News

Finally here is an update

that better explains the accident. Out of 17 dead nine were from Kazakhstan as crew.

Pilot error was the main cause of the accident.

//www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gWnN6W7xk4-VfYtFKBdSK_VKdb9g

My repeat post

from:

 //iranian.com/main/news/2009/07/24/flight-down-mashad

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I also must add that many people here are simply discussing politics and not the crash. The following are note worthy;

- The Boeing company was the supplier of most pre-revolution airliners to Iran. As such, it is responsible to supply the parts as part of the agreement. Boeing is not providing parts, as part of the sale contract SINCE the revolution. In the post revolution US made aircrafts that were purchased must also be supplied parts to guarrantee the flight safety if not to Iran to the seller of these aircrafts to Iran.

- It is very simple for most people to wrongly judge the aviation accidents simply because of personal alterior motive and/or lack of technical knowledge. The photos made available to public and the news releases point to lack of proper maintenance rather than the problem with the aircraft engineering.

In this latest case, the forward landing gear seems to have failed resulting in the nose down. My guess is the failure was "sudden" pointing to landing gear collaps. That in turn must have shock the aircraft bad enough to veer off the main runway and subsequently crashing into a wall that immediately smashed the pilot cabin and the most forward passenger cabin killing all the crew and three passengers including the General manager of Aria Tours captain Dadpey who was also the part owner of the company.

The plane was on lease from a central asian country with a foreign pilot by the name Mr. Alexander Balacheigh.

-Pay attention, since the plane was on lease, the maintenance of this aircraft most likely was with the the company leasing this plane to Iran (it is not cost effective to create a maintenance depot for such a small number of aircrafts in Iran) and not Iranian entity. This must be the case since this type of aircrafts, IL-62, is only operated by Aria Tours in Iran and Wikipedia lists only a single aircraft of this kind purchased by Aria tours. Again, the crashed aircraft was on lease and not owned by Aria Tours. 

- What I also suspect here is that the pilot of this aircraft bears some responsibility since loosing the front landing gear, though unique but with several historical precedence, should still allow the plane to continue its course on the runway to a stand still w/o any loss of life or runway deviation. I am guessing the pilot panicked!

with above, it is logical to put the blame on the maintenance and pilot error. I do not know what are the commecial aviation rules and regulation in Iran but I can sense that this incident would have been very difficult to predict because the aircraft was onl lease from a foreign company thus by passing Iranian commercial aviation regulation through a loophole.

For those who constantly nag about Iranian aviation and aviation technology (i.e. Kamran Ramyar ) should know what is happening in Iranian aviation has a history that is untold here. aside from US made parts sanctions, the biggest factor that Iranian companies do purcase Russian made aircrafts is the Iranian market. In Iran, people expect to pay very little for their flights and yet they expect to fly the latest Airbuses. The cost of the airline tickets for domestic flights are redicilously low. For example, my flight from tehran to Kermanshah for a return ticket was about $50! The domestic airline companies have repeatedly asked for ticket price increases with no luck, each time the government turn their requests down because of public pressure. I challeneg anyone here who thinks he can do better by oppening a new airline company in Iran providing Airbuses to their customers instead of russian made aircrafts. This should also answer those who question why Iran is not buying the new Russian aircrafts. The simple reason is that "it is not cost effective".

Passenger aircraft manufacturing industry is a far more complex that most people think. The reason is the high safety statndards (in fact it is comparatively easier to manufacture military aircrafts than civilian) that have to be followed by the manufacturer. In all honesty, Iran has taken many steps to provide cost effective aircrafts in Iran for civilian industry namely the production of Iran-140 in Shahin Shahr near Isfahan. It is a 52 seater aircraft with late technology. Iran has also signed a new contract last year with Russia to coproduce 100 of the latest Il-204 (a 200 passenger aircraft with European and American certification) in Iran.

Iran is determined to succeed the commercial aircraft manufacturing industry to not allow ever again sanctions determine the health of its people. But like anything else, it will be a tough road. as a reminder, there are only three major entities that produce the bulk of world's passenger aircrafts and they are EU, the US and Russia.

The question is "Do we want to become a source in aviation industry or not?" If the answer is "YES", then we must accept its slow progress, pitfalls and pains. I have no illusion about what I want Iran to achieve in this arena, but I only have one vote.

Finally, if you are Iranians and want the good for Iran, stop politisizing every event in Iran with your scant knowledge and experience. In the end, you are not helping Iran nor Iranians by being dishonest. We are most of the times too passionate of people and much less rational. No wonder our history is full of foerign manipulation rubbing us times after times.

My two cents!