MOSCOW—Russia, once a global aviation power, has become the most dangerous country in which to board an airliner.
Investigations of nine commercial plane crashes this year, including one that killed an entire professional hockey team, found a raft of gross violations and errors, such as drunk or sedated flight crews, forged safety documents and panicked pilots. In one crash, the navigator used the wrong guidance equipment and aimed his jetliner at a tree, far from the runway.
“I don’t know what else has to happen for the recognition of this systemic crisis to reach the entire aviation community,” said Deputy Transport Minister Valery Okulov, a former chief executive of national airline Aeroflot, at an emergency industry meeting in October, according to a report in a state-run newspaper. A ministry spokeswoman declined to confirm that account and said Mr. Okulov wasn’t available for comment.
Russian fatalities and crashes, adjusted for air-traffic volumes, this year exceed those in less developed countries with longstanding safety problems, including Congo and Indonesia, according to aviation consultants Ascend in London.
Eight of the nine crashes involved Soviet-era planes. But many safety experts say the real problem isn’t aging equipment but ineffective regulation, inefficiently small airlines and poorly trained pilots not following modern safety procedures.
Just two years ago, Russia appeared to be an air-safety success story. Following a string of crashes early last decade, the government in 2006 accepted international help to boost safety at its biggest global carriers like Aeroflot and Transaero. By 2009, Russia had no fatal crashes. Since then, accidents have surged amid rising traffic at small, domestic airlines that were largely overlooked by the safety campaign.
The Russian air crashes highlight a nagging problem for the global aviation industry and show the limits of generally successful efforts to cut the danger of air travel. A major reason for the world-wide drop in accidents over recent years is that most big countries cut their tolerance for safety lapses—at their own carriers and on foreign airlines. A critical weakness in this system of nations watching each others’ backs, experts concede, is domestic aviation in countries where people tend to overlook risks.
In heartland Russia, for example, many pilots and airplane mechanics show little concern for basic safety rules that have become second nature elsewhere. Domestic carriers operate under national regulations that are much weaker than global rules that Russia’s international carriers face. Falsification is common, down to widespread use of counterfeit spare parts, Russian officials say.
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