Russia now world's riskiest place to fly!

[Roadrunner23]

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/160995...

[Streps]

"One Tupolev is 25 years old. It looks ready for the scrapheap but it is actually here for its third service.
In a few months, it'll be carrying passengers again."

It's maintenance not age that is the big problem.

[Matt Harper]

Huh! Sounds like South West Airlines.

[eharding]

I'd imagine flying into the Moscow PVO district was rather more risky 50 years ago, if you a) didn't have an invitation and b) were bringing a surprise gift of Instant Sunshine.

[pacman1]

Indeed..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11919363

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose!

A friend of mine did her degree in Russian and spent time there in the early '80's. She told me that it was somewhat worrying flying around the interior and seeing the wrecks of a/c on numerous airfields.

In the '90's I was on the Herc force doing the CFE Treaty sorties (Conventional Forces Europe Treaty) flying all over the former Soviet Union west of the Urals.

Seeing the status of Airliners at places like Minsk and Kiev was bad enough, experiencing Air Traffic in places like Armenia and Azerbaijan was seriously scary.

[scubadude]

One of my Dads friends went to Russia in the 80's for work. On one flight the pilot came around the terminal with his cap collecting cash to buy a part needed before they could leave, on another flight one of the first class passengers bribed the pilot to land at another airport en-route as he had couldn't get the right flight back home (which apparently they did, just dropped him off on the apron then took off again) lastly on a long flight he came out of the loo to find both the pilot, co-pilot and engineer in the galley having lunch and vodka shots (to keep them awake) while the plane was on auto-pilot.

[grayr]

and just how predictable was this finding:

http://news.uk.msn.com/world/pilot-caused-hockey-t...

[Tango13]

A friend of mine went to school in the far east. The British teachers were given one free return flight every year as part of their contracts, the down side being the school booked the flights and booked with Aeroflot.

There was a sweepstake every year where you could bet on which teacher wasn't going to make it back after the summer hoildays

[youngsod]

eharding said:

I'd imagine flying into the Moscow PVO district was rather more risky 50 years ago, if you a) didn't have an invitation and b) were bringing a surprise gift of Instant Sunshine.

Although not that difficult if it was 24 years ago and you were flying a Cessna 172