Investigation into Il-76 crash and other evidence prompts licence withdrawal, despite the airline's protests (300 words)

Published: 10/4/2001

The GSGA has cancelled the operating licence of Rus Airlines, suspended since one of the airline's Il-76 crashed on 14th July. According to Victor Rybyakov, General Director of Rus Airlines, the civil aviation agency informed the company that the licence had been cancelled after the investigation into the crash concluded that there had been a number of shortcomings on the part of the airline, including inadequate training of flight crew, substandard pre-flight procedures and overloading. The cancellation comes just one day after the airline complained to the Public Prosecutor's Office that the GSGA had failed to comply with the Moscow Arbitrage Court decision in favour of Rus Airlines on 18th September, lifting the suspension of the airline's operating licence. Rybyakov claims that the ministry's latest actions are illegal and the company plans to take further action through the courts against the GSGA's decision. He also said that, on 20th September, Rus Airlines' employees had made a claim against the GSGA's investigation team on the basis that it prevented the airline from doing business. Victor Gorlov, the head of aircraft airworthiness department at the GSGA and deputy head of investigation team on the crash stands by the legality of the cancellation of the carrier's licence. He says that not only was the airline guilty of overloading and other breaches of regulation, but it had also forged documentation on its engines, including an engine written off by the military and then sold by a third party with false papers after overhaul. Gorlov contends that Rus Airlines was responsible for the documentation and the purchase of the engines, and the violations in these areas strongly contributed to the cancellation of the operating licence.

Article ID: 2802