Executive Director of the Aviaport agency Oleg Panteleev on flight safety

The number of accidents, accidents and incidents in air transport in 2022 did not increase compared to 2021. It was possible to maintain the level of safety in 2023, despite the increase in passenger traffic and the number of flights. The industry, with “moral strength” and with the support of the government, was able to adapt to new conditions.

Naturally, the question immediately arises as to how much one can trust official data on the number of incidents, including in the context of a sharp reduction in inspections by regulators. In the segment of so-called small aviation and especially during aerial work, there has traditionally been a high level of concealment of incidents, and the situation here has hardly improved much.

However, in long-haul aviation it is objectively difficult to hide an incident: an emergency landing cannot be hidden, and a complete decoding of objective control means means that any failure or malfunction will become known. Finally, there are passengers with cell phones and citizen reporters on every flight. So there is no reason to doubt the reliability of data on the number of incidents on main lines.

But, alas, even good statistics for a couple of years do not provide grounds for an optimistic forecast: the observation base is too short, so what is happening should not be perceived as the emergence of a long-term positive trend. Sanctions have made life much more difficult for airlines, and the industry is spending a lot of resources to overcome them. It is required to create and constantly update spare parts supply chains, fill component warehouses, and master independent diagnostics and repairs. All this has multiplied the load on airline divisions and their intermediaries.

The risks have increased exponentially. In order to successfully counter them, further efforts in the field of safety need to be made by everyone: regulators, aircraft manufacturers, developers who have replaced Western companies, and the operators themselves.

The airline industry has hit back at critics who say Western planes, lacking official developer support, cannot be considered safe. It is more correct to say that such aircraft cannot be considered a priori dangerous. The country’s authorities can assign a certain amount of functions to national organizations: design bureaus, maintenance and repair organizations, and the world community will take note of this position.

Key question: do domestic organizations have the necessary competencies? Russian airlines have been using Western fleets for a long time and have learned a lot. Two years have shown that in many ways we have become truly independent and independent.

Does this mean that we can refuse to interact with the West on issues related to flight safety? Until 2022, Russian aviation authorities were criticized that our aviation rules were not sufficiently harmonized with international ones. At that time, harmonization was important primarily for promoting Russian aircraft on the world market; now its relevance has decreased.

But the practical aspect of familiarizing Russian operators and developers with international regulations and best practices remains important. We can do without the services of foreign engineers, but in no case should we neglect global experience and advanced foreign developments in the field of flight safety.

Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the Aviaport agency