Is Russian Aviation Becoming Dangerous?! One Year Later. 

Cannibalism is dangerous because many fasteners are designed to for a single installation, and a replacement part comes with everything you can’t re-use. If you pull parts for transfer, you’ll be re-using things that shouldn’t be, and the reason may not be obvious.

If Iran and Venezuela can fly 30 year old commercial planes in heavy sanctions and without problems i don't think Russia would have a problem anytime soon

Boy this reminds me of a warship I was on. It was near the end of its life and certain parts were getting hard to find. We were supposed to do some operations but in engineering they had oil filter caps that needed new bolts. The wait time for it would have made the ship miss the operational schedule and the captain ordered the machine shop to manufacture the bolts, but of course they didn't meet the exact specs. While underway for a few days, that cap blew off. I can tell you that a ship that decommissioned in the early 90s meant older systems and in this case the main drive plant used steam engines and a engine room is hot, so much so that people had to be on a rotational schedule with less than one hour in the space and about 15 minutes out. I'm glad I worked with computer systems. When that cap blew off the engineering space caught fire. Two people died trying to get out because they didn't follow proper procedures for getting out. There is fire fighting equipment in those spaces and they for the most part worked but the fire did burn at a pretty high heat for a while until the space had no more oxygen in it. The ship was able to go back to port using the other engineering room (2 engineering rooms, one for each propeller). That was the end of the ship. It was supposed to have about one more year service but it decommissioned early. Wrong bolts.

In an earlier video, maybe a year ago, you described how an incredibly scary incident happened because a maintenance tech found the wrong screws from the box to fasten the windscreen. This lead to the window popping out and the plane losing cabin pressure, plus one pilot being sucked more than half way out, barely saved by an extra pair of hands in the cockpit grabbing hold of his feet. His head kept banging on the next window - but he survived. 🤕 Using correct parts is IMPORTANT ... 🤔 Thanks for informing us about air traffic safety in all aspects! 👍

I remember; airlines in the US used a lot of non-approved parts 30 years ago. There was a lot of controversy in the industry. Fasteners were particularly problematic.

The maintenance shop where I work as an A&P apprentice takes parts traceability very seriously. No parts make it out onto the shop floor without first being verified and vetted by the guys in the parts department. We've also got strict rules and procedures about component tags. White tags for component identification (parts removed to be reinstalled), green tags for repairable parts (being sent out for refurbishment) and red tags for condemned parts. The FAA takes it seriously as well. We can be cited for something as simple as not filling out all the data blocks on a component tag. Any parts we get as "refurbished" or "as removed" have to have an unbroken chain of documentation for traceability and custody. It's scary to think that those safety guardrails are being so severely loosened in Russia. I feel for the flight crews there that have to fly those aircraft. As a pilot myself, I wouldn't want to take command of an aircraft where maintenance has become such a sketchy grey area.

13:03 hi, mechanic here . these bolts were probably "torque to yield" (aka, torque to a known stretch) and stretching the bolts is PERFECTLY FINE.... the first time . the metal they are made from, is designed to be stretched..... not too far.... but just right this actually improves "clamping force" . it allows a bit of flexibility for when things heat up/cool down, ETC . . however.... once removed.... these bolts dont QUITE return to their original length so if you try and stretch them again.... now it is OVER stretched.... . and over stretched bolts arnt "elastic" anymore.... so instead of having, say, 5000 pounds of clamping force.... that can go from 4000 to 6000 and return to 5000 . now you torque it to 5000.... a re-used TTY bolt....... but it just stretches and stretches.....and might only have 1500 pounds of clamping force . like, if you waited an hour and checked the torque again..... you would have to turn the bolt 1/4 turn OR MORE!!! to get to the same value . . . a new TTY bolt is like a spring a re-used TTY bolt is like a wet noodle . its that simple

I have a friend in Russia, he is aviation maintenance worker in S7 Airlines. He said that they buy every western spare part they need through Turkey and Asia and rest of the world. Smuggling it by grey schemes, and so on. So basically sanction is a joke for them in total, I mean its a deal, but they had adapt and found the ways how to earn parts they need, even learned how to produce something for a western jets. Also, its not enough for future, but I think they will last with jets for a while until Tu-214 and MC-21 come in play.

I'm not surprised that the Leasing companies have given up on those jets. With an obvious decline in parts/maintenance standards, these things are full of potential timebombs and there's no way they'd ever find them all.

Untrustworthy parts in a machine as stringently regulated as a transport aircraft is very much like persistent poisons are to us. For obvious reasons, there is never a list of compromised parts, so they remain in there until something causes them to be replaced. That "something" is often going to be an incident. Once the process of installing unapproved parts begins it is very unlikely the aircraft will ever be certifiably fit for service.

I work in the aircraft maintenance industry and even if you buy parts from directly from the manufacturer, you still need to be careful. We had some part a couple years ago that came straight from GE that had no certifications, looked odd. After an investigation, another customer had bought the part, switched it and sent it back to GE for refund, GE put it back in stock and resold it. Always check twice!

The worst part is this won’t end if the war/sanctions ever end. Think about how many bad parts might have been fit, and how long it’s gonna take to go through these planes and inspect em. And something is bound to get missed, no matter how thorough the inspections.

I’ve received legit certified parts with documentation that still had defects. Obvious things like a whole bag of screws that didn’t have any threads. Lots of parts (like landing lights) are exactly the same as what can be bought at an auto parts store, but with a piece of paper included claiming they had extra inspection. Even though they charge a lot more money for this piece of paper, experience has shown me that it means very little and a close inspection still needs to be done before installation.

All sorts of things happen in maintenance. A Technician was telling me about the maintenance cleaning of some fuel tanks on Concorde - as it was so awkward to get into a tank some Technicians chose to take a rest break in the tank and someone would squeeze a small plastic garden/patio stool into the tank so they could sit down. On one occasion they opened the entry panel to drain the last bit of fuel to find an item of patio furniture floating. I asked him if he reported it and he said "No way". (It had been flying around the world like that for months/years.)

There's a Russian Antonov 124 that's been stuck at Pearson in Toronto ever since the flight ban dropped. It's just parked near the highway and has spent a year racking-up parking fees.

Actually, after the Partnair crash, the FAA started to search for counterfeit parts on all aircraft in the US, and they found a lot of them including in Air Force One

It might be worth noting that *today* an AN-26 and an AN-32 flew *into* Ukraine again with their transponders on after departing from, presumably, helping disaster relief efforts in Turkey, they entered from the north western part of Romania and got perhaps 50 miles into Ukraine before tracking was lost, they seemed to be heading to Lviv

RIP Mriya. i witnessed her on approach in 2013. never forget that beast

I flew Aeroflot between SVO-IST 2 weeks ago on a 777-300. Everything seemed exactly as normal. It can't last indefinitely, of course, and I hope the craziness will soon be over.

Was on a hike yesterday and heard a plane flinging over that I couldn't place. So opend a tracking app on my phone and saw it was an Antonov An-124 from Antonov Airlines and was wondering why there was no information on that flight. Now i know why

There's a few stories from the "bad old days" before 1991. One such is the "Friday" machine - anything mechanical constructed on a Friday, when workers are tired and they generally need to meet production targets. If you're far enough behind then it's simply easier to hammer in a screw than to tighten it. And not just your washing machine, should you be lucky enough to get one, but vehicles. With an engineering history like this, it doesn't make me hopeful for present-day maintenance.

As a new airman there was regularly a "can bird" (cannibalized) C-5 Galaxy in various stages of dissasembly on the flightline. These can birds would have to be brought back to flight condition within some fixed period of time to maintain certification. On one post-assembly flight I watched this plane circle for hours with a stuck, single landing gear bogey that finally retracted and then extended. The crew ran out of the plane after stopping and kissed the ground. The word later was even their most nightmarish sim rides didn't hold a candle to the number of failures they experienced on that flight. I wouldn't want to fly an airline that used can birds.

I'm working in Irkut and have something to say. 1. PD variant of MS-21 is already has Russian flight certificate. We're been working on that for a year since December 2021 untill end of 2022. 2. Those "non licenced parts" is basically what you heard. Some aviation companies, like Aeroflot, got manufacturer license and now can produce parts themselves. There's no other options, so I think it's fine.

With the way Boeing behaved with impunity (nobody went to jail or was even prosecuted) over the MCAS system in the new 737 Max, surely aviation in general is dangerous.

Tupolov has an issue in that a good chunk of the parts come from factories based in Ukraine and Belarus, along with a lot of "western" electronics parts in the avionics and mechanical assemblies, so they are not really able to actually build now, seeing as there is a issue getting delivery. As well the "alternative" parts market also has not only fake and expired parts, but also you have the issue of version mismatches, which can be anything from a needle calibration being different, to a part that works initially, but, because the differences are subtle, you can have it either fail after a few hundred hours, or it can corrupt the data after that time, or just have edge cases that result in a non noticed failure, till it is too late.

Very interesting, and sounds about right, based on me watching various channels on past aircraft accidents involving parts issues, such as those you discussed. Being able to intuitively assess the situation reasonably well (based on your assessment vs. my intuitive guesses before viewing the video) is an unexpected benefit of viewing a lot of these. My interest had been more due to having always being a nervous flier, and getting REALLY PISSED OFF when a really stupid collection of errors / shortcuts / disregard of proper procedures by many caused flight 5191 to crash in my home city, killing a personal friend and 49 people in 8/2006 -- and then beginning to look into flight safety, airport safety, etc. (Then, for me, learning how the Gimli Glider (Air Canada flight 143 in 7/1983) was hailed as a here when he, among others blatantly let a jet airliner run out of fuel was the final straw, re reading the detailed book on the subject, "Freefall", with the subtitle "41000 feet and out of fuel", 1983 -- it was simply the last straw re wanting to know more about airliner safety). Parts fail, unforseen weather happens, etc. That's life, which includes bad luck. But just blatant stupidity and MANY people disregarding the rules with a disregard for flight safety (as the result) -- I just have trouble accepting that.

You forgot to mention that this problem started when the United States imposed a ban on servicing Russian civilian aircraft. Why was this done? To make civilians suffer?

The root cause of the only crash of a BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde was caused by a spurious part. The part in question being a metal strip fitted to the centre engine of a Douglas DC-10 operated by Continental Airlines. The part was bought by Continental in good faith and they honestly believed it to be genuine. It failed and fell off, landing on the runway at CDG as the aircraft took off. The next aircraft to take off was an Air France Concorde. On its take off run the strip of metal sliced into one of its tyres and the tyre burst apart with some pieces causing a rupture in a fuel tank leading to the crash.

So these Russian airplanes will basically be like experimental commercial jets… 😳

The channel Military Aviation History has a really good video about the state of Russia’s current safety reality done about three weeks ago.

Well, while facing shortage of mechanics russian pilots were told to carry out maintenance on their planes. Using not certified parts does not surprise me. Russia is a state of mind...

The very first few seconds of the video show my home city Kharkiv, 1.8M people. About 4500 buildings were damaged so far, out of that 400-500 beyond repair. This comment isn't aviation related, but I just couldn't help it, seeing my city in ruins. I'd like to thank Petter once again for being one of the very few from the aviation youtubers who don't stay silent about the full-scale invasion which began a year ago (invasion as such began in 2014, remember?).

Very interesting Peter, as always 👍

The 124s have been showing up on ADSBExchange in the states. One flew almost overhead here in MO a couple weeks ago between Palm Beach and Seattle.

Petter, I've discovered something important about this channel. I enjoy your story telling and I enjoy sitting & watching you tell it to me. Here's the thing, though: I've found that the use of stock footage that has nothing to do with the context is frankly distracting. I tried blanking the screen & just listening to you. It was much more enjoyable to sink my teeth into your story than to watch starving actors playing bit parts. This is how I'm going to continue enjoying your channel. Thank you for the content - I'm a huge aviation enthusiast who missed his calling 🙂

Very interesting and informative video as always! You are definitely the leading aviation voice on RU-vid

It's back to the future. Once upon a time when I was young Areoflot was the scary airline, with the planes made in the USSR that crashed. I guess that is the future we face. Airbus and Boeing will need to start advertising that flying their products in Russia is risky.

One effect I have seen from Romania is the amount of traffic in the sky now the flight paths over Ukraine are closed. Everything heading to the Middle East comes over now as well as many other routes - at one point I could see 12 planes in the sky, 5 in one direction and 7 in the other. There are also a lot of other planes which do not appear on flight tracking apps, and let's just say these are not commercial aircraft, and their purpose is obvious.

I was wondering this too, last week 😄 Thanks Mentor!

This was an interesting video, Petter. Thanks.

Thank you for the update! Very interesting!

The re was similar happenings with helicopter rotor blades a number of years back, that were "dressed up" and then on sold to unsuspecting customers, overseas, I know some eventually made it to here in New Zealand...

I work in commercial aircraft parts sales and deal with simple parts and thinking about future problems that this can create is making my head spin with anxiety. We do absolutely everything we can to make sure every part is approved but there are so many variables to make a seemingly small thing into a big thing.

A great and infomative video Petter. As the video is safety focused surely the engineer on her back tightening bolts under the aircraft should have been wearing eye protection! Keep up the fantastic work.

Rosaviation allows to use not any non original spare parts, but only parts that are sertified and approved by Russian authorities. Something like a FAA PMA program. How that approval will be conducted, that's another question.

One other knock-on is that the loss of internal flights puts the load on the rail network, primarily the Trans-Siberia line, which makes internal discipline and defence highly problematic. China's fingers must be getting very itchy, with their eyes on Russia's Far East. The road network's virtually none-existent (single-lane each way) and it takes 10-11 days by rail Vladivostok-Moscow.

As always, excellent production standard, informative, very well balanced and easy to comprehend - thank you (and also to your magnificent behind the scenes cabin crew)!

I really enjoy your videos. You do an incredible job of making it seem like you’re talking directly to me. It makes watching very enjoyable. Thank you.

the problem of alternative sources for parts and equipment has also been exposed in the oil drilling industry , this sort of thing is everywhere

As usual a video packed with relevant information presented in an entertaining and professional way.Thank you.Roly🇬🇧.

Given that this is a second Mentour channel, hitting nearly 200k subs, you've done pretty good!! 👍 👍 👍

Excellent update and insights! Thanks Petter

My last "flight" in a full flight simulator by Lufthansa was in 2017 in Berlin. Aeroflot pilots were also trained there. But I have no idea what's going on now.

It makes sense but still surprising to learn something as simple as bolts can cause catastrophic failures. I think the worst part about this entire conversation is the way russia will tell absurd lies or even try to hide incidents if it will make them look bad. We will never know for sure if Russian aviation is actually safe because of their inability to be objective about important issues.

At 2:33 there's a slight mislabeling, The border has been pinpointed to the city of Lviv, whereas its airport to the border itself, with no infrastructure in that area.

Your range of coverage and research absolutely astounds me. When do you have time for your family ? Anyway , I am very grateful for you! Please keep up the good work but, do rest in between 😴

Bah! Any farmer knows that random rusty bolts and nuts, baling wire, duct tape, and a few blobs of arc weld will keep anything running! Seriously, though... pretty scary stuff! Great video, as usual. Cheers!

You don't need every time to say "aviadvigatel", it is not the part of its naming, it is just "aviation engine" ;)

I flew around the DPRK when I was there a few years ago...I once saw the ground staff painting the tyres black just before we took off...

It's quite a volatile situation. Keep Safe there Petter. Thanks!

Man i miss seeing antonov an 225 flying in the air, now it's only a piece of history

Thank you Petter, that was most interesting. On another topic; have you seen Blancolirio vlog on the Nepal ATR 72 Crash Preliminary Report 17 Feb 2023? I would be very interested in your thoughts on the ergonomics side of things, as well as your thoughts on the check Captain switching seats. Thanks.

Very well-made and informative video as always, Mentour! As I commented on the last video, I feel that sanctions designed to make civil aviation more dangerous are inappropriate and quite worrying, regardless of any political considerations.

Thanks for the update. It's a worrying situation for sure.

I can see it now, Alibaba offering a full line of Boeing and AIrbus "replacement" parts

Note, the SSJ-100 airframe to what I read and understood is already ready and fully Russified its just waiting for the PD-8 engines now which have already began flight testing on the IL-76LL recently, and is expected to begin flight testing and certification on the SSJ by the end of this year.

I have experienced all those parts issues on my cars over the years. I now only use parts from certain parts makers. Second hand genuine parts are a better option than unknown parts however one has to check carefully that its indeed the same. Many parts may look the same but be totally different in underlying design and materials.

This video was excellently made and very informative!

One thing that I was wondering about, but was not being mentioned, was whether the Russian aircraft manufacturing sector did not already have its hands full trying to supply the increasing demands for military aircraft, and how this would impact (at least in the short term) on available resources to support the civilian market?

While transportation sector remains important for Russia, I think financial resources will mostly be dedicated to the war effort, thus civil aviation issues in Russia will jump to the rear seat.

My father was an MoD detective and in the 80's took part in a major criminal investigation concerning the resale of time expired parts with fraudulent documents, from what I remember the guilty parties received sentences of 3 - 5 years imprisonment as their crimes were viewed with such seriousness.

As with all your video's, very interesting stuff. I worked in Flight Operations for ADB (through Air Foyle-Heavylift/AFH) before being made redundant, but it was a great company to work for. I ironically ended up working for VDA and Ruslan International, but I guess if I was still there would be out of a job. I was based at STN/EGSS in there UK office.......I love your t-shirt, just like the one I purchased recently and very suitable for this video.

I love your channel, appreciate all your comprehensive videos and understand your mission with this channel. But unfortunateley the world has changed since Feb. last year and if passenger plane with 250 souls go down it's no more than statistics in that country because they lose approx 750 people a day in special operation. It's very hard to accept this but unfortunately it's reality.

I had an antonov or other 6 engine aircraft flying high over my village in germany 1 week ago. it was unusually loud and had 6 contrails (maybe it was a military plane)

“Pssst, hey buddy,” *opens bag* “You wanna buy some airplane parts?”

Inter arma, enim silent leges. Hope your well Peter! I usually don't comment but I wanted to say thanks, I enjoy your attention to detail in your presentations on both channels!

The biggest problem will be the total loss of confidence in the safety of all Russian aircraft wanting to return to serve international connections probably many years from now after a possible end of the war. It will be impossible to sort out all the fake parts that were officially certified by Russian entities with the possible intention of not leaving a documented trace.

With Russia, there are different ways it is working around the sanctions in general and aviation: 1. Parallel import - for all the companies that left Russia and banned their products from sales in Russia, airlines buy spare parts through other countries and companies. It is more expensive, but it works most of the time. 2. Импортозамещение - translates as "import-replacement". This was introduced back in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and was hit with first sanctions. What it does is basically reverse engineer products that are sanctioned in Russia and make them locally. The quality is bad in the beginning of the process, but it gets better with time. Don't know how it works with aircraft spare parts, but it works with other high tech equipment, so there is that. 3. Development of own aircraft - the sanctions gave a huge boost to locally developed aircraft such as Sukhoi Super Jet and МС-21. Especially the MC-21 since more of its components were built when the first sanctions were introduced in 2014. Changing the whole fleet to these and future models of Russian aircraft is not going to happen overnight, but do not underestimate the Russian resolve. After all, the USSR was the country with the biggest domestic fleet couple of times during the 20th century and Russia has all the resources to pull off a completely localized aircraft fleet. What we are witnessing right now is basically the end of globalization as we know it. It does not matter what the media says, Russia has a huge scientific and industrial potential and it can bring some interesting new aircraft to the table now that it is forced to do so.

STARTING TO GET DANGEROUS? Aeroflot has always been a hot mess.

It was interesting to see the AN-124 shots early in your video. I once flew from SFO to Ekaterinburg via Khabarovsk on RA-82014 and am wondering how "my" bird has survived the conflict. Thanks for the great work you do in keeping us appraised of "all things aviation!"

GREAT WORK.

Great coverage and discussion as always 🙏🏿

Thank you for your video. It's crazy with the war.

There is also Chinese COMAC they already have joint projects.

Russian here, Usually when they tell non-genie part it mean it’s just original part bought in circumvention of sanctions though Saudi Arabia etc.

"Non-original" in russia usually means "not genuine". It might be as genuine part just without proper branding, as a part made by unknown third-parties (which is scary)

With two recent, major events on Phuket involving Russian aircraft, the answer to the video title has to be a resounding 'no'.

This talk about documentation for parts reminds me of back when I was working for an auto parts store. One time someone callled asking if we had a certain paint in stock for his aircraft (we did) and if we had documentation of its authenticity or something like that (we did not). Needless to say I didn’t end up selling any paint to him.

Thank you for covering these important points about the war in Ukraine! By the way, you had a talk about propfans recently. And what I hoped to see is some info about Ukrainian An-70 with D-27 engines, but it was not there. Do you see yourself covering this plane in you future videos?

Whatever happenes in the world, again and over again just ordinary people suffer the most. USA & EU imposed sanctions on Russia, but those mostly affect people who has nothing to do with current situation and almost zero impact on Russian officials-they fly Russian airplanes or private jets. That’s it.

As an avionics tech I can understand ordering part "A" and getting part "B" and maybe you don't notice the difference until you go to install the part. But you have to calibrate and ops check it. What kind of manufacture would send a fuel gauge without a calibration option.

"If it fits, it ships"... 😱

Don't do as I say, do as I do: Vladimir Putin's stopped travelling by air, he now moves by train. The official reason is his jet's too easily traceable and could be shot down: however, exactly the same thing can be said of his armoured train, which, although painted in the normal train colours, is so heavy it needs three locos to haul.

Simple. We should all be voting with our feet and our money. Do not visit or trade with any repressive regieme. And only get one of their planes if you are tired of life.

Great discussion!

в общем то всё правильно Питер сказал, мы в жопе, и добавить нечего, никто не хотел строить самолеты, развивать страну, в итоге страна в полной изоляции. Питер! спасибо за видео и привет из СПб )

Regarding parts - A lot of "western parts" are produced in china btw. Same story like with the Iphone. You are absolutely right in terms of bureaucracy (certs) , as this is related directly to safety and protection from installing suspicious/untested/fake, etc components on the serviceable aircraft with traceable history. But all this "certificate fairytale" is part of business, too - certificates protects original manufacturers and does not allow another companies to enter the business. Manufacturers, in return, keep their products up to required standard. Workshops usually hold approvals to issue back to service parts under various authorized release certificates - UKCAA, EASA, FAA, some chinese/japanese ones, etc. This is only a matter of authorization of such a workshop and where the part is required. I am not even saying about existence of the companies, who simply re-certify parts, that are removed from the scrapped aircrafts "somewhere" in the desert. Technically, as long as part number/all modification statuses matches with your old part, you can install it and test it after. Absolutely no difference what type of certificate this part has. So, when the hard times comes for such a countries like russia, they will use all this variety of parts for sure from different suppliers. Non-Original parts means exactly what it means - parts, that are not produced by original supplier of such. But this is usually some small components like sensors, plasctic parts, etc. Not a major components. And the reason why such "non original " components exists I believe is because those parts are actually allowed to be installed in some countries. This means, that manufacturer of such parts is authorized to produce them by some country authorities. Also, this does not mean that this part is "bad" - it is well tested up to manufacturing standards and will perform well. Lets draw parallel with the cars to clarify - FOR EXAMPLE, original supplier of the shock struts for the BMW is SACHS. However, on the market you will find various another shock strut manufacturers (sometimes called aftermarket parts), that will produce shock struts for the same BMW car. Some of them are very high quality, and you can install them too. However it will never be recommended by BMW to do so.

Thank you Peter for this brilliant analysis! Have there been discussions about the remarkably increased number of bomb threats (false, thankfully) concerning European passenger flights? Ever since Russia's invasion, there have been a couple of occasions. Some analyses saw that as Russia possibly checking NATO's readiness for response.

i am always confused when the left upper and right upper corner on my iphone do neither show a video nor a playlist :D but great content, as always!

80% of the fleet to be Russian-made by 2030, LOL that ain't gonna happen.