"Belavia Bought Dangerous Airplanes?

• 19.06.2025, 12:20

Why Belarus' purchase of airplanes is not a reason to rejoice.

Recently it became known that three Airbus A330 airplanes, which had been previously bought from Gambia to circumvent sanctions, were delivered to Belarus. It is known that now they are in poor technical condition. In addition, there are regular flights of Sukhoi Superjet from Russia to Minsk - the other day, one of these airliners had an engine bare during takeoff from Moscow airport.

- There are two worlds. One is always striving for safety, all laws and standards are observed in its airspace. This world flies quite safely. From February 24, 2022, there is another world that lives under different laws," aviation expert Konstantin Krivolap said on Malanka Media. - And the risks for the use of air carriers fall on the shoulders of the people themselves.

The planes that are not maintained have two global risks: engine failure and landing gear failure, as well as the lack of software updates, which is also very dangerous.

If we talk about the Sukhoi Superjet, which fly including to Minsk, the expert notes: 230 such machines were produced until 2019. However, part of the low has already fallen into disrepair due to disasters.

- The State Duma even decided to ban the operation and production of these airplanes. But when Russia faced an acute shortage of aircraft fleet due to problems with Boeing, Airbus and others, it was decided that Russia would make its own import-substituted aircraft.

If you look at the history, it was a project that was actually financed by bankers. The Sukhoi Superjet that was made had 70% western kit. There was also a joint venture set up, but it stopped working after the hot phase of the war.

So these airplanes have no replacement engines and no normal maintenance. And when they started to talk about import substitution, this Sukhoi Superjet did not work for them.

As for the purchase of Airbus A330 aircrafts by Belarus, the expert notes that the company banned the sale of its aircrafts to Belarus, but Gambia did it anyway.

- This is not a country that fears sanctions. That is why they resolutely sold these airplanes to Belarus. The Gambians obviously did not need them anymore, because they were in a state where it was dangerous to fly them. Now all the risks are taken by air carriers and insurance companies. And insurance companies in Belarus are of the category: "As Lukashenko orders, so it will be".

According to the expert, improper maintenance of airplanes leads to negative consequences. One can look at Russia: there are about five aviation incidents per week.