Aircrew fail dope test

Investigations are underway after a flight captain and cabin attendant were found to have traces of marijuana in the blood prior to a Yakutia airlines flight from Magadan to Moscow on October 21.

“The condition of the ship’s captain, second pilot and fight attendant raised the suspicions of personnel at medical control – they had an increased pulse rate and raised blood pressure,” said Alexander Bugakov, head of the Northeast Interregional Territorial Administration of Rosaviatia, Interfax reported on Wednesday, citing authorities.

“The entire crew was suspended from flying the plane.” The results of blood tests cleared the co-pilot on Nov. 8. The airline denies that the crew was involved in any wrong doing.

Russia will have to purchase planes from abroad - Medvedev

The quantity of airlines in Russia must be cut considerably, whereas the training of pilots should be controlled strictly, Russia's Dmitry Medvedev stated.

On September 8, the president visited the crash site of the Yak-42 plane in Yaroslavl, which claimed the lives of 43 people - Lokomotiv hockey players and the crewmembers. Afterwards, Medvedev conducted a special meeting, in which he gave harsh assessments to the condition of the Russian aviation.

According to Medvedev, the number of airlines in the country must be cut considerably, in the shortest time possible. "We have to finally look into how our air carriers work. We have said before that there are many of them, but I have not seen the decisions about the merger or liquidation," Medvedev said.

It does not go about the most recent air crash, Medvedev said. "There are no reasons yet to make any conclusions. I am talking about the situation in general. We must keep the airlines that are physically and financially capable of servicing the air fleet, attracting qualified personnel and paying good salaries," Medvedev said.

The head of the Ministry for Transport, Igor Levitin, said during the meeting that all Russian airlines working on regular routes will have to possess not less than ten aircraft with over 50 seats from 2012. The number of required aircraft will be raised to 20 from 2013.

There are nearly 130 airlines operating in Russia nowadays, the minister said. However, 85 percent of transportations are conducted by only ten airlines. The remaining 15 percent of transportations are performed by small airlines that operate on local routes and charter flights.

Medvedev said that all air crashes that have taken place in Russia in 2011, occurred to the aircraft of small air carriers.

"The statistics shows that small companies control their fleet poorly because of the lack of funds and personnel," the president said.

Medvedev also spoke about the need to renew the air fleet in the country. First priority must be attached to the safety of passengers, rather than to the interests of the domestic aviation industry.

"There is a problem of the air fleet, and the government, as it appears, will have to make a difficult decision. The value of human life must be placed higher than special observations about the support of the home industry," the president said.

"We have to think about our companies, of course. But if they are unable to promote themselves, then we will have to purchase equipment from abroad," the president said. "This will have to be a large program with big money involved," he added.

The questions of civil aviation flights safety have been discussed repeatedly before. There were serious decisions made, considerable funds have been invested, but the situation has not improved, Medvedev admitted.

"We can see that from the series of air accidents that we've had this year," he said.

"The results of the technical and juridical investigation of the reasons of the Yak-42 crash must be used for the decisions that we will make in the future. We must change the state of affairs in the home civil aviation industry. We will have to acquire state-of-the-art transport in spite of the fact that it will cost a lot for the budget," the president said.

Medvedev also urged the Ministry for Transport and other field-specific departments to pay serious attention to the level of training provided for the pilots of civil aviation. "We have problems with that too," he said.

"One has to check the professional qualities of the crews in each and every airline, because I've heard a lot of eye-opening stories about it," Medvedev said.

"Those who are not ready to work will have to go. The human factor, which is much talked about during such accidents, exists everywhere, and our country is not an exception. As a rule, this factor plays the leading role, but we have to do our best to minimize it," Medvedev said.

The president also stressed out that the investigation of the air crash near Yaroslavl must be open. "The results of the investigation must be delivered to me personally. This is a serious tragedy. Everything must be open and transparent about it," he said.

Ukraine To Represent The New Generation Passenger Jet At 49th Le Bourget Air Show

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine is going to showcase a new generation passenger regional jet An-158 at the 49th International Paris Air Show Le Bourget on June 20-26, 2011.

The key features of the new exhibit include the ability to land on the various types of ground under zero visibility conditions.

The main Ukrainian exhibit to participate in the demonstration flights at Le Bourget Air Show will be the An-158 passenger regional jet (previously referred to as An-148-200).

The aircraft with a range of 2,5-3,1 thousand km is an upgraded version of An-148 with stretched fuselage that may accommodate 99 passengers.

Also, compared to the previous models, this one received additional wingtip fences.

The machine is equipped with D-436-148 engine designed by the state owned Ivchenko Progress and produced by Ukrainian JSC Motor-Sich.

The key features of the plane's design include the placing of the craft's engines high, making it possible to land even in the snowdrifts and on the ground if there is no runway.

The participating companies from Ukraine are the state-owned AntonovAeronautical Scientist/Technical Complex, Ivchenko Progress, JSC Motor-Sich, PA Yuzhmash, Yuzhnoe SDO, the State Space Agency of Ukraine, State Corporation Vector, state company Ukrspecexport.

An-158 is certified by International Civil Aviation Organization to land under zero visibility conditions (ICAO category III approach).

The plane also acquired an Interstate Aviation Committee certificate.

The first flight of the plane was successfully completed on April 28, 2010.

About 20 units of the new plane have already been preordered by a number of international companies.

Currently, AntonovAeronautical Scientist/Technical Complex is launching a serial production of An-158, with an aim to hit the market by the end of the year and build over 100 planes by 2020.

The Paris Air Show, officially titled Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, Paris-Le Bourget, is considered to be the biggest world air show while being the oldest one (established in 1909) at the same time.

It is held at the Le Bourget Airport in Paris every odd year in June and is dedicated to aeronautics and space conquest.

Every other year hundreds of thousands (estimated 390 thousand visitors in 2009) attend the show where the latest achievements in the aircraft industry are displayed.

Hundreds Miss Sheremetyevo Flights Because of Road Work

A small bridge drew enormous attention Thursday when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stepped in to resolve a traffic deadlock that has paralyzed the main highway northwest of Moscow.

Leningradskoye Shosse has been reduced to two lanes because of emergency road repairs where it crosses over railroad tracks in Khimki, just outside Moscow. The resulting traffic jams have led to hundreds of people missing their flights from Sheremetyevo Airport, causing losses of more than 1.6 million euros ($2 million) for Aeroflot.

“If passengers can’t fly out of Sheremetyevo, then this is a problem,” Putin said at a meeting of the presidium.

Putin ordered Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov to work with local authorities to resolve the situation.

The deadlock has prompted the Transportation Ministry to hold a special meeting with Moscow and Moscow region authorities to develop a rescue strategy. Transportation Minister Igor Levitin, who flew out of the capital Wednesday to hold a meeting in Khabarovsk, was forced to take a public train to the airport, Aeroflot deputy director Andrei Kalmykov said.

Aeroflot, Russia’s largest carrier, lost about 700,000 euros because of the traffic on Monday — the first day of the unannounced weekend road closure, causing 1,300 people to miss their flights — and is currently losing about 400,000 euros daily, Kalmykov told reporters Thursday.

Other airlines that fly out of Sheremetyevo include as Delta Air Lines, Air France and Alitalia.

Sheremetyevo director Mikhail Vasilenko said on his blog Wednesday that City Hall had intentionally blocked off the roads in order to undermine Sheremetyevo and support rival airport Vnukovo, which is opening a new terminal in July.

Vasilenko sent a complaint to the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, which has opened an investigation into whether the traffic problems are linked with the Vnukovo terminal opening.

“In a normal economy, this would be an abnormal situation,” said Andrei Golomozin, the service’s deputy director, Interfax reported. “Those who are responsible should be punished. I am not sure whether it will fall into the realm of anti-monopoly law.”

“An intervention by the country’s top officials will normalize everything quickly.” Vasilenko said Thursday.

In the meantime, Sheremetyevo and its carriers are advising their passengers to use the Aeroexpress train, which connects the airport with Moscow’s Belorussky Station.

It’s not clear, however, whether the train will be able to handle a large influx of additional passengers. Over the past week, daily passenger volume has already increased from 9,000 to 15,000 people, and there are not enough seats between 7 and 8 a.m., as well as between 5 and 6 p.m., Aeroexpress spokeswoman Yelena Frolova said.

The company has requested 20 additional train cars from Russian Railways, but “it will take some time to get them ready,” she said, adding that Aeroexpress was not warned about road construction and impending traffic delays.

Sheremetyevo Airport served 6.57 million passengers in the first five months of 2010, it said last week, or more than 43,000 passengers per day.

Tourist operators have asked that construction be pushed back until after summer high season because the train is not capable of handling all of the passengers.

“People who come to the station have to rush onto the train … and tourists with luggage and children have had to walk home,” the Russian Association of Tour Operators said in a letter to Mayor Yury Luzhkov. The quickest that someone can drive to Sheremetyevo from the city center is four to six hours, the letter said.

The traffic police said Thursday that the situation was being monitored around the clock but that conditions can’t be improved by directing traffic.

“It would be difficult,” traffic police head Viktor Kiryanov told Interfax. It’s possible “only if you make a small helicopter and transport everyone by air.”

The Prosecutor General’s Office has also begun investigating the traffic jam and safety in the area, it said on its web site.

So far, it looks as though no actual repair work is being done on the blockaded area of the highway.

Moscow’s housing and utilities department told Vremya Novostei on Thursday that road workers were waiting to receive a train schedule from Russian Railways, which operates the railway under the bridge, before getting to work.

Nevertheless, Moscow authorities have denied all responsibility for the traffic jams.

Two lanes are sufficient to service drivers and buses, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov told reporters Thursday, adding that the road was blocked off on orders from the Federal Transportation Inspection Service.

Besides, Biryukov said, the bridge is on Moscow region territory, and the city had to take responsibility for the bridge because repairs haven’t been done for 50 years.

The Moscow region’s top transportation official, Pyotr Katsyv, said Thursday that the region was ready to take responsibility for the bridge if City Hall repaired it first or provided money for the repairs.

The situation illustrates the ineptitude of officials to handle Moscow’s worsening traffic conditions, said analyst Mikhail Blinkin.

“A trivial issue of repairing an old bridge has developed into an emergency situation impacting the entire city,” he said. “Everyone has known since 2000 that the bridge needs to be renovated,” and a bypass could have been built to provide for additional traffic capacity.

Ukraine airline to resume flights on April 18

Ukraine International Airlines plans to resume international flights from Kyiv at 12 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Apr.18, a spokesman for the air company said.

UIA, the biggest Ukrainian international airline, on Saturday cancelled flights from Kyiv to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich, Rome, London, Vienna, Berlin and Brussels, as well as a number of charter flights

Ukraine Airport Arrivals To Walk Mats Soaked With Disinfectant

KIEV, Ukraine -- Air travelers arriving in Ukraine from countries hit by the swine flu virus must exit their plane across mats saturated with disinfectants, according to Health Ministry instructions going into effect on Tuesday. The anti-virus pathways are to be at the exits of aircraft arriving from Mexico and the US, government officials said.
All plane arriving on Ukrainian soil from Central and North America will receive "intensified health inspections," government spokesman Mykola Kornienko said, according to Fakty newspaper.Ukraine's leading airline Aerosvit on Tuesday issued medical masks and gloves to air crew traveling on routes linking with the US and Mexico, to be used in assisting passengers showing signs of flu infection.Air crew working Aerosvit's popular New York-Kiev route by government order must indentify to authorities at Kiev's main airport Boryspil the names of all passengers aboard displaying symptoms including fever or chronic cough, Kornienko said.Similar measures will go into effect in other Ukrainian airports servicing international routes, said Vasyl Kniazevich, Ukraine's Health Minister, at a Kiev press conference.A total ban on import into Ukraine of live pigs from any country and of raw pork products from Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, and some US states also was in effect, Sehodnia newspaper reported.Ukraine's government had no supplies of swine flu vaccine, and so was recommending increased vitamin C intake, non-consumption of imported pork products, and avoiding crowds, as the best ways for Ukrainians to avoid infection, said Oleh Nazar, a Kiev city health official.

Aeroflot Backs Away From S7 Merger Talk

Aeroflot is not considering a merger with S7, Aeroflot chief financial officer Mikhail Poluboyarinov said Monday as he reported that the airline's profit for the first nine months of 2008 had dropped 57 percent. "We have analyzed the financial condition of S7 and determined that there is nothing to merge with," Poluboyarinov said at a news conference, Interfax reported. The state-controlled airline made its interest in S7 public at the end of October, when Aeroflot head Valery Okulov sent a letter to the Transportation Ministry asking the government to transfer its 25.5 percent stake in S7 to Aeroflot as a first step in a merger in the interest of "consolidating domestic flights." The debt being carried by S7 and asset transfers with subsidiary Globus Airlines likely played a part in Aeroflot's decision to step back. Short-term loans taken out by the company worth 2.4 billion rubles ($84.7 million) come due in December and January, said Dmitry Baranov, an analyst with Finam Management. "It makes no sense for Aeroflot to pick up more debt right now," Baranov said. National Reserve Corporation, which is owned by Alexander Lebedev, holder of a blocking stake in Aeroflot, got a margin call from Deutsche Bank on Friday on a loan backed by shares in the airline. On Saturday, Lebedev said the blocking stake was safe. While Aeroflot's interest in an S7 merger appears to have faded, the company is still open to the possibility of acting as a management company for Malev, which is Hungary's flagship airline. Vneshekonombank is currently examining the airline's financial viability, Poluboyarinov said, adding that Aeroflot was "interested in helping the Russian bank" if it ended up with a stake in the Hungarian carrier. Malev was sold last year to AirBridge, a company owned in part by Boris Abramovich. The Russian businessman purchased 99.5 percent of Malev, with VEB providing up to 102 million euros over 10 years to finance the deal. Reports in the Hungarian media earlier this month said Abramovich was considering selling a 49 percent stake. A VEB spokeswoman confirmed Monday that the bank is taking a look at Malev, but said that any potential deal will involve a minority stake of less than 49 percent, declining to comment on the possibility of any Aeroflot role. "It's too early to say whether the bank will keep financing [Abramovich] according to the arrangement, or choose not to prolong that deal, and thus become the owner," said Natalia Sorokina, an analyst with Uralsib. "If they do the latter, they may look for a managing company, as an airline is not a core asset." The nine-month results posted by Aeroflot on Monday were less than stellar, with net profit falling by $199.5 million, or 56.8 percent, from the same period last year. With the sharp increases in aviation fuel prices this summer, these results were to be expected, said Finam's Baranov. Aeroflot is planning to sign 2.7 billion rubles in loan agreements with Gazprombank and Sberbank this week, Poluboyarinov said.