Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 missing during testflight

[trikora88]

The wreckage of a Russian Sukhoi aircraft is scattered on the slope of Mount Salak near Bogor May 11, 2012. A rescue team found bodies but no survivors on Thursday in the wreckage of the Superjet 100 passenger plane that crashed into the volcano in Indonesia during an exhibition flight with 45 people on board.

The wreckage of a Russian Sukhoi aircraft is scattered on the slope of Mount Salak near Bogor May 11, 2012. A rescue team found bodies but no survivors on Thursday in the wreckage of the Superjet 100 passenger plane that crashed into the volcano in Indonesia during an exhibition flight with 45 people on board.

The wreckage of a Russian Sukhoi aircraft is scattered on the slope of Mount Salak near Bogor May 11, 2012. A rescue team found bodies but no survivors on Thursday in the wreckage of the Superjet 100 passenger plane that crashed into the volcano in Indonesia during an exhibition flight with 45 people on board.

The wreckage of a Russian Sukhoi aircraft is scattered on Mount Salak near Bogor May 11, 2012. A rescue team found bodies but no survivors on Thursday in the wreckage of the Superjet 100 passenger plane that crashed into the volcano in Indonesia during an exhibition flight with 45 people on board.

Indonesian Air Force jumper prepare their gear before departing on a rescue mission to the site where a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 plane crashed, at their base in Pasir Pogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, May 11, 2012. Rescue teams used climbing gear to scale the nearly sheer slopes of a dormant Indonesian volcano, hoping Friday to reach the wreckage of a Russian-made jetliner that crashed with 45 people aboard during a demonstration flight for potential buyers.

A rescue helicopter takes off on a rescue mission to the site where a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 plane crashed, at their base in Pasir Pogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, May 11, 2012. Rescue teams used climbing gear to scale the nearly sheer slopes of a dormant Indonesian volcano, hoping Friday to reach the wreckage of a Russian-made jetliner that crashed with 45 people aboard during a demonstration flight for potential buyers.

Indonesian rescue team members walk to the location of a plane crash in Salak mountain in Cijeruk, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, May 11, 2012. The crash of the new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers has thrown doubt on dozens of plane sales just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead.

Rescuers head towards the wreckage of a Russian Sukhoi aircraft on the slope of Mount Salak near Bogor May 11, 2012. A rescue team found bodies but no survivors on Thursday in the wreckage of the Superjet 100 passenger plane that crashed into the volcano in Indonesia during an exhibition flight with 45 people on board.

[crazyanimal]

Welcome and interesting first post, but I honestly can't believe that an experienced pilot would hand the controls over to someone who's not familiar with the aircraft, not to speak of the difficult terrain and possible rapid weather changes. That's a recipe for desaster.

First of all thank you, I'm enjoying reading and watching this forum for quite a long time!

On topic:
I agree with you, and I think author of that post just wanted to point that pilot had to work in such awfull conditions. All this plus the weather and unfamiliar mountainous landscape can become fatal.

Two guesses about plane's trajectory:


Second one (orange cross) seems more possible, judging by coordinates provided by blogger who was on this tour, and looking on photos that were posted earlier.

[Mangotree]

Crash site is around 80-85 degree elevation, slippery soil.

I trekked around Salak-Pangrango-Gede (another volcano nearby) area; no matter how sunny the morning is, weather changes quickly in the afternoon. It rains there almost every afternoon even during dry season. If it was a concluded as CFIT due to rapidly changing weather, I won't be surprised.

Ground is soft volcanic soil and retains water (a lot!), amazingly slippery after rain. Vegetation is thick with bushes, big-small trees. Mosses are everywhere. Hats off to the SAR team who's working hard there.

[Steak-Sauce]

Superjet 100 flew in low-traffic Indonesian airspace: DGCA

By: Mavis Toh Singapore


The Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft that crashed in Indonesia on 9 May 2012 was in the air space above Bogor as it is an area that does not normally have much traffic.

The aircraft was given permission to operate in Indonesia as part of its promotional plans, Indonesia's director general of civil aviation Herry Bakti said in a statement.

Sukhoi then chose to fly in Bogor, a mountainous area south of Jakarta, he added.

Article continued @ Flightglobal

[Sashko]

Welcome and interesting first post, but I honestly can't believe that an experienced pilot would hand the controls over to someone who's not familiar with the aircraft, not to speak of the difficult terrain and possible rapid weather changes. That's a recipe for desaster.

From observing human nature, I think that under the circustances most will hand over the controls if their jobs are on the line (and executive types in the cockpit reminding them that their jobs are on the line). Quite a downgrade to go from Sukhoi test/sales pitch pilot to flying tu-144 Vorkuta-Sivtyvkar charters.

In the heat of the moment noone thinks about a possibility of ramming a 90 degree mountain face.

Rip to victims and possibly rip to Sukhoi ssj (don't know who will buy it outside of Russia after such a debacle, even if the machine itself was not at fault).

[Hisroyalhighness]

Superjet Fit to Fly Before Crash

The Sukhoi Superjet airliner which crashed in Indonesia on Wednesday had experienced no technical problems and its flight was in full compliance with international rules, leading aviation figures investigating the crash said on Friday.
“There had been no technical problems with the aircraft until the moment of the catastrophe," United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) head Mikhail Pogosyan told journalists in Jakarta. "This is confirmed by the fact that its first flight in Indonesia was carried out perfectly."
The Russian-built aircraft had already carried out one flight earlier on Wednesday, when it slammed into a steep mountainside during its second flight. All 45 people on board - mostly representatives of Indonesian airlines - were killed.
“The flight of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft was carried out in full compliance with international and Indonesian rules. The airliner had all the necessary documents and performed its flight in compliance with the authorized itinerary,” the head of the Indonesian Aviation Authority said on Friday. The flight recorders have not yet been found.
Pogosyan, a former head of Sukhoi which designed the plane and is part of UAC, said it was still premature to say if pilot error caused the crash.
An article in Russian daily Izvestia, on Friday, suggested the pilots may have been to blame for ignoring or turning off the aircraft's Terrain Warning and Awareness System, which should have alerted them to ground proximity. The article quoted experts from a flight research institute who had carried out flights in a simulator to try and find out what caused the crash.
“Alexander Yablontsev (who was flying the SSJ-100 jet) is our best test pilot. He took part in the full circle from the jet’s design to its certification,” Pogosyan said, adding the cause of the tragedy would only be established after decoding the information from the airliner's flight data recorders.
“Now there is a real opportunity to study the crash scene ... Our experts will work in parallel with the Indonesian experts, " Pogosyan said in an interview with Russia 24 channel.
"Several working groups were created to look at the engineering issues, the flight part, the interaction of the flight crew and ground personnel, to survey the crash site. I think that soon objective information will be available which will provide the necessary set of baseline data for the commission's future work,” he added.
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft’s President Vladimir Prisyazhnyuk agreed that it was too early to say what caused the disaster.
“We haven’t done any modeling in our company and have drawn no conclusions. We will do this when the official commission is ready and when we have the flight data,” he said.

On Thursday, Russia's acting Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said experts believe "human factor" was the most probable cause of the fatal crash of the aircraft.
"Experts say that all [the aircraft's] equipment functioned smoothly. In other words, it could be some kind of a human error," Rogozin told journalists.
The bodies of the crash victims will not be brought to the country’s capital Jakarta before early Saturday, local media reported on Friday.
Rescuers located earlier on Friday the bodies of 12 of 45 people on board the airliner and brought them to the local village of Pasir-Mangis.
But bad weather in the area has prevented shipment of the victims’ remains to Jakarta until Saturday morning, said head of the Indonesian national search and rescue agency, Madya Daryatmo, Detik.com reported.
A mourning ceremony to honor the dead will be held in the capital, Daryatmo added.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has sent two Ilyushin Il-76TD aircraft to Indonesia to assist the rescue efforts. The planes are carrying groups of rescuers and medical experts, special equipment and two rescue helicopters.
The crash was the first ever accident involving a Sukhoi Superjet. The type has only recently gone into production, and the first aircraft entered service in 2011 with Armenia’s Armavia and Russia’s Aerolfot.
The Superjet, which was developed jointly with Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica, and uses engines and sub-systems from a range of European and American manufacturers, is designed as a short-haul airliner to replace the Soviet-era Yak-42 and An-24 airliners.

[Steak-Sauce]

From observing human nature, I think that under the circustances most will hand over the controls if their jobs are on the line (and executive types in the cockpit reminding them that their jobs are on the line). Quite a downgrade to go from Sukhoi test/sales pitch pilot to flying tu-144 Vorkuta-Sivtyvkar charters.

In the heat of the moment noone thinks about a possibility of ramming a 90 degree mountain face.

That sounds simply too apologizing. As if the pilot didn't have any choice whatsoever, with impressing some already signed-up customers being more important than the safety of the airplane and its passengers.

[Sashko]

That sounds simply too apologizing. As if the pilot didn't have any choice whatsoever, with impressing some already signed-up customers being more important than the safety of the airplane and its passengers.

It's not apologetic at all. It's just the way most would react to the situation - 99% chance of being canned vs. a very distant possibility of something going wrong. Add to that a fact that such practice of letting the potential clients to "have a little fun" during closed demos seems to the norm for the industry.

I just don't see a sales pitch pilot telling his bosses and customers they are trying to woo, to gtfo from the cockpit due to safety concerns during a sales pitch flight.

[Flamming_Python]

It's not apologetic at all. It's just the way most would react to the situation - 99% chance of being canned vs. a very distant possibility of something going wrong. Add to that a fact that such practice of letting the potential clients to "have a little fun" during closed demos seems to the norm for the industry.

I just don't see a sales pitch pilot telling his bosses and customers they are trying to woo, to gtfo from the cockpit due to safety concerns during a sales pitch flight.

Maybe if the Superjet goes under - it could serve some valuable lessons for some people.

BTW - why aren't the Superjet planes in operation being grounded?

[Xaito]

Maybe if the Superjet goes under - it could serve some valuable lessons for some people.

what the heck is your problem with the aircraft exactly?

[Sashko]

Maybe if the Superjet goes under - it could serve some valuable lessons for some people.

Doubt it . Will be another round in the series of finding scapegoats and performing cadre reshuffles.

What a monumental fvck up overall. Get the paying customers killed during the test-drive. Just unbelievable.

[metberkut]

Dont worry.

He is probably one of those folks that believe it is made out of 85 % non russian parts.

[Steak-Sauce]

It's not apologetic at all. It's just the way most would react to the situation - 99% chance of being canned vs. a very distant possibility of something going wrong. Add to that a fact that such practice of letting the potential clients to "have a little fun" during closed demos seems to the norm for the industry.

I just don't see a sales pitch pilot telling his bosses and customers they are trying to woo, to gtfo from the cockpit due to safety concerns during a sales pitch flight.

Well, is it really "the norm" in the aviation industry or not? Do they get indeed fired for refusing to hand over the aircraft's controls during a demonstration flight for safety concerns? How many test pilots have actually lost their job as an experienced pilot in the past? Mind you, whom are you handing the controls to: a fellow and trained pilot or some random marketing guy with no flying experience at all?

That said, I very much doubt that it is "the norm". Possible, yes. But not the norm or standard procedure.

[mathyou8]

RiP to the victims
And it's really bad blow to sukhoi company

[Flamming_Python]

what the heck is your problem with the aircraft exactly?

I don't have an agenda against it as such. Just someone fked up as usual.

I'm sure that it would be no problem for Bulava ballistic missile tests or whatever; they can just fix it and get the next version out.
Not how it works though if you want to build your own airliners.