 |
| A Sukhoi Superjet 100 takes part in the 48th Paris Air Show at the Le Bourget airport near Paris in this June 17, 2009 file photo. A Russian Sukhoi passenger plane with 46 people on board, including businessmen and Russian envoys, has gone missing during a demonstration flight over West Java in Indonesia, officials said on May 9, 2012. (Reuters Photo/Benoit Tessier) |
Related
articles
- Indonesia Turns Down Request to Send Sukhoi Black Box to Russia
- No BlackBox Yet for Sukhoi Search Team
- Two Russian Journalists Evacuated From Sukhoi Crash Location
- Climbers Try to Reach Sukhoi’s Black Box in Indonesia
- Indonesia Airline Boom Raises New Safety Questions
Moscow. The
Sukhoi jet that crashed in Indonesia killing all on board was a replacement for
another plane that had carried out the first part of a promotional tour, its
manufacturer said on Monday.
The Sukhoi
Superjet 100 — the first new passenger plane produced by Russia since the
collapse of the USSR — was making an exhibition flight in Indonesia on a
promotional tour to drum up business.
But the
plane that crashed was not the same aircraft that carried out the first part of
the promotional tour in Kazakhstan and Pakistan, Olga Kayukova, the spokeswoman
for Sukhoi Civil Aircraft which makes the plane told AFP.
The
Moskovskiy Komsomolets and Kommersant newspapers earlier reported that the
plane had been replaced in the middle of the exhibition tour.
Kayukova
said that the first model had returned to Moscow after the Kazakhstan leg “to
take part in tests,” without giving further details on the reason.
But she
added that the second plane was in “perfect technical condition before the
flight.”
Images of
the planes’ registration numbers posted by bloggers who had been following the
whole tour confirmed the reports.
Moskovskiy
Komsomolets said that the Superjet shown off in Kazakhstan and Pakistan was
number 97005 while the model which crashed in Indonesia was number 97004.
“Why it was
replaced, I cannot say,” the paper quoted a source as saying. “But if it was
not allowed to make further demonstration flights there must have been a
cause.”
It had previously
been assumed that the Superjet which crashed last week was the same plane that
made the first part of the promotional tour.
At least 45
people, mostly Indonesian airline representatives and eight Russians were on
board the plane, which slammed into a dormant volcano after takeoff on
Wednesday.
Its loss
was a huge blow for the Superjet project, which legendary Russian plane maker
Sukhoi hopes will be a major player in the short haul aviation market. So far
there have been no official word on the cause of the crash.
Agence France-Presse
No comments:
Post a Comment