Russia announces plan to ground all Boeing 737s in the country

[herding cats]

Source: The Guardian

Russia’s airline regulator said it was suspending flying certificates for Boeing 737s in use in the country until it receives notification that the planes are safe to fly.

The statement by the country’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), dated 4 November, did not immediately ground flights. A spokesman for Rosaviatsia, Russia’s aviation watchdog, which is obliged to comply with IAC safety recommendations, said it had not been notified, so there was no order yet to suspend flights.

The IAC said the suspension would remain in effect until it received notification from Rosaviatsia and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about the safety of Boeing 737 control surfaces on the tail that help steer it.

The IAC announcement came after an Airbus A321 airliner registered in Ireland but operated by a Russian company crashed in Egypt on Saturday and killed 224 people. However, the statement did not make a link between the certificate suspension and the crash in Egypt. The IAC could not be reached for further comment.

<>

Late on Thursday, the FAA released a statement noting Russia’s concern about the tail control surfaces dated back to a crash in 2013 of a 737 operated by Tatarstan Airlines that killed all 50 people on board.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/russia-announces-plan-to-ground-all-boeing-737s-in-the-country

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Better late than never?

Or,

Look! Squirrel!

[SoapBox]

1. I'm thinking...

More on the squirrel side.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Moose and squirrel

[icymist]

4. LOL!

[Angleae]

3. Unless they have 737 classics from the late 80s that haven't had their rudder actuators modified

This reeks of squirrel.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. I vote for

[Nitram]

6. The Russians just can't admit it might have been a bomb.

Blame it on the plane!

[Igel]

7. Dual motives.

Do one thing, say a second, and think a third.

By stopping 737s they create demand for the remaining airplanes that would serve that market. I'm thinking there's a Russian-produced (or Russian-ally-produced) similar plane.

But since the bomb "thing" is getting to be better and better established, this is going to be a red herring as far as security and safety is concerned. An attempt to scapegoat before all the facts are in. Very Russian. And they won't rescind this, either, since it supports their general xenophobic nationalistic views of things.

[daleo]

8. Payback for something, real or imagined

They may think the U.S. had sufficient signals intelligence, via interceptions of ISIS communications, to warn the Russians about a bomb threat, but didn't bother. Maybe it is something else. At any rate this seems like low-level payback over something..

[davidn3600]

9. Meanwhile, Russian planes and airlines fall from the sky

[pampango]

10. Upon second thought: Moscow Times: How Russia Nearly Banned Boeing 737 Airliners

For a few hours on Thursday, Russian aviation authorities appeared to have banned Boeing 737 short-haul airliners.

The surprise move by the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) — a body that investigates air accidents in a clutch of former Soviet states — could have caused havoc, grounding nearly 200 planes, putting half of Russia's airlines out of business, and curtailing air travel inside Russia, the world's largest country.

Within hours, it had unravelled. Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, said no decision had been taken to enforce a ban. But before it did so, industry insiders said the move was corporate revenge, and it emerged that it might not even affect Russian airlines, since 85 percent of their planes are registered in places like Ireland and the Bermuda Islands.

It would not be the first decision by authorities in Moscow to negatively impact Russians, though most recent moves have been political. Bans on a range of food imports from the West in response to sanctions last year caused a sharp rise in food prices. Hundreds of thousands of passengers will be affected by the closure of Russian airspace to Ukrainian planes last month, which followed Kiev's blacklisting of Russian airlines.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/how-russia-nearly-banned-boeing-737-airliners/543553.html