as well as the fact that many of the remote regions are mostly reachable only by air transport.
So, when saying "too many crashes", please quantify "too many".
Take the following list, for example:
Civilian aerial disasters in Russia by year (in Russian - if you want to read it, use
http://translate.yandex.com/ which is far better at translating Russian into English than Google, i.e. makes far fewer mistakes)
For 2016, 30 are listed in total, including helicopters, agricultural planes and small private 1-motor planes. In addition to Russian models, the list includes such makes as Eurocopter, Boeign, Bell, Robinson, Enstrom, Cessna.Please find a similar list for the USA and multiply the number there by at least 3 to make it comparable to Russia.
While the official Russian statements are very cautious, all but ruling out terrorism, I am not convinced. There are just too many coincidences here:
- Prior assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey,
- The symbolic significance of the passengers - the famoue and much-loved Aleksander Ensemble, and the humanitarian activist Doctor Liza
- The timing as the flight was intended to celebrate victory in Aleppo over the US-backed terrorists and the delivery of humanitarian aid to a Syrian hospital by Doctor Liza.
- Conflicting witness reports, describing a bright flash
- The fact that the plane was a high-profile one, and recently underwent full check.
The flight recorders have been recovered and it will take 10 days to decode them, while the final report with the analysis of the crash will be ready in a month.
In the meantime, in memory of the Aleksandrov Ensemble singers, I have translated a documentary about the ensemble. The documentary is from 2008, and it gives a very good impression of their history and national significance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyHvWeng-0The complete transcript of the subtitles can be found at my blog:
http://stanislavs.org/the-singing-weapon-aleksandrov-ensemble-documentary-with-engsubs/
