As a result of a successful operation in cyberspace, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine retrieved a large amount of classified information from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency.
The press service of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reported on this.
As a result of hacking and penetration into enemy data systems, DIU specialists obtained a large volume of classified official documents of the Federal Air Transport Agency, a structural unit of the Russian Ministry of Transport.
This Russian ministry is responsible for flight safety and records all emergency cases related to the use of Russian aviation.
In the obtained classified documents, the intelligence officers discovered an archive of the Federal Air Transport Agency’s daily reports from all over Russia for more than a year and a half.
Analysis of the documentation reveals that the civil aviation sector in Russia is on the verge of collapse.
Some details taken from leaked documents include the following:
- In January 2023, 185 air accidents were recorded in Russian civil aviation. About a third of them were classified as incidents of varying levels of danger. The leader in this area was the Russian short-haul jet “Sukhoi Superjet,” with 34 problematic cases.
- In the first nine months of 2023, 150 cases of aircraft malfunctions were documented in Russia. In the same period in 2022, 50 such incidents were recorded. Thus, the increase in flight hazards in Russia has tripled.
- The most problematic areas of Russian aviation remain engines and landing gear, along with other important elements such as hydraulic systems, flaps, and software.
- Russia has serious difficulties with the maintenance of high-flying aircraft. Due to the lack of capacity and specialists, Moscow is trying to redirect aircraft maintenance to Iran, where the relevant work is carried out “on a handicraft basis” without appropriate certification.
- As of March 2022, Russia had about 820 foreign-made civilian aircraft. While at that time, only up to 10% of them had undergone uncertified repairs using unauthentic spare parts, today, almost 70% of the fleet has been put through such “service.”
- The acute shortage of spare parts has led to the so-called “aviation cannibalism” in Russia when some aircraft are dismantled to repair others. According to the available data, by mid-2023, more than 35% of aircraft in Russia have been used for “donations”.
- Most Soviet An-2 aircraft are currently unable to get off the ground as their engines were manufactured in Poland, and their supply has been suspended due to sanctions.
- In January 2023 alone, 19 different failures were recorded among the 220 Airbus aircraft in Russia. In particular, 17 cases of smoke were recorded in 9 aircraft used by Aeroflot.
- Out of 230 Boeing aircraft used in Russia, 33 technical failures of various aircraft systems have been recorded.
- Every seventh Brazilian Embraer failed to withstand the conditions of the Russian operation, and there are 21 of them in Russia.
In September 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) marked Russia in red, along with Liberia and Bhutan, which indicates an extremely high risk to flight safety.
The analysis of the nature of aviation incidents from the documents obtained indicates that a number of failures, especially those related to engines, landing gear, and wing mechanization, are systemic in nature.
The problems in civil aviation result from the sanctions imposed on Russia because of the war against Ukraine. The most painful for the Russian Federation was the ban on the supply of aircraft and spare parts and the complete denial of maintenance and software updates.
The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reports that the Russian government is trying to hide problems in the civil aviation sector by all means.