Translated material
Conditional crash
The pilots of the Tu-134 that crashed at Samara airport have been sentenced
The Samara Regional Court yesterday sentenced the pilots of the Tu-134 passenger plane that crashed at Samara Kurumoch International Airport three years ago. As a result of this accident, six people were killed and more than 30 were injured. Both pilots - crew commander Oleg Zubkov and co-pilot Andrei Lapanov - survived then, and are now recognized as the culprits of the emergency. Despite the fact that the prosecutor's office insisted on real punishment for them, the pilots received suspended sentences. They themselves never admitted guilt: in their opinion, it is unlikely that anyone could “get out of that situation with minimal losses.”The crash of a UTAir Tu-134 operating on the route Surgut-Samara-Belgorod occurred on the morning of March 17, 2007 at Samara Kurumoch airport, where the plane was supposed to make an intermediate landing. According to the airline, due to sharply worsening weather, the plane simply missed the runway, mistaking it for a taxiway, so contact with the ground occurred 400 m before the runway and 150 m to the right. Having hit the ground, the plane fell onto its right wing, after which it turned over and fell apart. There were 50 passengers and seven crew members on board the Tu-134. Firefighters and rescuers who arrived quickly were able to put out the flames and evacuate all the people on the plane. As a result of the crash, six passengers were killed, and another 32 people, including crew members, were injured.
Specialists of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), who participated in the investigation of the accident, almost immediately came to the conclusion that the pilots were to blame for the crash of the airliner. In particular, the IAC commission found that “in the absence of reliable visual contact with approach lights and ground landmarks, the aircraft commander did not make a timely decision to go around.” However, the human factor was not the only cause of the disaster.
As a result of the investigation, a whole range of violations and shortcomings in the work of the airport's ground services was revealed, which, however, was not identified as the main factor. It was about untimely informing the crew about deteriorating weather and about the actions of the dispatcher, who, using the landing locator, could have warned the crew about a dangerous approach to the ground and an incorrect approach. In addition, as experts believed, he could have recommended the crew to go around in bad weather conditions. However, according to experts, the decisive factor in the development of the tragic events was the crew’s error: the decision to go around according to all the rules is made by the aircraft commander, and in poor visibility conditions he simply had to do it according to the instructions. However, he made this decision too late.
In addition, the investigation showed that in conditions of heavy fog, the plane was controlled by the co-pilot, although usually in difficult conditions the pilot-in-command takes control. As experts have established, it was the uncoordinated actions of the crew that led to the disaster. When the decision to go around was made, the commander and co-pilot did not figure out who would control the aircraft. As a result, the commander did not take control, although the co-pilot believed that the aircraft commander would do just that. As a result of this momentary hesitation, the car continued its descent and hit the ground.
In the fall of 2008, crew commander Oleg Zubkov and co-pilot Andrei Lapanov were charged under Art. 263-3 of the Criminal Code of Russia (violation of safety rules during the operation of air transport, resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence), and soon their case came to court. Both pilots were found guilty and the court sentenced them yesterday. Oleg Zubkov was sentenced to six years' probation with a probationary period of four years, and Lapanov was sentenced to two years' probation with a probationary period of two years. Previously, the prosecutor asked the court to impose real sentences on the defendants - for the crew commander, five years in prison, and for the co-pilot, three years in a penal colony.
In their last plea, both defendants did not admit their guilt. According to Oleg Zubkov, the disaster occurred due to a combination of a number of circumstances, including an error by weather service workers and the dispatcher. Andrei Lapanov, in turn, noted that he deeply regrets what happened, but does not admit his guilt. “The conditions we found ourselves in, I seriously doubt that anyone could get out with minimal losses,” he said.
There is no one to punish
Yesterday, as reported by RIA Novosti, the East Siberian Transport Directorate of the SKP dropped the criminal case into another major plane crash - the crash in 2006 at the Irkutsk airport of an Airbus A310 of S7 airlines, which killed 203 people. On July 9, 2006, having landed at the Irkutsk airport, he was unable to stop on the runway and, having driven off it, broke through the airfield fence, crashed into garages and exploded. Of the 203 people on board, 79 survived. Among the 125 dead were two Airbus pilots. According to the IAC conclusion, the cause of the A310 crash was the erroneous actions of the crew. Based on the fact of the emergency, a criminal case was initiated under Art. 263-3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of traffic safety rules and operation of air transport). “The investigative department terminated the criminal case on the grounds provided for in paragraph 4 of part 1 of article 24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation - in connection with the death of the accused or suspect (pilots),” the SKP reported. “In accordance with the conclusion of a repeated comprehensive flight technical forensic examination It was established that the direct cause of the accident that occurred with the aircraft was the collision of the aircraft with a ground obstacle due to an increase in the forward thrust mode of the left engine, which occurred as a result of involuntary erroneous actions of the aircraft crew.” Earlier it was reported that, according to experts, one of the pilots, after landing, accidentally moved the control stick of one of the airliner’s two engines to almost “full throttle.”