Decision to ground the airline following the Il-76 crash is upheld by the Court of Appeal (214 words)

Published: 11/26/2001

According to Alexander Filimonov of the Ministry of Transportation, the Court of Appeal has decided in favour of the ministry's decision to ground Rus Airlines, after one of its Il-76s crashed in July 2001. The GSGA cancelled Rus' licence after the crash in July, but the decision was challenged in the Moscow Arbitrage Court on 18th September 2001, when the court ruled in the carrier's favour and lifted the suspension of the airline's operating licence. The ministry, however, refused to comply with the court order and went to appeal. Filimonov welcomed the court's decision, pointing out that Victor Gorlov, head of the aircraft airworthiness department at the GSGA and deputy head of the investigation team on the Il-76 crash, reported that the airline was not only guilty of overloading and other breaches of regulations, but it had also forged documentation on its engines, including an engine written off by the military and then sold by a third party with false papers after overhaul. Gorlov contends that Rus Airlines was responsible for the documentation and the purchase of the engines, and that these violations strongly contributed to the cancellation of the operating licence.

Article ID: 2926