“It’s not easy to land such a plane on the ground, we had to fly to the airfield”
The emergency landing outside the airfield of an Airbus A320 aircraft flying from Sochi to Omsk caused a great resonance in the media and among professionals in the aviation environment. «MK» asked the pilots to evaluate the actions of their colleagues — captain Sergei Belov and co-pilot Eduard Semenov, who, after a failure of the hydraulic system, managed to successfully land a plane with 161 passengers on board in a wheat field near Novosibirsk.
All experts are unanimous in the opinion that selecting a site for an emergency landing and performing it flawlessly on the ground so that none of the passengers are injured certainly speaks of the high skill of the pilots. However, the reasons that forced the crew to make such a decision must be investigated most thoroughly, since questions arise here.
Here is what the pilots say about this.
Vladimir Salnikov is a pilot with 40 years of experience, in the recent past crew commander of Il-96 and Superjet-100 aircraft:
— My opinion is this: on any aircraft there is more than one hydraulic system. For example, on the IL-96 there are four of them. And if for some reason the hydraulic fluid leaves or leaks from one system, then the other system still remains in working order. Yes, in this case the speed of movement of the rudders changes, since the pressure in the system is already less and the impact on the control surfaces is less, but nevertheless, the plane is controlled, it flies.
— It’s hard to imagine such an option. This is, of course, an emergency. To prevent a complete leak of hydraulic fluid in all hydraulic systems, the pilots could decide to land in the field. If, for example, they realized that with such a refusal they would not be able to fly to the nearest airfield in Novosibirsk.
— No. There are most likely some other reasons here, since the elements of the hydraulic system — tubes, hydraulic pumps — are long-lasting components. They are installed and operate on the aircraft from the moment it begins operation until major overhaul. And already during the overhaul, they are serviced. Then these tubes and hydraulic pumps are examined and, if necessary, replaced.
When an aircraft undergoes lighter forms of maintenance, for example, if it has flown 500 hours and is driven into a hangar, then the inspection occurs according to a simplified scheme. After which the plane is allowed to fly again.
So here the reasons for this decision of the crew will have to be investigated by the investigation.
— Yes, it’s not easy to land such a plane on the field. In Soviet times, when I had just graduated from flight school and we were flying An-2 light aircraft, we were taught to select sites in the field for an emergency landing. Such skills remain for life.
It’s good that modern pilots still have these skills. It is not the easiest task to find a platform to sit down. But if it was a wheat field, it is usually flat. No gullies, ravines, or hummocks. And here the eye and calculation of the pilots worked perfectly. In general, they were great for landing the Airbus A320 so that everyone survived.
And here is how a pilot flying an Airbus A320 assessed the situation on condition of anonymity:
— I would like to clarify: the Airbus A320 has three hydraulic systems. Two of them are main and the third is reserve. It contains, of course, less hydraulic fluid, but nevertheless it works.
It turns out that they released the landing gear, even the unsteerable nose wheel and strut. If the engines and at least one hydraulic system were working, they were obliged to fly to the airport to their destination to Omsk, or to an alternate airport to Novosibirsk and land at the airfield so as not to endanger the lives of passengers.
For what reason did they decided to land in a field, it is still unclear if the engines were still working. Even if there is only one worker, the plane flies in this case. And flies to the airfield. The decision to land the plane in a field could only be made if both engines failed. In this case, the pilots did the right thing. But here investigators need to figure it out.