Everything is oil

The causes of the plane crash near Igarka were found out: a technical malfunction of a helicopter that worked out 96% of its resource

The causes of the plane crash near Igarka were found out: a technical malfunction of a helicopter that had worked out 96% of its resource. In other words: this is the state of oil, not of people. Therefore, helicopters with shift workers are falling

On November 26, a Mi-8T helicopter of Turukhan airlines with shift workers from Vankorneft (a subsidiary of Rosneft) took off from Igarka airport and crashed a few minutes later. 10 people died on the spot, 15 were taken to the Igarka hospital, then to the regional clinic in Krasnoyarsk, where two more later died in intensive care. On November 29, an AS-350 helicopter with oil workers crashed in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomy. All four on board were killed. November 30 made a hard landing (in fact - collapsed) Mi-2. In front of eyewitnesses in the residential areas of Kamchatka Elizov, next to the hockey rink. One died, two were hospitalized. Three crashes in five days, all with casualties - this is a lot even for our peripheral aviation. What with her? Why do people who work for the richest companies die? The equipment is operated to its fullest, until it is completely worn out?

The commander of the aircraft that crashed in Igarka, Alexander Monakhov, co-pilot Levon Tananyan and flight mechanic Radik Valeev were, according to all reviews, a well-coordinated and professional team. Family. The last words of PIC Monakhov were captured by the recorder: “Levon! Levon! Monakhov, originally from the Samara region, graduated from the Syzran Military Aviation School in 1982, went through Afghanistan, both Chechen wars. Tananyan is from Ufa, in 1986 he graduated from the Kremenchug Flight School, worked at Bashkir Airlines, after being laid off, he worked as a security guard, taxi driver, then resumed flying practice in Surgut. In recent years, they have been flying in the North - both in Yakutia and Krasnoyarsk. For two of them, Monakhov and Tananyan, 60 years of flying.

Immediately after the Igara plane crash, the local media published statements by pilots that the service life of helicopters was being extended without looking. On the air of the Krasnoyarsk television company TVK, an employee of Vankorneft, who wished to remain anonymous, said that shift workers have long been afraid to fly and have repeatedly got into trouble, the aircraft are in a terrible state:

I have talked with shift workers more than once: they either leave these topics, or, telling something, ask not to name them. And so, in reality, all their evidence is about one thing: people hold on to their work and accept mortal risk as an integral part of it. And those fired, saying that the principle of a squeezed lemon applies to both technology and people, can slander. Therefore, I see no point in publishing the stories of dependent people. I am talking to a man who has seen a lot on Vankor, both from the ground and from above. He flew around the oilfields under construction every month. And at the same time remained independent from Vankor. Photojournalist and director-screenwriter-documentary cinematographer Alexander Kuznetsov filmed the annals of Vankor for three years.

Exactly one year before the disaster, on November 26, 2014, this video became one of the hits on the global Web: the Russians manually push the Tu-134 "Katekavia" to fly away. Igarka, minus 50. Shift workers go out and help the crew and technical staff of the airport to move the frozen car.

As usual, denials followed that this was a hoax, that this was the love of shift workers for selfies. Layoffs later followed at the airport. In reality, the tug could not move the plane. And the passengers were taken out to reduce the weight of the ship. At the request of the aviation technician, some of them began to push the liner, holding the wings.

My next interlocutor is Andrey Chernov , former director of the Igarka airport, former commander of the Turin air squadron. He was responsible for flight safety in Evenkia (this is more than the territory of France, these are two Norways or Turkey), a professional with vast experience in the Far North. Now engaged in private aviation.

- Comment on the data I received in Igarka: during takeoff, one generator first failed, the helicopter took off like an airplane due to a heavy load, when turning to the right with a roll of more than 30 degrees and at a speed of 200 km per hour, the hydraulic control system completely failed.

- There are already preliminary results of the decoding of the recorders, incl. speech information. Initial assumptions were that the board took off and at a low altitude - 50-100 meters - made a U-turn to fly to the oil pumping station. In the process of turning around, the pilots got lost in space, disoriented, lost the horizon in this solid whiteness. Over the Yenisei, such a film happens in summer, and even in winter ... And with great forward speed they entered the Yenisei ice. So, this hypothesis, which boils down to the fault of the crew, is not confirmed. In any case, its probability has greatly decreased. Now the version is essentially the same: a technical malfunction. The decoding showed: the board scored 240 meters (which is very decent, this is almost the working altitude of the flight) and headed for the station. And then there was a loss of control of the helicopter. It is a mystery why the PIC did not say anything on the air about the emergency situation. One of the five control rods was destroyed. Whether this happened during the flight (which is most likely), instantly, from metal fatigue, after which the board fell on its side and fell, or already during the impact on the ice, the main rotor blade was knocked out and then the thrust burst, they are now figuring out.

- The crashed Mi-8T was operated for the 34th year, and all this time in the harsh conditions of Siberia. The An-24, which crashed five years before it in Igarka, had been flying by that time for almost 36 years. Shift workers and pilots say they fly on junk. Due to the lack of spare parts, they are transferred from one car to another.

- Several factories are repairing the Mi-8. And everything is in accordance with the standards that were established back in the USSR. This is led by people who answer with their heads, and this, I assure you, is still being clearly carried out. We know little about the accident rate of small foreign-made helicopters. How many people have already been killed on the Robinsons - many times more than in Igarka over the five-year period, there are even more incidents when helicopters crash, but there are no casualties, and this is not being investigated. We can question the condition of the An-2s, which crash at least as often, and not all cases are investigated. But this is because there are too many illegal immigrants working with the An-2. Mi-8 illegal immigrants do not operate. A private trader will not buy it for 300 thousand and will not exploit it because of the high cost. 7-8 people are needed to service the Mi-8, and to be exact - 15 people, taking into account the employees of the administration, laboratory, engineering staff, etc. After all, each flight of the Mi-8 is subject to decoding in the operating mode, regardless of whether some kind of emergency occurred, or whether it (the flight) was an ordinary one. So we completely reject the version that the de jure repaired helicopter was not repaired de facto. As well as versions about the weather or low-quality fuel: all other planes and helicopters took off and landed that day, according to the task.

Low quality metal? His fatigue? Soon it will be clear.

- They say that they do not have time to follow the helicopters: they are in the air from morning to evening.

- Not true. Compared to the past, when they flew 7-8 hours a day, now there are relatively few flights in Turukhan and UTair Engineering. Serving Vankor involves short distances and flying. I am no longer in command at the Igarka airport, but I keep in touch with my colleagues, with the person who heads the technical department. This is a responsible professional. And the service is carried out in full, I assure you. Shift workers after the disaster can be understood, but these are emotions. All work according to the regulations is carried out unconditionally - this is the good thing that we took from the Soviet system. There have never been complaints from supervisory authorities. It's pointless to look for crime here.

- Is there any internal dissonance from the fact that employees of the world's largest oil and gas company fly in cars manufactured in a country that has not been around for a quarter of a century? Shouldn't Vankor somehow transform life around him for the better? It is possible to be rich in the midst of poverty, but no one has yet been able to be rich, healthy, and happy among it at the same time.

- Yes, salaries at the Igarka airport - with all the northern coefficients - are no more than at the port of Krasnoyarsk. They get little, but one thing is for sure - this does not affect flight safety, all requirements are met.

The airport built in the 1940s was physically unable to handle Rosneft shifts and was in disrepair. And we must pay tribute to the former head of Rosneft, Bogdanchikov: when starting the construction of a new airport, he agreed with me to completely change his project and increase the estimate. (Chernov went through scandals, flight closures, but Moscow officials also agreed that "patching" the runway would not help and it had to be done anew, and this was financed by the federal budget. Chernov could not help it: under his weight, 80 kilos, the plates on The runways staggered, and what about under the hundred-ton sides?Airfield plates with a shelf life of 15 years lay 35, while many were turned upside down, which is unacceptable, the reinforcement was exposed. - A.T. ) .

- Now the operational headquarters of Rosneft, meeting in Igarka, proposed "additional measures to improve aviation security, including the tightening of standards that determine the requirements for the operation of aviation equipment." Rosneft decided to change contractor aircraft for its own helicopter fleet. It was promised to create a joint venture with the Italian Finmeccanica SpA with the localization of at least 50% of the production of AW189 helicopters in Russia. Agusta Westland has promised delivery of ten of these vehicles by 2017. How do you feel about these intentions?

— Several Agustas are operated by Norilsk Nickel. And the operating pilots have different opinions about this technique. Minus 40 and minus 50 are far from the same thing, they are heaven and earth. And it is unlikely that they were tested at minus 50. Almost all foreign helicopters require warm hangar maintenance. Unlike our technology. It stands quietly on the street up to minus 60, it’s just impossible to fly. Bogdanchikov once flew in on a business jet, and here we have minus 47. The Mi-171, bought shortly before, works up to minus 40. I transplanted it into the Mi-8T. His people say: well, how about it, but where is the VIP chair? Nothing, on the bench...

A quarter of a century ago, senior comrade Valery Yaroslavtsev brought me the manuscript of Robert Shtilmark, who was sitting under Stalin in our area. These were excerpts from A Fistful of Light, transmitted by his son Felix. With his comments, Valery published these fragments for the first time in the Krasnoyarsk book publishing house.

Only one episode from the novel-chronicle: 1952, the construction of the Salekhard-Igarka polar railway. The most incredible rumors are circulating among the convicts, for whom all these villages with residential areas along the highway and among the virgin taiga. Either for Jews from both capitals of Russia, the fifth column of Israel, or for disabled war and labor ... But then why nurseries, kindergartens and schools? And a cultural team of former artists of the Igarsky Theater said that, according to the agreement of Stalin and Mao, either 30 or 3 million Chinese should move to Siberia, which is poor in population, in order to develop resources together with the Russians.

Whether so, no, but no matter what Stalin intended, now it turned out cooler. Wealthy China grows Vankor. The participation of the Chinese national oil and gas corporation CNPC in the share capital of Vankor was personally blessed by the head of Russia: "There are no restrictions for our Chinese friends."

It was September 1 last year. Six months later, in Krasnoyarsk, Deputy Prime Minister Dvorkovich specified: the Russian authorities see no obstacles for Chinese investors to get more than 50% in strategic deposits (with the exception of the shelf). Vankor is “planted” on financing from China, Vankor oil is used to pay for tranches already received from China (prepayments for future, for many years to come, hydrocarbon supplies). Vankor oil, in fact, is no longer Russian, it is pledged to China.

If you think that this has nothing to do with you, you are mistaken. As in the crashed Mi-8 there were people from all over Russia, from different regions, so the economy of Vankor is tied to the whole country, to its budget. Vankor has been operating since August 2009. From Igor Sechin's address to shareholders: Rosneft continued to take an active part in the development of amendments to the current oil industry taxation system. The most significant result for the Company in 2009 was the creation at the legislative level of a system that allows introducing preferential rates of export duties on oil produced at a number of fields in Eastern Siberia”. Since January 2010, the duty was zeroed for Vankor, and it worked in this mode until June 2010, then, until May 2011, at a reduced rate. Last year, Rosneft again offered to return benefits to Vankor.

There are calculations of what revenues fell out of the RF budget (120-150 billion rubles a year), but I don't think they are correct.

Benefits were given to Vankor among 22 fields in Eastern Siberia. However, these preferences had a meaning for Vankor. The trick here is that Vankor itself is by no means located in remote Eastern Siberia, it is on the left bank of the Yenisei, in the Pur-Taz oil and gas region, this is the West Siberian oil and gas province.

In Krasnoyarsk at that time, nannies in kindergartens received five thousand, which was below the subsistence level, but the regional authorities also spread a rug in front of Rosneft, reducing taxes: from 2009 - and for five years ahead. There is only one condition: increasing production volumes. They didn’t guess right: production was growing, but tax revenues from Vankor to the region were declining, as the next changes in federal legislation arrived in time.

Of course, there is a rational explanation for all these tricks and benefits, they stimulated production, new schemes appeared later, now the tax maneuver is designed to solve other problems - this is not the point, our tax system should be dealt with by the competent authorities. The point is that there is Dubai with its tallest skyscrapers and artificial islands. And there is Igarka with its crooked houses dancing on the permafrost. There is the fantastic Norway with its first place in the world in terms of the human development index, and the no less fantastic Krasnoyarsk Territory with its leadership in industrial fumes and poisons in the atmosphere.

Oil produced in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Emirate of Dubai and Norway, gives comparable profits, if calculated per capita.

There, oil serves the people. Here we serve oil. This is a state of hydrocarbons, not Russians. Therefore, helicopters are falling in Siberia. Vankor itself is in perfect order. But a little away from the oil fields - and that's it, a failure.

About the feat of Nikolai Anosov - he saved people from a crashed helicopter, which could flare up or go under the ice at any moment, Novaya has already written. The day before, Anosov told me the latest news: the authorities are interested in where he got such an accurate alignment of events in time. So: from the “sotik”, where all unsuccessful calls to emergency services were printed, and successful ones - to his wife: she was in the city and called on fellow countrymen for help.

And every year, before navigation, the emergency services of Igarka are successfully tested.

The local newspaper, deputies, the administration, where Anosov sent the letters, left them unattended. As if nothing had happened.

... When Chernov was flying in Evenkia - back in the USSR - an Mi-8 crashed in the Tyumen region, the investigation revealed a crack in the gear of the main gearbox. And then they stopped for a long time - for a thorough check - almost the entire helicopter fleet of the Union.

It won't happen now. We will again be told about the reliability and indispensability of Soviet aircraft. Because the airlines themselves cannot renew the fleet, which is technically and morally obsolete. But Moscow does not care what and how they fly beyond the Urals.

Why doesn't Vankor pull nearby areas to its level? And how many loud promises were given to Igarka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk - about the development of a diversified economy based on the Vankor resource. How much has been said about "synergistic", "cluster", "multiplicative" effects... While Vankor demonstrates the effect of the sturgeon. Spawning goes away. The Vankor effect is much more noticeable in China than in Krasnoyarsk.

Three shift workers were discharged from the regional hospital. Five remain in intensive care, three of them are stable and conscious, two are severe. Five more are in specialized departments.

Krasnoyarsk