Corruption, Incompetence Behind Deadly Sheremetyevo Crash, Aviation Expert Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 5 – Yury Sytnik, a former military pilot and a member of the Presidential Commission on the Development of Aviation, says that the deadly crash and fire of the SSJ-100 plane at Sheremetyevo airport was entirely predictable because the plane was poorly designed, the result of corruption and incompetence.

            According to him, the model of the plane was unsuitable for flight, as evidenced by the fact that it has suffered several serious disasters in the past and not been modified (dailystorm.ru/news/v-aviakomissii-pri-prezidente-korrupciyu-nazvali-prichinoy-pozhara-superjet-v-sheremetevo   and lenta.ru/news/2019/05/06/no/).

            Using unprintable language reflecting his anger about this, Sytin tells journalists that he has been warning about this for the past decade, but “people buy tickets” and those in pursuit of profit are only too willing to put planes on line which should not be there. “People are buying their own deaths,” he continues.

            That comes on top of widespread corruption in this sector and the desire of many in it to “pocket” as much budget money as they can, even if that means that the products are defective, Sytin says.  And those in charge are incompetent to do their jobs: After all, he says, “a journalist is guiding us into the cosmos!” 

            The aviation expert says it would be far better to modernize reliable Soviet-era planes than to try to make brand new ones, given the problems in the branch.  But apparently there isn’t as much money to be made doing that.  And so in the pursuit of money, Russian plane manufacturers are creating death traps no one should use.

            And this is not just his opinion, Sytin says.  The International Aviation Committee was warned five years ago about serious problems with the Sukhoi Superjet 100, the plane that has  cost the lives of so many people in Moscow (aex.ru/news/2014/2/3/116389/).

                The aviation expert doesn’t say in this interview at least another cause lying behind both the corruption and the incompetence in this branch: Vladimir Putin’s drive for import substitution.  After the collapse of Soviet power, Russian airliners increasingly turned to Boeings and Airbuses as their planes. The Kremlin leader has called for Russian planes instead.

            As these linkages become clear, there will be yet another reason for Russians not to have confidence in their current ruler.