Ural Airlines has aged: An Airbus that landed in a Novosibirsk field had previously had technical problems

Among the largest Russian air carriers, Ural Airlines has the oldest fleet. The plane that made an emergency landing in a Novosibirsk field is almost 20 years old. According to global trends, such a vessel is considered outdated and aged.

Today at 5:44 Moscow time, an Airbus-A320 Ural Airlines aircraft with tail number RA-73805, flying from Sochi to Omsk, made an emergency landing. Already near the end point, he gave an alarm and, changing course, headed to the alternate airfield of Novosibirsk. As a result, the ship was forced to land in a wheat field near the village of Ubinskoye. On board was 161 people, including 23 children and 6 crew members. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Published in telegram channels negotiation two airplane pilots, Sergei Belov And Eduard Semenov, before landing. Apparently, the airliner’s hydraulic system failed.

The fact that the emergency landing had to be made precisely because of the failure of the hydraulic system has already been confirmed by the acting governor of the Omsk region Vitaly Khotsenko and General Director of Ural Airlines Sergei Skuratov. Among the main versions of why the hydraulics failed are a malfunction of one of the engines or a possible fire.

In the video from the landing site, you can see that the plane’s landing gear entered the ground about fifty centimeters, the engine and other parts did not receive serious damage, the fuselage survived, and there are traces of fire in the area of ​​the right wing.

Investigators have already opened a case under Part 1 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of traffic safety rules and operation of air transport).

The maximum penalty is up to two years in prison. The West Siberian Transport Prosecutor’s Office and a specially formed commission of the Federal Air Transport Agency are also conducting their parallel investigations.

The passengers of the plane that landed in the field are now in the House of Culture in the Novosibirsk village of Ubinskoye, where a temporary accommodation center has been prepared for them. Everyone was fed sandwiches and cookies, two were sent for x-rays due to bruises, and two more needed help due to an asthma attack and high blood pressure.

According to our source at Ural Airlines, despite the serious difficulties with transporting the ship from the village of Ubinskoye, they will not immediately cut it down to dispose of it, but will first try to remove it from the field to restore it.

The complete chronology of the plane’s flight looks like this. At 1:14 am, the Airbus A320 took off from Sochi Adler Airport. At 4:43 the crew reported to the Omsk airport about problems with hydraulics and a change in course. At 5:23, commander Sergei Belov announced a “Distress” signal because the fuel supply was only enough for the next 46 minutes. And at 5:44 the Airbus landed safely in a field 180 kilometers from Novosibirsk airport.

Sergei Belov (left) and Eduard Semyonov (right) who landed the Airbus A320. Belov is a hereditary pilot; his grandfather was a military navigator, and later worked as an instructor pilot at Ural Airlines. Semyonov wanted to become a pilot after watching the Soviet film “Crew” at the age of 13

The photo shows the crew immediately after the emergency landing.

As the SHOT telegram channel learned, the same Ural Airlines plane already encountered technical problems several months ago. In January, the ship’s generator was found to have a fault. But then the problem was noticed and corrected before takeoff.

The Airbus A320 that landed in the field can be called an outdated aircraft. It was released in 2004 and made its first flight 19 and a half years ago. He has been flying for Ural Airlines since May 2013, and previously flew for Air Arabia and Air Arabia Maroc.

Meanwhile, taking into account the global trend in the formation of aircraft fleets, the rating of aircraft is conventionally divided into three ranges: green (young aircraft fleet, the average age of aircraft is up to 10 years), orange (middle-aged aircraft fleet, from 10 to 15 years) and red (outdated aircraft fleet, over 15 years old). years). According to official data from Ural Airlines, they have 52 Airbus airliners in their fleet, their average age is 12 years. But on one of the largest portals about domestic aviation, another figure is indicated – 14.2 years. That is, within a year, the Ural Airlines fleet may move to the “red range”.

Ural Airlines is among the top 5 largest domestic air carriers. Aeroflot has one of the youngest fleets – about 6-7 years old. The average age of the fleets of S7 Airlines, Pobeda and Rossiya, respectively, is about 10, five and 10 years. Thus, it turns out that Ural Airlines, compared to other major Russian airlines, uses the oldest aircraft.

Sergei Skuratov, general director and owner of Ural Airlines

Open joint-stock company “Ural Airlines” was founded in 1993. From the very beginning, the airline was headed by Sergei Skuratov, who owns 90.48% of the shares. Last year, the company’s revenue amounted to 89.4 billion rubles, of which 13.5 billion rubles were net profit.

73-year-old Sergei Skuratov is a representative of a dynasty of aviation workers. After graduating from flight school, he went through all stages of a pilot’s career, flying such vessels as the An-24, An-26, Il-18, Tu-154 and Il-86. Then he studied at the command department of the Academy of Civil Aviation and headed the flight safety inspection in the Urals. On the eve of Perestroika, Skuratov became the commander of the Sverdlovsk united air squad. In fact, it was Skuratov who in the nineties carried out the privatization of this organization and its division into an airline and Aeroflot. Thus, he launched his personal business – Ural Airlines.