Saturday s crash was the worst disaster involving a Russian military plane since an overloaded Antonov-32 plowed into a market in Kinshasa, the capital of what was then Zaire, in January 1996, killing about 300 people. Shaposhnikov admitted that the Russian aviation industry, like many other sectors of the Russian economy, was in crisis, and he blamed its problems on a shortage of funds from the state. A long series of accidents involving ex-Soviet aircraft are generally attributed to cash shortages that have lowered already poor maintenance standards and placed extra pressure on air crews. Aviation officials say 219 people died last year in 43 accidents in Russian airspace. All the problems are basically connected with the . . .
Pilots fly less than in Soviet days because of fuel shortages caused by lack of funds.
But, Shaposhnikov added, the same plane had flown to Vietnam and back last week and had been in good condition. This was the second catastrophe in the last four days in Russia. On Wednesday, more than 60 people were killed in a gas explosion at a coal mine near another Siberian town, Novokuznetsk. Ignoring the cold, shocked, furious crowds from Irkutsk apartment houses gathered in the smoking ruins on Saturday evening. An Interfax news agency reporter quoted them demanding that local authorities ban flights over residential parts of Irkutsk.