MOSCOW, November 22 (RIA Novosti) – Aviation authorities in Russia said Friday that the crash of a passenger plane in the city of Kazan last weekend had nothing to do with the age of the craft.
The Interstate Aviation Committee, a supervisory body that oversees civil aviation in several former Soviet states, said in a statement that the age of an aircraft was generally not a key issue in determining safety.
Fifty people died Sunday evening when a Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 plunged into the ground as it was attempting to land in Kazan on its way in from Moscow.
The committee, known in Russian by the initials MAK, said its statistics showed that the number of disasters worldwide involving aircraft with 50 or more seats was the same for both planes less than five years old and those built more than 30 years ago.
MAK said that Boeing planes in Russia are generally no older than those in the West.
It said that according to available information, the average age of US-operated Boeing 737s was 20.4 years, compared with 20.3 years in Europe.
MAK said in its statement that it is continuing to investigate the causes of the November 17 crash.
Preliminary investigations made public so far appear to point to possible pilot error.
Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose Moscow-led political alliance of former Soviet nations that comprises nine members, had the worst overall air safety record in the world in 2011, according to International Air Transport Association data.
While many of Russia’s largest carriers have improved their reputation over recent years, poor airplane maintenance and overly worked pilots are factors that industry experts believe contribute to a high accident rate among regional carriers.
Only 25 airlines in Russia and the CIS have completed the IATA’s safety audit. Tatarstan Airlines is one of them.
