"Russian Plane Crash Highlights Air Travel Safety Issues"

  

             The “Russian Plane Crash Highlights Air Travel Safety Issues” article was written in The Los Angeles Times, by Sergei L. Loiko, on September 8, 2011(reporting from Moscow). Hockey is an incredibly important sport in Russia, just like football is an essential sport in America. On Wednesday, a premier Kontinental Hockey League team’s jet crashed into the Volga River shortly after takeoff. Even though Russia is powerful, its weakness is the substandard quality and safety of air travel. Aircrafts are a necessity for the economy to flourish. The Yakovlev-42 jet crash killed forty-three people, thirty-five of them being players, coaches and team officials, including eight crew members. Sadly, only one player and flight engineer survived, but with serious injuries. Many athletes passed away, including former NHL player Brad McCrimmon, who had just signed a contract to coach Lokomotiv after working as an assistant coach. The game was planned for Thursday and it was going to be his first time coaching as the head coach. The Kontinental hockey League was organized and sponsored by Russia. This crash may cause a huge damage in the league’s reputation.

After many investigations, it has been concluded that the jet crashed because of mechanical malfunction and human errors. Coincidently, this was not the only Russian aircraft that has crashed. In June, Tupolev-134 crashed on the highway trying to land. Forty-four people died.

This article is extremely important, because it informs people about the dangers of the Russian aircrafts. I never knew that the Russian airplanes are old, inefficient and that the pilots are not properly trained to save the airplane during an emergency. It is truly unsafe and dangerous to be on one of those aircrafts. It would be really unfortunate to lose more lives.  This article really caught my attention, because innocent lives were lost due to the lack of experience. After being introduced to this horrible news, I do not think I will ever travel in a Russian airplane. One of the aviation experts expressed his professional opinion stating, "I hate to say it, but the situation is so bad that planes will continue to crash.”