Russian airline UTair has suspended its maintenance contract for foreign produced aircraft with UTair Technic, at Vnukovo, Surgut and Tyumen airports, the airline announced on Monday.
“Work on the aircraft maintenance has been transferred to other contractors of UTair airline, domestic companies S7 Engineering and Technic Vostok Services (Vnukovo airport), and to western [company] Nayak,” the statement said.
The change took place over the weekend on May 26 and 27 and did not affect the flight schedule, the company noted.
Russian Transport watchdog, Rostransnadzor, found four UTair aircraft had not been de-iced during freezing weather conditions, and advised UTair to suspend the activities of UTair Technic at Vnukovo on April 9.
An UTair ATR 72 crashed on April 2, on a flight from Tyumen in Western Siberia to Surgut. Thirty two people died in the crash, with eleven others severely injured. Ice was considered a key factor in the crash.