On customer demo flight in Indonesia

Cause unknown yet, speculations about pushing the plane to the limits over mountainous terrain

Rocket_Bird wrote on May 9^th, 2012 at 8:27pm:



Having had an up close and personal look at this aircraft, I hope it does not. It looks like it was assembled by former construction workers at a tank factors deep in Siberia. Saying that, I would not wish this incident on anyone. I have quite a bit of experience dealing with Russians and civil aircraft. They go as well together as Obama canvasing in the Deep South. Russians should stick to Military aircraft and stay well away from building passenger aircraft. In fact I would never knowingly fly on any Russian owned/operated passenger aircraft even if it was a Boeing or an Airbus.

Matt

expat wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 6:37am:


In its time Aeroflot was the biggest airline in the world. I've flown on their Boeings, Airbuses, and even Tupolev-154Ms a few times, right before those were retired. Millions fly on Russian airliners in safety every year. Poor maintenance and pilot error can happen on any airline anywhere in the world. Fact is, the Russian airline industry is all but gone, collapsed along with the USSR. They don't manufacture much of anything these days except cheap-but-effective military hardware. Having flown on many airlines, Aeroflot actually serves the best food, the cute flight attendants are an eyeful, but it's the godawful Russian airports that I dread, certainly the worst in the world. Compared to a dreaded layover at Sheremyetevo airport, flying in their planes is nothing!

No accounting about the south, expat. My Armenian-born wife compares the southern racists and rednecks she has met during our travels with the ignorant Russian oafs she had to deal with at Moscow State University: Loud-mouthed, dumbed down, ambitious-without-qualifications, vindictive, not to mention alcoholic. I guess people are just the same all over. 

I get to look under the floor boards so to say of Russian owned/operated aircraft and have to correct the errors and repairs as more than line maintenance is not approved on Western aircraft or is very hard to get. Any Russian aircraft flying into Europe has to be maintained under EASA part 145 (as do all aircraft). The standards are not high enough to gain this. There are a couple of companies that have managed it, but only for single aircraft types. You cannot fix a Boeing or an Airbus with a hammer, some pop rivets and a couple of screw drivers. Most of the time it is more by luck than judgement serious accidents don't happen and when they do, have you noticed in Russia that it is ALWAYS pilot error?????? Easy to blame the dead than to fix a complete system.

Matt