Russia's aviation crisis keeps getting worse

Russia's sanctions-hit aviation industry has been plagued by multiple jet incidents in recent weeks, adding to President Vladimir Putin's woes during his full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Analysis by Agentstvo, a Russian investigative site launched in 2021, found that in the last two weeks, one of the country's Rossiya Airlines' Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional aircraft was involved in four emergency incidents. Russia's aviation industry has been hard hit by Western sanctions imposed over Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian-operated planes have been sanctioned by the U.S. government, and plane makers have stopped delivering spare parts and new aircraft to the country. More than a year and a half into the war, Russia's aviation industry continues to try to work around Western sanctions and look for ways to substitute Western-made spare parts and equipment for its aircraft to keep the industry afloat. A Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100-95B was involved in two incidents on October 13. The first occurred during a flight from St. Petersburg to Murmansk Oblast, and the second happened a few hours later. Both times, crew members reported problems with the aircraft's wing mechanization, Agentstvo reported, citing the Aviaincident Telegram channel and data from the Flightradar24 service. A few days earlier, on October 9, the Shot Telegram channel reported that the same aircraft made an emergency landing in Samara after its wing flaps jammed. Agentstvo said that according to Flightradar24 data, the plane circled before landing, and returned, presumably without passengers. Story has more.<br/>