Alexey Chadayev. Air

Air
The developers of Soviet air defense did not know what would happen in the 21st century

Alexey Chadayev

Publication date: August 26, 2004

The death of two planes on August 24 remained an absolute mystery, and was already firmly overgrown with myths. To such an extent that it will be difficult for any official version that appears to gain its rightful place in the public consciousness. Journalists have rushed en masse to experts for comments, who, in turn, only create confusion.

Experts more or less agree that the scattering of aircraft debris over a kilometer always indicates the destruction of the aircraft while still in the air. The fact that in both cases everything happened very quickly indicates that it was more likely an explosion than an irreparable breakdown. The fact that both aircraft were “in echelon”, i.e. not during takeoff or landing, but in horizontal flight in a given direction at a given altitude, further confirms this version. All other questions give rise to controversy: whether it could have been explosions inside that led to destruction, or whether the planes were shot down for some reason - this, obviously, we are unlikely to know.

But we already know that Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a meeting in the Kremlin, demanded to begin the process of transferring security systems at airports from the companies servicing them to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And, therefore, whatever it was in this particular case, the situation with the planes made it possible to understand what would happen in a frankly abnormal situation and where the vulnerabilities of air safety were. Too many “if onlys” immediately surfaced here.

A kerosene spill due to a mysterious damage to a hose in the evening at Domodedovo, due to which those same flights were delayed. People who passed registration, but did not fly away, and people who flew away, but did not pass registration. Passenger aircraft also carry cargo, the inspection of which turns out to be a mere formality. Easy access to aircraft maintenance areas. VIP lounges, through which you can fly only for additional money, and in which the screening of passengers is almost symbolic. In any case, there are too many vulnerable points.

Passive safety, which will require a huge investment, will likely dramatically increase the cost of scheduled air travel. It is almost as likely that the requirements for the fleet of aircraft serving domestic airlines will change. And the question is how exactly they will change.

At the beginning of the week, two days before the planes crashed, Vedomosti published a long interview with one of the captains of the Russian aviation industry. The said head, among other things, talked a lot about the state order for a scheduled airliner, which should replace the most popular model of today - the Tu-154 (this is the one that crashed near Rostov). Now, it is possible that the wording of this order will undergo major changes. are still rumored). And they will also undergo the configuration of the Russian aviation industry itself, which will be assembled from separate offices that hate each other, and this will certainly be accompanied by shootings and casualties comparable to those that are now happening in the military-industrial complex ( the murders at Almaz Antea").

And therefore, even if it was a seizure, the logic of “qui prodest?” in any case, it should not be limited to Chechen martyrs who want to disrupt the elections of Alu Alkhanov at any cost.

There is another aspect to the security problem. At the moment, Russian air defense is proud of the fact that any air target can be shot down within a minute after the corresponding order is received. All this is true as long as the number of air targets is relatively small and is mainly limited to large scheduled aircraft. However, Russia is on the verge of a boom in small- and medium-engine, helicopter and other “mosquito” aviation. The idea of ​​an air taxi is gradually taking over not only the minds of aviation business generals (like the owner of KASKOL, Senator Nedoroslev), but also the responsible authorities (like the Moscow mayor Luzhkov or the head of the Central Federal District Poltavchenko), and a single-engine aircraft is now also cheaper than the executive limousines that have proliferated in Moscow.

All this will increase the number of potential targets for air defense significantly; and it is not yet clear whether this will affect its effectiveness and who guarantees the safety of those aircraft that may end up in the affected areas. No one promised that the story of a passenger airliner shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces during an exercise could not someday be repeated with Russian air defense. And, on the other hand, it is far from a fact that a helicopter or a small single-engine aircraft cannot be effectively used to deliver an explosive device to its destination, while ensuring the safety of a large number of small runways (unlike Domodedovo) - the task is practically unsolvable.

All this inevitably leads to the formulation of the task of rethinking the airspace organization system itself, especially at the micro level. The situation is comparable to what happened on the roads of our country. Cities developed, as a rule, relying primarily on public transport - and now there is a transport collapse in cities, and five times more people die in car accidents alone in six months than in the entire second Chechen war. And this despite the fact that in a car accident the chances of surviving are still greater than in the air.