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A Russian SSJ100 plane disintegrated in mid-air before it was forced to make an emergency landing in Khabarovsk.
The passenger aircraft, operated by Rossiya Airlines, was flying from Vladivostok to Blagoveshchensk on November 15 with 90 passengers and five crew members on board.
Witnesses told Russian journalists that a section of the plane’s outer skin separated during the flight, according to The Moscow Times.
No injuries have been reported.
Videos and images circulating online show missing parts of the right engine’s metal covering.
Russia’s Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office confirmed a ‘technical malfunction’, resulting in the plane landing at 9am local time.
(Picture: Far Eastern Transport Prosecutor’s Office)
This incident comes as the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Dmitry Yadrov, told a Federation Council committee that the country’s civil aviation fleet could lose a third of it’s aircraft an 200 helicopters by 2030.
During the committee meeting on October 7, he also warned that ‘a couple of dozen’ Sukhoi Superjets could come to an end due to engine issues in some of them.
In July 2024, a Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed in a forest near Moscow, killing all three people on board.
Within one week in 2024, two Azimuth Airlines Sukhoi Superjets had three incidents – one’s engine caught fire on landing and another was unable to take off from Saransk due to engine failure.
Also on December 1 2024, one of the same jets made an emergency landing due to a fuel filter malfunction error.
There has also been continued pressure on country’s civil aviation ecosystem due to sanctions on some parts and overflights amidst the Russia-Ukraine war.
Metro have reached out to Rossiya Airlines for comment.
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