Russian Transport Ministry to allow non-original spare parts for plane repairs

The Russian Transport Ministry will begin recommending that foreign-made planes be repaired with non-original spare parts, according to a new draft resolution on the ministry’s website, Interfax reported on Tuesday. The parts must be manufactured “in accordance with procedures” of certain countries that are “leaders in the global aviation community,” the document says.

Because of anti-war sanctions, Russian companies are “experiencing difficulties in supplying original parts produced by organizations approved by the aviation authorities in the aircraft manufacturers’ countries,” Interfax wrote, paraphrasing an explanatory note attached to the draft resolution. Meanwhile, “launching domestic production of foreign spare parts in the Russian Federation will take ‘a considerable amount of time, which will exceed the lifetime of many [aircraft] parts,’” reported Interfax, quoting the note.

On October 17, a Su-34 crashed in Yeysk, in the Krasnodar region, hitting a nine-story building and killing 15 people. On October 9, in two different parts of the Rostov region, a Su-24 and a Su-25 crashed. On October 23, a Su-30 multirole fighter jet crashed into a two-story home in Irkutsk.