In January 2023, 185 air accidents were recorded in Russian civil aviation. About a third were qualified as incidents of various levels of danger. Russia's Sukhoi Superjet short-haul aircraft became the leader here, with 34 problem cases recorded.
In the first nine months of 2023, 150 cases of aircraft malfunctions were documented in Russia. For the same period in 2022, only 50 such incidents were recorded. Therefore, the level of danger of flights in Russia has tripled, the HUR said.
The most problematic areas of Russian aviation are engines and chassis, as well as other important elements, including hydraulic systems, flaps and software.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia also faces serious difficulties with the maintenance of aircraft with a large mileage. Due to the lack of capacity and specialists in Moscow, they are trying to reorient aircraft maintenance to Iran, where the relevant work is carried out without the appropriate certification.
As of March 2022, the Russians had about 820 foreign-made civilian aircraft, and at the time only up to 10% of them underwent uncertified repairs using non-authentic spare parts, whereas "now almost 70% of the aircraft fleet passed such a 'maintenance'," the HUR said.
The acute shortage of spare parts has led to the so-called "aircraft cannibalism," when some planes are disassembled to repair others. According to available data, by the middle of 2023, more than 35% of aircraft in Russia were used to repair others.