By Zaki Shaikh
LONDON
In recent days, the Russian media has published a range of opinions by aviation experts pointing to a need to upgrade technical machinery, review maintenance levels and improve safety training measures.
This winter, Russia has witnessed a number of accidents involving aircraft. Jan. 3, an Aeroflot plane skidded off the runway at Khrabrovo Airport in Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave by the Baltic Sea.
According to Alexander Perepelitsoin, head of North-Western Transport Management, there could be three possible reasons behind the incident: crew error, malfunctioning of aircraft equipment, or the runway becoming unusable.
On Dec. 25, a Tu-154 disappeared from radar and was reported to have fallen into the Black Sea. Ninety-two people lost their lives.
Ever since the Dec. 25 tragedy, several views have surfaced regarding possible reasons behind the jet crashing into the Black Sea only kilometers from Crimea.
Among various possibilities include: overloading the aircraft; pilot-error, poor quality fuel and/or technical background.
It is also possible that the flaps of the plane were damaged making it unmanageable -- making it very difficult to manage the craft.
From Crimea’s capital Simferopol, a local news agency reported Sunday that a failure in synchronous maintenance and functioning of the flaps could cause problems in maintaining the flight and could have resulted in an accident.
According to Russia’s Lifenews TV, the aircraft lost altitude owing to faults developed in the flaps. The 33-year-old co-pilot Alexander Rovensky may have shut off the flaps which resulted in the tail part pulling down the right wing of the plane, hitting the sea at high speed and crashing into the water, the New Crimea newspaper reported.
Vladimir Salnikov, a pilot with 10 years’ experience of flying Tu-154 float planes told Moskovskaya Kosmomolka that two possible explanation may help shed light on the incident.
Firstly, the crew failed to make timely use of the booster pump. The Tu-154 engine is usually supplied with fuel from one main tank containing up to 33,000 liters. Additional fuel storage is located in the plane’s wings.
The engine must be running to allow the fuel transfer from the wings to the fuel tank. When the plane taxies and takes off, considerable fuel is consumed to allow take off with maximum thrust of engine.
So for this purpose it should have continuous supply for seven to eight minutes. Before the engines are temporarily turned off, as the plane reaches the required altitude the booster pumps are switched off and the available fuel is enough for 30 minutes’ flight time.
The boosters are supposed to pump 4,000 liters per minute. To allow the engines to start again, if for some reason the crew did not manage to arrange timely provision of fuel to the engines it can cause them to fail.
According to Salnikov, while security arrangements at the Chkalovski military air field based near Moscow from where the plane took off are strict, at Adler air base in Crimea – where the flight stopped over for refueling, security is not optimal.
Aviation expert Andrey Sidorchik told Argumenty u Fakty newspaper that the airplane’s age and the model must be kept in mind.
The Tu-154 Tupolev aircraft were built in the 1960s up until 2013; a total of 1,026 different aircraft were produced and used for medium-range flights all over Russia.
Not all pilots have enough experience of dealing with aircraft fuel consumption breakdowns for long flights. So those with mostly short or medium-range flight experience may struggle to apply instant decisions should trouble surface, says Victor Galenko, an expert in civil aviation, suggesting a technical fault.
Russian pilot Magomed Tolboev told Argumenty u Fakty reporter Elena Slobodyan, Monday that if the flaps on the wings do not work synchronously this could lead to a crash.
No trace of a rocket explosion or evidence of a criminal act has been discovered so far from the wreckage of the aircraft. Subsequently the investigation is now focusing on crew error or technical fault as possible causes, noted Moscow’s Daily Kommersant.
Pravda TV speculated that the luggage compartment was filled beyond capacity which pulled down the weight at the tail section, and that is why aircraft couldn’t possibly gain enough speed and altitude.
Due to overloading, the plane couldn’t make a proper landing. One person on a ship on the Black Sea saw the aircraft collapsing into the water, tail first. The accident happened about 2 kilometers off the coast of Sochi. The Defense Ministry plane had stopped in Sochi, Crimea for refueling and was flying from the Chkalovski base near Moscow en route to a Syria base near the north-western port city of Latakia.
The black box from the ill-fated Tu-154 has been sent to Moscow to decipher the recordings until the moment of the crash. It is also possible that a foreign object could have hit the engine.
According to the records, the Dec. 25 crash was the 74th incident involving a Tupolev plane which may be considered having lesser reliability and safety measures expected from later modern aircrafts.
In August 2006, a Tu-154 flying from Anapa on the northern coast of the Black Sea to St. Petersburg fell near Donetsk as the pilots struggled to overcome a thunderstorm.
Earlier in February 2002, owing to severe weather conditions, an Iranian Tu-154 crashed near Khurramabad, killing 119 people.
