A Russian aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing, after it lost part of its engine on takeoff, local media reports. The terrifying incident comes just days after an Air Indian plane crashed in Ahmedabad en route to London, killing 241 people on board.
The flight operated by Azimuth Airlines reportedly lost the right engine’s cowling during takeoff from Vnukovo Airport. The Superjet-100 aircraft had just departed Moscow on its way to Batumi in Georgia, when the pilot was alerted to the problem, according to Russian telegram channels. He requested an emergency return to Vnukovo Airport, which was placed on a “blue alert” code.
The plane landed safely and the passengers were allowed to disembark. No casualties were reported.
Video later emerged of engineers inspecting the damage, which affected both sides of the engines.
An engineer said: “Here it is completely f***ed up. And here it is the same thing. What a f***ing mess.”
Azimuth Airlines suffered a similar incident with another SSJ100 aircraft two years ago. A plane lost its engine flaps as it took off from the town of Mineralnye Vody in the Stavropol region of Russia.
Russia is struggling to find spare parts for its fleet of foreign-made planes due to biting Western sanctions. The lack of spare parts for planes would appear to be having a serious effect on safety.
Russian Telegram channels claimed that in just the past week, at least seven aircraft have either experienced in-flight malfunctions or were unable to depart due to technical issues.
Sergei Chemezov, a close Putin ally and former KGB colleague, has warned that Russian companies may have to retire large parts of their plane fleets due to Western sanctions.
At least 200 of the remaining Western planes operated by Russian carriers will need to be replaced with domestically produced aircraft by 2030, the head of the defence conglomerate Rostec told a congress of Russian entrepreneurs.
The real number may be even higher, he said, noting that Rostec is just starting its talks with airlines to assess the state of their fleets.
Chemezov’s remarks suggest that nearly 30% of Russia’s Western-built passenger planes could be grounded within the next five years.
In 2023, passengers on board a Ural Airlines’ Airbus A320 had a lucky escape when the plane ran out of fuel and the pilots had to make a forced landing on an open field near Kamenka.
The plane had 159 passengers and 6 crew on board, and was on its way to Omsk from Sochi. Miraculously there were no fatalities or injuries.