Aviation risks on the rise in Russia
Russian aviation endured a weekend of near misses, with laser attacks, birds and engine failure endangering passenger jets. In Rostov-na-Donu a Boeing jet arriving from Moscow was targeted by a laser beam in another attempt to dazzle pilots as they came in to land on Saturday evening. The crew managed to land the plane, and its 95 passengers, safely despite a green beam interfering with their vision.
Moreover, the pilots managed to establish that the light was pointed from Voroshilovsky area of the city, passing on the information to the police, who are now investigating.
The investigators are now looking for an “unidentified person who blinded the plane with a laser,” head of local police press service Alexei Polyansky told Interfax.
“The police are checking the possible location of the perpetrators. No one has been arrested yet,” Polyansky said.
Fashionable lasers
There has been a series of attempts to blind pilots landing in Rostov na Donu recently, and more than 30 overall in Russia in 2011, Rosaviation counted.
Attempts to blind the pilots of planes landing in Rostov na Donu were made on June 3 and 7, and on June, 24 two planes were hit by a laser beam when landing in Rostov na Donu at 10 and 11 pm. Both planes were landed safely.
A plane landing in Moscow’s Domodedovo on June, 22 was also targeted.
Vulture causes emergency landing Passengers of Vladivostok Avia’s Airbus A-320 en-route to Krasnodar had a lucky escape after the plane had to conduct an emergency landing in Novosibirsk Tolmachevo airport.
A vulture was sucked into the aircraft’s engine, causing the whole plane to shudder violently, Novosibirsk transport prosecutors established. The pilots decided to return to Novosibirsk airport, and after circling for some time to use up all the fuel, landed safely. Nobody among the 158 passengers and crew on board was injured. The passengers had been taken to Krasnodar with a reserve plane, the company’s press service told RIA Novosti.
Prosecutors probe Yekaterinburg failure
In a third incident a technical fault in the engine of a Tu-154 jet forced it to make an emergency landing shortly after it took off from Yekaterinburg. The flight, bound for Mineralniye Vody with 116 passengers on board, landed safely at Koltsovo airport. Now experts are working to establish the cause of the problems. Tupolev jets, such as the Tu-154, have come under frequent criticism for being too old to fly. Following a fatal crash in Petrozavodsk involving a Tu-134 aircraft there have been renewed calls for Soviet-era planes to be junked.
