“The Federal Air Transport Agency will now be responsible for these aircraft”
On March 13, the aviation authorities of Bermuda “grounded” almost the entire fleet of Russian aircraft, temporarily suspending their airworthiness certificate. Our newspaper wrote more than once that this could happen sooner or later. And now the moment has come. Meanwhile, according to official data, more than 700 aircraft on which we flew have Bermuda jurisdiction.
How such a decision will turn out for us, “MK” was explained by a high-ranking representative of the Russian aviation industry (I don’t name my last name, since there are already examples of the dismissal of aviation officials who inadvertently spoke out on similar topics).
– If our planes are registered in Bermuda, – the interlocutor of MK explained, – this means that the Bermuda authorities are responsible for their airworthiness. Now the Bermuda authorities have announced that due to the sanctions against us, they can no longer control the technical condition of our aircraft. They do not have the opportunity to come here, what to see, evaluate the aircraft. And planes cannot fly to them, since the entire airspace is closed. As a result, they are forced to suspend the operation of all machines that they have registered. From this moment – specifically from 02:59 March 13 Moscow time – they are considered non-flying and do not have the right to be in the air.
According to the expert, the Russian authorities, as stated, were engaged in the transfer of these aircraft to Russian jurisdiction, and such a decision by the Bermuda administration certainly interfered with these plans. Apparently, these aircraft are transferred from the Bermuda registry to the Russian one, without the consent of the leasing companies that own these aircraft. In fact, they planned to confiscate them. Which is certainly a necessary measure, simultaneously violating all international flight agreements.
The Federal Air Transport Agency will now be responsible for these aircraft, – the expert explains. – But at the same time, it should be borne in mind that now we will be completely unaware of what new airworthiness directives Boeing or Airbus will issue. Perhaps they will require something to be completed, something to be corrected in the design of their machines – this is a common practice. We will not know anything about this, since they will not send us any documents. We will fly at our own risk, and this, of course, is a very dangerous business. So you can, of course, hold out for some time, while all these spare parts are within the limits of validity. But as soon as their working deadlines come out, there will be big problems.
Up to this point, the interlocutor of MK believes, everything was fine with us so far, we did not violate anything. But now, in fact, we are deliberately going to violate international flight practice, which can lead to even more serious consequences for us. For example, in ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) we can be reminded of everything that we have not done before.
– And after all, how many years, starting from 2013, have we been unable to develop and adopt a state flight safety program? – reminds the expert. – At one time it was such that we were forgiven, the deadlines for its adoption were postponed. Then the pandemic began, now the war, and, it must be understood that, apparently, for more than a year, we will not report to ICAO with this program now? But just for not accepting this program, we could have been excommunicated from normal aviation practice several years ago. And now all these flaws of ours can come up and we can go sideways. We will be declared malicious violators and will be required to be declared a rogue country in general, which is generally allowed to fly anywhere. And not only on foreign leased aircraft, but even on our superjets, as they will say that we do not comply with any ICAO regulations. This is all very serious. After all, already now the measures announced by Bermuda have deprived us of the opportunity to fly. True, we still have aircraft that are registered in Ireland. Ireland has not yet announced anything of the kind. But, apparently, will announce. And we’ll only have a few planes left to fly. This suggests that it is required to immediately put into operation all those own aircraft that we once put out of action. This is primarily: IL-96-300. Tu-204 and Tu-214.