MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. The crash of the SSJ 100 aircraft of the Aeroflot airline at the Sheremetyevo airport in May last year was not due to the technical features of the aircraft, a spokesperson with Rostec corporation told TASS on Monday.
Rostec press service made this statement in response to a publication by the Kommersant newspaper. According to the business daily, relatives of the victims of the crash of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner filed claims for compensation for moral damage and material damage to the court of Paris. They also filed claims against the component manufacturers.
"Let's not forget that the aircraft is certified according to all rules, including international ones," the Rostec official stressed.
"It is clear from the preliminary report of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) that serious problems with flying technique resulted in the catastrophic landing," the official added.
Rostec also recalled that the plane hit the runway with the landing gear several times, which was "an example of a gross violation of aircraft operation."
Earlier the Kommersant newspaper reported, that the relatives of 15 passengers who died in the crash on May 5, 2019, filed a lawsuit with the Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris. They sued seven foreign companies producing components for the SSJ: Leach International Europe, Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS, Safran Landing Systems, Thales Avionics Lcd SAS, PowerJet, Safran, Curtiss-Wright Corp, as well as Aeroflot.
The IAC has not published a final report on the crash yet. According to its preliminary report, after a lightning strike the plane for some time lost contact with the ground, while "the crew did not manually release brake flaps." The IAC report notes that immediately after the landing, the aircraft took off to a height of no more than 2 meters. The liner caught fire after hitting the runway several times and its landing gear broke. The SSJ 100 engines stopped working after the plane had completely stopped.
SSJ-100 crash
Aeroflot’s SSJ-100 passenger jet, which left Moscow’s Sheremetievo airport on May 5 for Murmansk, had to return to the air harbor 30 minutes later due to technical problems. The plane crash-landed and caught fire. There were 73 passengers and five crew on board. The disaster claimed 41 lives. Ten were hurt.
A criminal case was opened over the air crash under Part 3 of Article 263 of Russia’s Criminal Code (violation of air traffic and aircraft operation safety rules that resulted in the negligent death of two or more persons). The maximum prison term under this article is seven years in jail. Investigators accused the crew’s commander Denis Yevdokimov for misusing the control stick during the landing. Yevdokimov signed a written promise not to leave town. He pled not guilty. Currently, the Khimki City Court of the Moscow region is still considering his case. In November, the court completely changed components of the offense and initiated the case again from the very start.