Showing posts with label Saratov Airlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saratov Airlines. Show all posts

01 July, 2019

Pilot error blamed for Saratov Airlines An148 Crash

Russian investigators have published the final report on the February 2018 Saratov Airlines Antonov AN148 crash near Moscow, killing all sixty-five passengers and six crew onboard.

The investigators have said the pilots of the doomed aircraft forgot to switch on the heaters for the airspeed probes and this lead to excessive icing to the probe after taking off and during the initial climb. This, in turn, meant that probe wasn't working properly, giving the flight deck crew wrong airspeed readings, lower than the actual speed the aircraft was going. To increase the speed, the pilots initiated an urgent descent and because the visibility was low, the aircraft crashed into the ground in a steep dive.

18 May, 2018

Saratov Airlines to close

The troubled Saratov Airlines looks ready to close and cease operations at the end of this month, just a little over three months from the tragic crash of one of the Russian carriers Antonov An-148s.

The 86 year-old company has had little choice after Rosaviatsia, the Russian air transport regulator ordered the airline to stop selling and issuing its own tickets as well as those for other companies from the end of this month.


In addition, Rosaviatsia has ordered the airline to make sure all its passengers are repatriated on or before that date and no new flights should be sold if the return date is after the 30th May. However, despite that direction from the authorities, we were able to book a return ticket to Moscow from Saratov travelling in June, earlier this afternoon. 

The airline has failed to cope following the fatal crash of one of its An-148 aircraft just outside Moscow Domodedovo on the 11th February which killed all 71 people onboard. The initial investigation found that despite the snow showers and -5c temperature at Domodedovo airport on the day of the flight, the pilot decided the aircraft should not be de-iced. Analysis of the black boxes showed that pitot tube heaters had not been turned on which resulted in them becoming iced over of blocked and therefore different airspeeds were indicated in the cockpit. One was showing increasing speed, one showing decreasing speed, whilst a third showing no airspeed at all. The aircraft was being flown manually by the pilot when it dived downward. The investigation found the first officer had tried to stop the decent but failed to persuade the captain before the aircraft crashed into the ground.

It's understood that the closure of the airline will result in the loss of 1200 jobs.


12 February, 2018

Saratov Airlines An-148 crashes near Moscow

A Saratov Airlines Antonov An-148 has crashed shortly after departing from Moscow's Domodedovo airport, carrying 65 passengers and 6, there are no survivors. The flight departed at 14.27 local time on Sunday and contact was lost just four minutes into the flight. According to flight tracking the aircraft descended rapidly, at 1000m per minute.


The Saratov Airlines jet disappeared from radar minutes after take-off and crashed near the village of Argunovo, which is approximately 50 miles south-east of Moscow. The Antonov An-148 was en route to the city of Orsk in the Ural mountains.

Pieces of debris, wreckage and bodies were found spread over a large area and at least one of the flight data recorders had been found according to officials at the scene. 

The cause of the disaster is unclear at this stage and investigators and emergency crews are working at the snow-covered site. The snowy weather, mechanical failure, pilot error as well as other more sinister causes are all being considered at this stage of the investigation.

 President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to the victims' families and announced an inquiry into the cause of the crash.

Saratov Airlines comes from, approximately 840km south-east of Moscow and it t was banned from operating international flights in 2015 after a surprise inspection found someone other than the flight crew was in the cockpit.

The airline changed its policy on cockpit visits and appeal the ban before resuming international charter flights during 2016.  The airline mainly operates domestic services between Russian cities, however, it has flown to destinations in Armenia and Georgia.


This article was written for this site by a member of our team 🙋, please do share it with your friends via social media. You are also welcome to post it or republish elsewhere on the 🌎web on the condition that you credit the author and link back to our site. Thank you.

 ♻ We care about the environment, please think twice before you hit ‘print’  

Search