RUSSIA CALLS FOR BETTER AVIATION SAFETY
Alex Nicholson

AP Online
Aug 31, 2006

Russia’s prime minister said Thursday its civil aviation industry
must be overhauled to reduce reliance on aging aircraft following
three major crashes that killed more than 400 people.

"We must now make decisions and take active measures," Prime Minister
Mikhail Fradkov said at a Cabinet meeting that focussed on flight
safety. "We cannot wait for more tragedies."

Some of Fradkov’s statement was broadcast prominently on state-run
television, apparently to try to reassure Russians that the government
is taking action on safety while creating momentum for reform in
the sector.

Last week, a Tu-154 jet belonging to Russia’s Pulkovo Airlines
crashed in Ukraine after encountering a storm, killing all 170 people
aboard. In July, an Airbus A310 belonging to Russian airline S7
skidded off a runway and burst into flames in the Siberian city of
Irkutsk, killing 124 people. And an A320 belonging to the Armenian
airline Armavia crashed into the Black Sea while trying to land in
the Russian resort city of Sochi in rough weather in May, killing
all 113 people aboard.

Fradkov said that Russia needed to increase production of "new,
modern planes," and noted that foreign companies would have a role
to play in that process.

"We do not have the right to lose our aviation industry. This is
inarguable," the RIA Novosti agency quoted him as saying. "This does
not exclude working with foreign partners, but it must be harmoniously
combined with the interests of our manufacturers and our consumers."

Fradkov called for a balanced approach, saying it would be wrong to
focus narrowly on designing new aircraft at the expense of existing
factories, just as it would be wrong to favor new, foreign-made jets.

"No one will forgive us if we waste time and funds to create
new aircraft and simultaneously lose our existing production
capacities. And no one in the country will forgive us if we make flight
safety our greatest priority, but rely on imported aircraft alone,"
Fradkov said.

He put Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov in charge of flight safety.

Ivanov, who is also defense minister, suggested at the meeting that
inadequate weather forecasting had been partly to blame for the crash
in Ukraine.

Despite having the capacity to roll out dozens of new planes annually,
Russian factories produced just a handful of civilian aircraft last
year, while Russian airlines imported 20 used foreign jets. New foreign
equipment is prohibitively expensive for all but the national flag
carrier Aeroflot. The lack of an affordable leasing system that would
allow companies to acquire new Russian planes means that companies
typically opt to buy older foreign or domestic jets.

"From an economic point of view, it is impossible for new aircraft to
compete with used jets," said Alexander Rubtsov, general director of
the Ilyushin Finance Co. leasing company in a comment published in
the Vedomosti business daily this week. "But just buying older jets
runs counter to the interests of passengers, whose lives and safety
depend directly on the condition of an airline’s fleet."

Fradkov suggested some of the many airlines that have emerged in Russia
since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 compromise safety by
cutting corners, saying that "economic interests sometimes conflict
with questions of security."

Russia is moving ahead with the creation of a long-discussed aircraft
holding company _ the United Aviation Corp. _ that will unite Russia’s
civilian and military producers under one roof. The company has been
promised hefty state funding and will be 75 percent controlled by
the state.

Fradkov’s comments coincided with reports this week that a Russian
state bank had bought more than 4 percent in European aerospace giant
EADS, in what was interpreted as a push to forge closer ties with
the Airbus parent company.