Air Transport

Russia's federal air transport supervisory agency has imposed restrictions on UTAir's Tupolev Tu-134 operations following last month's fatal landing accident in Samara.

The agency has prohibited Tu-134 captains with insufficient experience in command from performing approaches where the cloud base is below 262ft (80m) and runway visibility range has fallen below 1,000m.

The Russian ministry of transport adds that the agency has suspended training activity on the Tu-134 simulator at the aviation centre in Tyumen until the investigation into the 17 March crash is complete.

Six passengers were killed after the UTAir jet, arriving from Surgut, crashed while touching down at Samara, broke into several sections and overturned. The airport was experiencing heavy fog at the time.

Federal investigators have placed the restrictions on the airline after carrying out checks at Tyumen as well as the carrier's regional offices in Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk, Syktyvkar and Ufa.