Sukhoi Boss Defends Plane as Investigation Continues

A Russian aerospace executive has defended the reputation of the Sukhoi Superjet SSJ100 regional airliner, days after Indonesian safety officials issued recommendations to Russian industry to study how pilots prepare for undertaking display flights.

That follows the fatal crash of a Superjet SSJ100 in Indonesia on May 9 in which 45 people died during a display flight.

“We have received no recommendations regarding technical deficiencies in the aircraft from the Indonesian authorities,” said Sukhoi Civil Aviation’s First Vice President Igor Vinogradov.

“The immediate recommendations from Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) contain no recommendations for SSJ100 operations, above those which are already in the existing documentation,” he said. “Development of the aircraft as a whole is going ahead – this is a natural process,” he added.

He dismissed speculation that the aircraft’s navigation or air conditioning systems had somehow contributed to the crash.

“The commission established that there were no failures in the aircraft’s systems which could have lead to a catastrophe. There was an instance of an indication of a failure in a conditioning unit, but the back-up unit worked perfectly,” he said.

“Before the demonstration tour, information about the terrain relief was fed into the aircraft’s computerized Terrain Awareness Warning System (TAWS), and information about the terrain was also put on maps given to all the crew. Navigation information from the Jeppesen database was installed in the aircraft’s flight management system and tested,” he said.

Vinogradov noted that customers had not turned away from the SSJ as a result of the crash.

“Straight after the incident in Indonesia, Transaero, one of the leaders in the business here in Russia, ordered six of the aircraft,” he said. “We are continuing work on getting Indonesian certification for the aircraft which we hope to complete by the end of the year,” he added.

“It’s a big credit to the plane that in spite of what happened, none of our clients have lost interest in the plane. For example, Mexican airline Interjet is looking at buying a number of the planes. I’m confident that we’ll soon be signing new orders for the aircraft,” Vinogradov said.

 

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