Experts: Lax scrutiny, race for profits put safety in a nosedive

MOSCOW -- The storm was too massive to fly around, but rather than turn back, Captain Ivan Korogodin decided to risk flying over the towering clouds.

As the Tupolev-154 approached its maximum operating altitude of 39,400 feet it stalled, went into an uncontrollable spin and slammed into the ground, killing all 170 on board.

The Aug. 22 crash of Pulkovo Airlines flight 612 from a Black Sea resort to St. Petersburg was officially blamed on pilot error. But safety advocates see it as symptomatic of a much deeper problem with Russian aviation: A burgeoning fleet of small, low-budget airlines, undertrained pilots, weak government regulation and a cost-cutting mentality in which pilots who abort flights and landings are sometimes fined.

Worst air traffic safety

Russia and the other former Soviet republics had the world's worst air traffic safety record last year, with an accident rate 13 times the world average, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Last year, 318 people died in two major crashes and eight lesser ones of planes flown by Russian carriers -- close to half the world's total of 755 fatalities reported by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The combined death toll in Russia plus the former Soviet republics reached 466 last year.

Experts, including pilots who fly the former Soviet skies, say government bodies tolerate practices that are wrecking a once honorable safety record.

In interviews, they say regulation is lax, while airlines overwork their crews and fine pilots for using too much fuel. Cutting corners

State-controlled Aeroflot, privately owned Transaero and some other big airlines have modern planes, skilled crews and world-class safety records, experts agree. But scores of smaller carriers, they allege, cut corners on safety.

The rules said flight 612 should have turned back to avoid the storm, but Korogodin, who had logged more than 12,000 flight hours, pressed on.

On the flight recorder he is heard ordering co-pilot Andrei Khodnevich to take the plane upward while warning it will be difficult. The cockpit alarm screams as the plane approaches maximum altitude, and the co-pilot yells "Don't kill me!" before the plane hits the ground.

Airline officials insist their fuel conservation incentives and fines don't apply to extreme conditions and thus don't affect safety. But Oleg Smirnov, who heads the not-for-profit Partner of Civil Aviation Foundation, is skeptical.

"Naturally no one would admit publicly that flight safety isn't the top priority," said Smirnov, a veteran pilot who was a deputy aviation minister in Soviet times. "But nonprofessionals now in charge of many airlines -- former economists, lawyers and even dentists -- think only about money."