Rostransnadzor found out about flights of aircraft in Russia with expired spare parts

Last year, Rostransnadzor identified about 2,000 flights performed on foreign aircraft equipped with expired spare parts. This was announced by the head of the service, Viktor Basargin, during a speech at the State Duma Committee on Transport on May 16, writes “Kommersant”.

“Numerous facts of operation of aviation equipment with violations that directly affect flight safety are recorded. For example, admission to the operation of components with an expired resource. In total, more than 2,000 such flights have been recorded,” he said, without specifying whether it was commercial or all types of air transportation.

At the same time, according to Basargin, despite the operation of aircraft with expired parts, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) recognized the past year as the best in terms of flight safety in Russia over the past five years.

As noted by the source of the publication in the Ministry of Transport, risk assessment methods differ between Rosaviatsia and Rostransnadzor. At the same time, major airlines denied the use of obsolete spare parts. They admitted that Rostransnadzor “could count batteries or accumulators.”

Former head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko saidthat Western aircraft of Russian airlines can “fly safely” until 2030, provided that work is carried out to maintain their airworthiness. The head of the Federal Air Transport Agency emphasized that an aircraft is considered serviceable, “which has a reserve of resource, all the comments have been eliminated on board and for which the relevant documentation has been drawn up.”

At the end of February 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions against Russia in response to a special operation in Ukraine. In particular, the sanctions provide for a ban on the sale of aircraft, components and equipment to Russian airlines. Until the end of March 2022, foreign leasing companies had to take their aircraft from Russian operators, but the government ordered return them only by decision of the government commission on import substitution. As a result, a significant part of the aircraft remained in Russia – they carry out transportation within the country.