Face-sitting safety accident on poorly maintained Russian plane

• Aviation safety accidents in Russia have more than doubled since the Ukraine war began.
• According to the Jet Aircraft Accident Data and Evaluation Center, there will be 81 accidents in 2023, up from 37 in 2022.
• The crippling sanctions have made it difficult for airlines to buy parts to maintain their planes.

Aviation safety incidents in Russia have more than doubled in the past year as airlines struggle to maintain aircraft amid crippling economic sanctions.

According to the Jet Aircraft Collision Data and Evaluation Center (JACDEC), there were 81 safety incidents in Russia last year, compared to 37 in 2022.

“These numbers reflect only publicized cases. There are still dark numbers of unreported cases,” JACDEC founder and CEO Jan-Arwed Richter said on Monday. He told the Telegraph in an article published in .

Russia has been grappling with economic sanctions from Western countries since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Sanctions also make it difficult for the country’s airlines to procure new aircraft and parts to maintain them.

Aviation analyst Andrei Menshenin told the Telegraph that the sanctions would affect “almost all types of aircraft used in Russian civil aviation.”

Due to parts shortages, Russia is turning to unorthodox methods to keep planes in the air. The country received more than $14 million worth of U.S. aircraft parts through the black market in 2022.

In addition to smuggling, Russia created a “Frankenstein fleet” by cannibalizing spare parts from grounded jets.

However, such methods are not without risks.

In August, two Boeing 777s operated by Russian airline Red Wings were unable to take off in Turkey due to technical problems. The delay left hundreds of Russian tourists stranded for at least two days.

And the following month, a Ural Airlines Airbus A320 passenger plane had to make an emergency landing in an open field in Siberia due to a hydraulic system failure.

Representatives from Russia’s Federal Air Transport Administration did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment outside of normal business hours.