Old aircraft to be withdrawn by Russia
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
14.07.2011 13:58
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov has announced that old Tu-134 and An-24 planes are to be withdrawn from use in regular scheduled flights.
The plan will be set in motion on 1 January 2012, although the Tupolev and Anotonov models may still be used for some non-scheduled flights.
The Tu-134, together with the larger Tu-154 (the model involved in the Smolensk air disaster of 2010), were synonymous with Soviet aviation during the Cold War Era.
The former model was manufactured between 1965 and 1984, but it was abandoned by state-owned Aeroflot, also known as Russian Airlines, in 2008.
The move comes after a Tu-134 crashed in fog last month near the city Petrozavodzk, resulting in the deaths of 45 people. The plane was being used by a private company, RusAir, a firm that has now had its licence suspended.
Likewise, the smaller An-24 model, which was involved in a crash in Siberia earlier this week, is also to be withdrawn. These craft were made between 1959 to 1979, and several hundred are still in use by some twenty airlines in Russia. (nh/jb)
Source: PAP/Pravda