The Podolsky District Court of Kiev ordered the seizure of five An-124 operated by Volga-Dnepr Airlines for the alleged unauthorised maintenance checks performed by the Russian airline.
“According to Antonov Design Bureau, the investigators, and the court, the admission of the An-124 to the further operation is a violation of the provisions of the ICAO Convention on International Civil Aviation and Airworthiness Guidelines. The seizure of property is allowed in order to ensure the safety of physical evidence and compensation for damage caused by the crime,” said Roman Marchenko from the Ilyashev & Partners law firm, which represents the Ukrainian manufacturer.
The court acted upon an earlier requested submitted by the Main Directorate of the Ukrainian police.
The five aircraft affected by the order are:
RA-82068 (msn 9773051359127), stored at Ulyanovsk Vostochny since November 2018,
RA-82078 (msn 9773054559153), active and last seen at Abu Dhabi Int’l on June 9, 2019,
RA-82045 (msn 9773052255113), stored at Leipzig/Halle since January 2019 and operating technical flights around the airport,
RA-82046 (msn 9773052255117), stored at Tunis since June 2018,
RA-82077 (msn 9773054459151), active and last seen at Milan Malpensa on June 6, 2019.
Antonov previously alleged that Volga-Dnepr Airlines and its Leipzig/Halle-based MRO subsidiary, AMTES GmbH, performed unauthorised checks on the An-124s and subsequently extended the validity of type certificates of the said aircraft. The Ukrainian manufacturer said that such maintenance checks should not have been approved by the authorities as it was the world’s only MRO centre authorised to conduct heavy checks on the type.
Volga-Dnepr and AMTES denied executing unauthorised maintenance on the An-124s.
The airline and the manufacturer have been deadlocked since 2014 after the Crimean Crisis and the ensuing civil war in the Donbass with pro-Russian separatists, led to the severing of all relations between Russia and Ukraine.
One of the most interesting and the best Cargo haulers I have ever seen yet. I hope for the best in the future maintenance checks of the remaining five aircrafts.
This is obviously a political move by Ukraine. Similar to Volga-Dnepr decided to stop cooperation with NATO last year and Antonov Airlines took over the traffic.
All russian registred aircraft are banned from Ukrainian airspace, and according to Antonov the only approved MRO is in Ukraine 🤷🏻♂️
Ukrainian court appealed to international parties to execute the seizure and deny servicing the 5 aircraft.
I don’t think international parties will involve in this political dispute.
Little bit of a narrow lenses there my friend. It was a pro Russian rebel group, not officially supported by either side. They weren’t aiming for an airliner, simply incompetent, undertrained, or some combination of them, to and extent whare they mistook it for a military plane. It wasn’t officially either government. Anyway, I digress, there have been 8,000+ people killed, not a small portion civilian. To be upset about the aviation side with the relatively small portion on MH17 and the 777 involved, much less the aircraft which are merely grounded is in my opinion extremely immature…
I was referring to how it aviation gets tied up in the conflicts, trust me I’m well aware of the amount of ground casualties that have resulted due to this but since this is an aviation forum, I was speaking about the aviation aspect of it, which in turn isn’t immature 😉
I agree with your point. MH17 had an investigation and it was Russians. Saying it was pro rebels means nothing as Russia deny everything anyway, they always have. The dutch led an investigation into it and uncovered what needed to, this conflict has resulted in mass casualties but for an airline with neutral citizens on board not related to the war at all to be murdered is not okay. I’m not sure why Russia has to act like the alpha in all these situations, Ukraine should be afraid of Russia. NATO is the only thing that will save them.
Really unnecessary to talk about politics on this forum. Obviously in these kind of subjects its impossible to avoid them, but at least lets try to stay on topic instead of blaming one side or the other for MH17
It’s a political situation. Everything going on between them is. And there is no blaming. The investigation is over and done with, the facts are out there for all to see.
I echo this, let’s try and keep this away from a political spat as much as possible. Blaming countries for what they may or may not have done, and theorizing on political situations that do not involve us is not what the IFC is about.
