Thu10May12 Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashes into Mount Salak

[TonyGosling]

Sabotage? So Ends the Russian Airliner Revival

Sukhoi Superjet tragedy
Tim Hepher and Gleb Stolyarov, Reuters May 10, 2012 – 4:34 PM ET | Last Updated: May 10, 2012 4:47 PM ET


The wreckage of a missing Sukhoi Superjet-100 are scattered on the mountainside in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/10/russias-aerospace-revival-over shadowed-by-sukhoi-jet-tragedy/

PARIS/MOSCOW — The hilltop crash of a Sukhoi passenger jet ferrying journalists and dignitaries on a mission to drum up foreign sales in Indonesia potentially casts a shadow over Kremlin efforts to restore Russia’s once mighty aerospace industry.

Analysts can’t yet say how far the loss of the first new passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union will damage the rebirth of Russian aviation, but agree it deals a psychological blow at a time when domestic air safety is also under scrutiny.

The aircraft was on a promotional tour to showcase Russia’s arrival as a peer to regional jetmakers like Brazil’s Embraer or Canada’s Bombardier, with Russia especially anxious to shake off the poor safety reputation of its earlier Soviet domestic fleet.

With so much national pride invested in Russia’s relatively young aircraft project, the crash is likely to shake the confidence of the industry in a way that would be less common among Western firms whose accident rate is statistically lower.

That could change if investigators find no technical fault.

“If it was pilot error then it is not a huge blow to the Russian aerospace industry. However if it was a technical problem with the aircraft, then it could really affect customer perception of the aircraft and order capability,” said Tom Chruszcz, a director at the ratings agency Fitch.

President Vladimir Putin, who completed a job swap with former president Dmitry Medvedev to start a new six-year term on Monday, championed the development of Sukhoi’s Superjet regional airplane during a previous stint as Russian leader.

Analysts say Putin wants to revive the aerospace sector, shattered by the collapse of the Soviet Union, to demonstrate Moscow’s industrial clout abroad and help project the Kremlin’s authority to voters inside Russia.
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Built by the former Soviet Union’s largest warplane maker, Sukhoi’s Superjet is a 78- to 98-seat regional airliner designed for sale on a global market which has historically shied away from Russian-built jets for safety reasons.

Russia has declared ambitions to sell $250 billion worth of aircraft by 2025 and overtake even Soviet-era output records to compete with the U.S. and European giants.


Sergey Dolya/AP Photo

Sukhoi Superjet-100 takes off from Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 on it's second demonstration flight of the day. The plane went missing, and its remains were found on Thursday.



Sukhoi’s sister company Irkut — both are part of a giant state aircraft holding company forged by Putin and known as United Aviation Corporation — has matched China in developing a 150-seat airliner called MS-21 to rival Airbus and Boeing jets.

Wednesday’s disappearance of a Superjet from Indonesian radars during a demonstration flight near a volcano coincided with a Victory Day military parade on Moscow’s Red Square, where Putin promised to promote Russia on the world stage.

“If this is a catastrophe, then, of course, it’s bad for Russia’s image in the world, given also that last year was unlucky in terms of air safety,” Boris Rybak, director of Moscow thinktank Infomost, said, speaking before rescuers located the wreckage and reported no sign of survivors.

FIGHTER FACTORY RESTORED

No industrial effort better symbolizes Moscow’s push to restore national pride than Sukhoi’s Superjet and its factory, which Reuters visited when the aircraft was inaugurated in 2007.

The eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Russia’s Far East was once sealed off from the outside world as a nerve centre of Soviet submarine and fighter production.


Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo

Rescue workers search for victims of the plain crash.



But its economy collapsed when orders and government cash dried up at the end of the Cold War and Sukhoi fighter engineers resorted to making children’s bicycles, say local guides.

The Superjet restored jobs and commercial prospects to an abandoned corner of the plant as a jet designed for Westerners slowly took shape beneath peeling Soviet frescoes — yards from the continued trickle of Sukhoi Su-27 combat jet production.

Its long-deserted civil airport terminal, a museum of mosaics and vintage weighing machines, was re-opened to allow investors and foreign media to witness the Superjet’s rollout.

“The Superjet is more than a plane; it is a priority project,” First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told Russian assembly workers at the Superjet’s rollout ceremony in 2007.

Its future now lies in the hands of crash investigators. Moscow will hope the crash does not harm its aerospace sector.

A senior Russian official suggested the crash was caused by pilot error rather than a technical failure, but most safety analysts cautioned it was too early to say what caused the disaster.

The circumstances and potential loss of prestige echo the notorious crash of the Soviet Union’s monster eight-engined Tupolev “Maxim Gorky” during a demonstration flight in 1935. The crash almost 77 years ago to the day was blamed on the pilot, but the exact circumstances have never been fully established.


Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images

Family members of those aboard the plane crash comfort each other.



The reputations of several Western companies are also tied up in the Superjet’s future.

Boeing acted as a consultant on the project including for flight and maintenance crew training. But its role is mainly seen as a symbolic one, with the U.S. group keen to tap into Russian titanium supplies for its next generation of jetliners.

French and Italian firms, however, invested heavily and this has been a key selling point in Sukhoi’s marketing efforts.

Alenia Aeronautica, a unit of Italy’s Finmeccanica, bought 25 percent of Sukhoi’s civil division to back the project. It is responsible for the global marketing and after-sales support that are both crucial for winning contracts.

“The Russian aerospace industry collapsed after the Cold War and the Russians aim to work their way back to commercial market acceptance by working with Western suppliers to improve standards, manufacturing procedures and product support,” said analyst Richard Aboulafia of Virginia-based Teal Group.

“This crash doesn’t mean they can’t do it but it is certainly a setback, and it will depend what is found in the investigation. There is a lot we don’t know yet,” he added.

Sukhoi has expressed hopes that the development dollars and technology of Western suppliers would attract Western airlines who may otherwise be reticent about buying Russian. It is also under-cutting rivals with a price of some $30 million per plane.

So far it has found buyers for 170 aircraft out of 1,000 it would like to sell but no mainstream Western airlines. Irish budget carrier Ryanair has expressed tentative interest.

[scienceplease 2]

There's very little on this crash in the MSM despite its huge economic significance and interesting "maiden voyage" parallels to Titanic - which occurred 100 years ago.

There is this bbc article - but it is bbc-asia http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18018834 - but airliner crashes are usually very widely reported...

[TonyGosling]

Just been asking around ... and the entire UK aerospace industry is chatting and shaking their heads.
Every airliner crash is big news.
Especially a prototype full of people.
Everybody wants to know why this has not been covered in the British media, particular broadcast.
It's the biggest East/West and biggest technology story for many years.

A great example of UK nervous sytem dysfunction.

[TonyGosling]

Last pictures of crashed Russian plane emerge
These pictures were the last taken of the fateful Russian flagship passenger jet that went missing 50 minutes into its take-off from Jakarta.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/indonesia/9257601/Last- pictures-of-crashed-Russian-plane-emerge.html

By Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok 3:15PM BST 10 May 2012
Alexander Yablontsev, the chief test pilot and Alexander Kochetkov, his co-pilot pose with relaxed-looking flight attendants ahead of a landmark test flight.
The wreckage of the Sukhoi Superjet-100, with 50 people on board, was discovered on Thursday after it crashed 20 minutes after take-off into a jungle-covered dormant volcano.
Helicopters scouring vegetation covered slopes discovered the blue and white wreckage of the Sukhoi Superjet-100, which crashed 20 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a demonstration flight to drum up business.
Teams of rescuers who battled up the sheer slopes to reach the crash site found no signs of survivors and said that the bodies would have to be placed in nets and winched up to hovering helicopters.
Before the flight took off a photographer took photographs of the passengers onboard the Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 (Marina Lystseva/Photoshot)
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Of the eight crew and 42 guests aboard the jet, most were journalists and potential buyers for the jet which is Russia’s first foray into the burgeoning small passenger jet market since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Superjet-100, with a passenger capacity of 68 to 103 depending on the configuration, was on the fourth stop of a six-nation Asian tour, and the second flight of the day, when it hit a near-vertical cliff section on 7,000ft Mount Salak, a long-dormant volcano.
Sukhoi's chief civil test pilot Alexander Yablontsev (L) and co-pilot Alexander Kochetkov (R) pose for a picture with flight attendants at an airport in the Indonesian capital Jakarta (Reuters)
Investigators are now examining taped conversations between the pilots and air-traffic control, particularly the pilot’s request to descend from 10,000ft to 6,000ft seconds before the plane disappeared from radar screens.
“The airplane crashed at the edge of Salak mountain,” said Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. “An investigation must be done immediately and thoroughly.” Aerial pictures from the crash scene revealed tiny sections of wreckage from the wings and fuselage scattered down an exposed stretch of cliff surrounded by the dense forest.
Indonesia’s search and rescue agency chief, Daryatmo, said: “From the pictures we’re seeing it looks like it was a total loss.” Sukhoi has already won 170 orders worldwide for its Superjet-100 and was aiming to sell 42 in Indonesia alone, competing against similar-sized offerings in the passenger jet market from Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier.
If the cause of the crash turns out ultimately to be a pilot or air-traffic control error, the effects on sales might not prove too disastrous. But a technical fault in the jet that has already suffered delays could be catastrophic for orders.

[TonyGosling]

The Simplest Explanation For Russia's Sukhoi SuperJet Crash May Be The Scariest
http://www.businessinsider.com/sukhoi-superjet-100-crash-what-really-h appened-2012-6?IR=T

Samuel Blackstone Jun. 14, 2012, 11:35 AM 25,952

A lot of conspiracy theories are floating around the internet these days concerning the Russian Sukhoi SuperJet 100 crash.

The SuperJet, the first civilian aircraft to be built in Russia since the Soviet Union, was on a tour flight of Southeast Asia in an effort to attract attention and business on May 9th when it crashed into Mount Salak, a dormant volcano in Indonesian.

The reports and theories, some of them quite extreme, are especially unique because they are coming from reputable publications.

One such theory, reported in the Moscow Times, involves accusations that the United States military may have used interference technology to make the planes onboard devices go haywire.

Another theory, reported in the The Telegraph, claims that pilot Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Yablonstev, an experienced pilot with over 14,000 hours of flight time and a man who piloted the SuperJet on its maiden voyage, may have tried some aerial acrobatics in an effort to impress press members onboard the plane. Details in this theory purport Yablonstev attempted to descend in the mountainous region instead of ascending.

The most plausible theory seems to be that the SuperJet just wasn't as safe and well constructed as advertised. Last year, Russia had one of the world's worst air traffic safety records, with an accident rate three times the world average.

Why so many theories? Well, if it's discovered that the crash was the result of technological failings, the Russian airplane industry may have serious trouble ever getting off the ground — and it desperately wants to.

[TonyGosling]

Just like the Polish government airliner crash - some idiot in the cockpit was distracting the pilots
Superjet 100 Captain's Mistake Revealed
Investigators say pilot silenced terrain-warning system.
By Stephen Pope December 18, 2012
http://www.flyingmag.com/technique/accidents/superjet-100-captains-mis take-revealed

The Russian captain of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed in Indonesia last May inhibited the airplane’s terrain-warning system after receiving what he apparently judged to be a spurious nuisance alert, crash investigators say.
Indonesian investigators said the Superjet’s TAWS sounded a warning 38 seconds before the twinjet slammed into a mountain in the jungle near Jakarta, killing all 45 aboard the demonstration flight on May 9. A disastrous link in the accident chain was a conversation unrelated to the flight between the pilots and a company official in the cockpit that distracted the crew from its duties. According to the accident report, the captain requested a descent from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet and a right-hand orbit, which Jakarta ATC approved. But the crew soon became distracted by a “prolonged conversation.” The captain, who was flying, failed to change heading during the holding pattern. Consequently, the airplane “unintentionally exited the orbit,” according to the report.
An analysis by accident investigators found that the airplane might have been able to avoid the impact up to 24 seconds after the initial terrain warning sounded. The jet crashed at the 6,000-foot level of Mount Salak, which was shrouded in clouds. The jet had been cleared to such a low altitude because controllers mistakenly coded it as a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter and not a Sukhoi passenger jet.
The crew did not have charts on board the airplane for the area, and Jakarta’s ATC facility is not equipped with minimum safe altitude warnings for the sector where the Superjet crashed, investigators noted.