Russian investigators are claiming that several recommendations intended to enhance and reinforce pilot training have yet to be introduced.

The Interstate Aviation Committee says it has previously noted “shortcomings” in the training of crews during inquiries into several accidents.

These included a Tupolev Tu-154 flat spin and stall in 2006, the crash of Boeing 737-500s in Perm and Kazan during 2008 and 2013, and the Tu-204 landing accident at Moscow Vnukovo in 2012.

Inquiries have cited issues with initial, recurrent and conversion training, and problems at all levels of civil aviation administration, including legislative support.

“Unfortunately, many recommendations aimed at improving training levels for pilots…have not been implemented to date,” says the committee.

It states that these recommendations have included advisories for enhancing practical skills to recover from in-flight upsets and unusual attitudes – including negative g-loads – and establishing criteria for language proficiency among foreign pilots.

The Interstate Aviation Committee is responding to indications that Aeroflot has sought changes in the pilot-training structure in Russia, in order to meet recruitment demands.

Several aspects of the way flight training is organised have become “obsolete”, the committee says, with insufficient training of instructors, while requirements for using flight-data monitoring programmes have not been set out.

Its claims need to be viewed in the context of its tensions with regulatory authority Rosaviatsia, following a public dispute in the wake of the Tatarstan Airlines 737-500 crash at Kazan.

But the committee insists it has given training specialists the chance to become acquainted with best practice and standards promoted by IATA and ICAO, as well as companies including Airbus, Boeing and United Aircraft.

Source: Cirium Dashboard