It is no secret that the current state of Russian aviation industry is, to put it mildly, deeply into Joe in a deplorable state, and airlines have to buy (or rather, for the most part, take on lease) foreign aircraft. Draconian taxes do not allow to acquire new aircraft, so aircraft are taken on the secondary market is not perfect condition. And then, planes did not become the property of companies and are registered anywhere on the islands, and their owner, as a rule, "the Papuan Bob." Even if the company and owns ships and they are completely new (as in Nat. Carrier Aeroflot), anyway, these aircraft are registered hell knows what (eg VP- ... this registration Bermuda). Even so, semi-public companies like Aeroflot, can not afford to register the aircraft in Russia, since the registration of a company simply "fly out the chimney." (For an example, take the company VIM AVIA, which is completely "cleansed" their aircraft Customs and eventually lost them almost all)
Today, officials are trying in every way to smother and decommission domestic appliances: the Tu-154, Tu-134, An-24, etc. (in order not to invest in the development and jerk pullback to the purchaser of foreign cars. Simply, safely and at no cost) Of course, these aircraft have experienced myself and they are very far from modern standards, but since nothing new we have not done for the past 20 years, but simply destroyed and plundered all that was then, and today we have what we have - namely, national park hopelessly obsolete aircraft (both civil and military). But those foreign cars in its vast majority, who come to Russia - not the avant-garde in the world of aviation.
The plane - a rather complicated technical creation, and therefore presented to him excessively stringent requirements for reliability and security, which, in turn, leads to a very important resource and the survival rate of the product. Perhaps the only spaceships, can boast more high level of excellence and reliability. But spaceships - these are isolated instances and planes - a massive technical product. In order to ensure an adequate level of reliability, the aircraft systems have multiple redundancy and passive safety systems. For example, the power-assist setting APU (or APU for not ours) (figuratively speaking, a mini jet engine, which is designed for that would be to run the main engines, supply energy to the aircraft on the ground, and in case of failure and in-flight), is located in the tail of the aircraft in a gondola heat resistant and in case of fire just burn out in the gondola, without causing any appreciable damage to the aircraft and its systems, when suddenly a fire can not be put out by regular means. The people caught on very negative opinion about our technology, which has been formed over the years the media (most likely, partly commissioned and partly by the desire ohait all domestic).
I am often asked: "Why still fly these" coffins "Tu-154, they are as dangerous and constantly fall !? "
This is a deeply mistaken belief imposed from the outside. Tu-154 in many respects superior to the security and reliability of modern aircraft, both ours and not ours. And it is not that the "Soviet planes, the most iron planes in the world", and that the equipment installed on them - analog and it is much easier to modern electronic. The undeniable fact is that the mechanism of feature-rich, so it is more susceptible to failure probability (which in general is confirmed and life). The TU-154 simply nothing to break. If you view the statistics of accidents, the percentage of accidents and disasters due to failure mat. parts for the Tu-154 will be practically zero. (Personally, I do not recall the cases of equipment failure on the Tu-154, which would constitute a cause of the accident) At the same time, Boeing planes have a bunch of failures that occur almost every day. But we should not draw any conclusions. Americans, too, are not fools and they are perfectly be aware that the probability of failure will increase with the increasing complexity and improving technology, and therefore taken a number of preventive measures, and where possible. They reserved all the vital system and not only actively and automatically, but, as I said, passively. If suddenly (God forbid ugh, ugh, ugh) will light up the engine, the manual flight operation Boeing recommends above all ... do not rush! It should first of all make sure that the fire is indeed the case that the engine you are going to put out, really right, not the left that height you enough for that to continue, for example, takeoff and perform the maneuver (if the engine is off, it does does not mean that he does not pull. Let them burn!)
From the perspective of a simple layman, the passenger, the situation is catastrophic, but from the point of view of the pilot - a special case in flight - and no more. Emergency situations, we are working constantly on the trainers and not just fire. We are ready for hydraulic and electrical system failures, to the non-issuance of the flaps and landing gear absenteeism, we know how to act in case of depressurization and engine failure. There are exercises to perform flight loss of control, and many more, all sorts of horror stories. And in all these cases, the crew is obliged to complete the flight safely. After passing the simulator is arranged check and if the crew can not cope with the situation, then to fly in real life he will not be allowed ... The QRH (book such, for all occasions which are painted all the possible failures, and in these cases the act) is more dangerous possible failures than the banal fire, but of these situations there is a way, you just do not hurry up and act wisely. All planes (as ours and not ours) have a list of equipment failures in which even allowed to carry out flights. Well, let's say perhaps one autopilot (and their B-737 two), well, that's okay, you can fly and one (even in case of failure, and the second in flight, the pilot will still be able to control the aircraft manually) or for example does not work alone of motor generators (rather serious fault) but allowed to perform flight to the base airport in one of the generators of the engine and generator APU. The list of failures, this book, A4 and a thickness of 10 cm on all aircraft systems.
A recent ... (uh? I do not know as to name it!) The case of the A-330 Vladivostok Avia, which was allegedly destroyed the chassis, in fact had nothing to do with the hypothesis that given the media on the air, sowing so fear and panic midpoints relatives and friends of passengers who were at this time on board the aircraft. And these people (relatives) for 9 hours is under stress, worrying and being nervous (that tries ... I they the media, it?) In fact, after takeoff the plane from Vladivostok, on the strip were found pieces of rubber (and it was not known, it is pieces of tires A-330 or not!) And even if it were so, nothing really dangerous in this case was not. The main landing gear, the eight wheels and the destruction of one of them, do not be noticed by the crew during landing. Summing up this, I would like to clear up some positions. Accidents and Disasters in 99.9999% are caused by some of the crew and air traffic controllers. Pilots and controllers, is usually involved in major accidents. The human factor (whether it is not Laden! The Great restructuring) Today, the topic is being discussed more and more about the need to invite foreigners to Russian airlines, but in my opinion, it does not save the situation, as indeed qualified is not going to work in Russia for 4000-5000 with the prospect of the euro to rent an apartment and go to work by public transport. A pay 15,000-20,000 euros and apartments provide our companies are not ready. It seems to me that this money is necessary and correct to invest in the young, for all the Russian crew is no substitute, and its becoming less prepared. We need to create schools, need to take the young and teach them to work normally with the youth. Today, the professional level of the Russians in imported machinery, besspopno higher than 5-7 years ago, but you can not dwell on this, it is necessary to prepare a replacement. And what about the fear of flying, it is not worth very much to trust the media and enter the plane with a sense of doom. Remember that the plane is the safest vehicles in the world and get in trouble for air transport as well as less likely to catch a great white shark in the Eye. Fly and do not be afraid!
Author - letchikleha