MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - The Federal Agency for Industry will comply with a decision to ground Il-96-300 airliners, agency head Boris Alyoshin said Monday.
"It is extremely difficult to support the aviation authorities' decision to suspend these planes from service," Alyoshin said. "But this decision has been made and we will observe it."
On Monday, the Federal Service for Transport Supervision suspended IL-96-300 planes from flying due to flight safety problems after a series of brake problems affected planes in August, the Transportation Ministry said.
Alyoshin added that the problems with the Il-96-300 were not linked with design flaws.
"A manufacturing defect and the conditions of the plane's operation (which affected its braking system) rather than a mistake in the design are the most probable explanation," Alyoshin said.
The ministry said the brake failures this month were not the first.
Airlines operating these planes have frequently called for the braking components and parts to be improved, but received no response.
The Il-96-300 long-range passenger airliner developed by the Ilyushin design bureau is designed for flights of 11,000 km (about 7,000 miles) and has been in operation since 1992. It can carry up to 300 passengers and 40 metric tons of cargo.
