As a result of sanctions that were put in against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, Russian pilots are expected to maintain their own aircraft. Due to this, regional airline pilots are now required to perform their own aircraft maintenance, according to Newsweek. Earlier this month at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Oleg Bocharov, Russia’s deputy minister of industry and trade, made the declaration.
“Together with the Ministry of Transport, we must train and certify pilots as universal fighters. They must simultaneously be pilots and aircraft technicians. And the equipment should provide for the possibility of field repairs in operation,” Bocharov had said.
Russian airlines are no longer allowed to fly in the airspace of the US, EU, UK, and Canada
“We are talking about pilots, primarily of regional aviation, for which a fundamentally new system for maintaining the airworthiness of new types of domestic regional aircraft should be created,” he said.
Russian airlines are no longer allowed to fly in the airspace of the US, EU, UK, and Canada, which has severely hurt the Russian aviation sector. Even all foreign flights, with the exception of those to Belarus, had to be canceled by Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier.
The invasion of Ukraine, according to EU Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean, is unrelated to this. She said: “We are living in the context of Russia’s unprovoked and unlawful military attack against Ukraine. However, it added 21 Russian airlines to its Air Safety List, which prevents them from operating in its territory on “safety grounds”.