Airplane crash near Kyiv. Five dead

In the morning of June 10 aircraft L-410 made a crash landing due to heavy rain and strong winds not far from the town of Borodianka. The plane is the property of the Ukrainian School of Pilots. There were 16 parachutists and two crew members on the plane. Unfortunately, during the landing five people died, three are in serious condition, the others were taken to hospital with injuries of varying degrees of complexity. According to reports, the crew of the aircraft has had experience in flying airplanes – had more than 12,000 flying hours. Investigative commission and traffic prosecution will work to find out why despite a storm warning the plane took off.

This tragic accident once again gives rise to the talk about whether it is possible to improve safety level of airplane flights in Ukraine in present conditions and how should it be done. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), performance level of safety of flights in Ukraine is much lower than the average world indices. Information agency “Ukrainian News” quoted the ICAO: “From 1998 through 2007 there were 16 plane crashes, 31 accidents, and 76 serious incidents recorded in Ukrainian civil aviation.”

COMMENTARY

Oleh KORSHUNOV, honored test navigator:

“Aviation accidents were a part of humankind existence since the birth of aviation. There have always been such cases and, unfortunately, they continue to happen. There can be lots of different reasons for such accidents, including unprofessional crew members, technical staff, and air traffic control land services.

“The process of improving safety level of flights is very time consuming. It requires painstaking work in all directions and enormous material investments. In other words, there is need for training people, fixing airports, equipment, and reliable airplanes. Today there are no such design-engineering departments as ‘Tupolev,’ ‘Yakovlev,’ ‘Ilyushyn,’ and others equally famous. In Ukraine we still have Antonov design-engineering deparment, which manufactures aircraft products and constructs totally competitive new aircrafts. However, at the same time, this is not enough. All accompanying infrastructure – aircraft fleet, airports, and equipment need to be modernized. We need to improve the level of training of all specialists. The thing is that Ukraine and Russian Federation being the successors of all that was left as a heritage from the Soviet Union, unfortunately, did not adopt the positive experience gained during the time of development of aviation as an industry branch, which occupies an important place in the infrastructure of any state. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the funding for the aircraft industry was dramatically reduced, aircraft fleet was divided among smaller airlines, even though its operation requires large investments, and many flying schools were closed. In the few schools that still exist, flight training for cadets was reduced to almost nothing. As a result there is a dramatic reduction in the number of young professionals so much needed by aviation companies, and their level of training has decreased significantly. The connection between generations is being terminated as aviation veterans massively retire and there are no young specialists coming into profession. And in aviation, unlike anywhere else, mentoring is highly valued.”