Aeroflot now one of the safest airlines?

Barely a Cold War year went by when scores of travellers didn’t spend their
final moments strapped into an Aeroflot seat. Its planes fell from the sky
with unerring consistency:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerofl..._and_incidents
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Aeroflot: from world's deadliest airline to one of the safest in the sky

Aeroflot's uniforms were recently voted the most stylish in the sky

Oliver Smith
9 FEBRUARY 2016

Aeroflot, founded on this day in 1923, is one of the world’s safest
airlines. The website AirlineRatings.com – which judges the vulnerability of
carriers according to a number of criteria – gives it the maximum seven
stars, placing it alongside the likes of Qantas and BA (and ahead of
Ryanair) in its latest ratings. The Russian airline has been involved in
just one fatal accident in the past 20 years.

But it wasn’t always thus. Aeroflot’s safety record was once the stuff of
nervous fliers’ nightmares – and the numbers are truly staggering.

During 1973 alone, it was involved in 27 incidents in which a total of 780
people lost their lives, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

In 1974, there were another 21, while in 1975 the figure fell to 19. But
1976 was a real annus horribilis, with a total of 33 accidents or major
incidents.

That’s a total of 721 incidents in 44 years. Yes, Aeroflot wasn’t the only
airline to suffer during the Sixties and Seventies – the deadliest decades
for flying. But it was involved in far more than any other.

The Aircraft Crashes Record Office reports 8,231 passengers have died in
Aeroflot crashes. Air France is next on its list, with 1,783, followed by
Pan Am (1,645), American (1,442), United (1,211) and TWA (1,077).

Why was Aeroflot so accident prone? Its sheer size was a major factor.
Aeroflot was once the only airline in operation throughout the whole of the
Soviet Union and by the mid-Sixties it was already carrying a remarkable 60
million passengers a year. At the height of the 1970 summer holiday season,
it was flying 400,000 passengers a day. By comparison, Pan Am welcomed just
11 million passengers throughout the whole of 1970. Aeroflot’s figures grew
yet further to 100 million in 1976, more than the likes of easyJet (62
million in 2014) and Ryanair (86 million in 2014) carry today.

Its all-Russian fleet was another factor. The reliability of Russian
aircraft can be summed up by the fact that AirlineRatings.com continues to
deduct a star for any airline that operates using only Russian built
aircraft. Marks are also lost if the airline is not audited by IATA
(International Air Transport Association), is not endorsed by the FAA
(Federal Aviation Administration), is on the EU’s blacklist or has had a
fatal accident in the last decade.

Back in 2013, AirlineRatings.com released a list of the 10 least safe
aircraft models. Topping the chart was the Czech LET410, introduced in 1970,
but five Russian aircraft were also present, including a staple of Aeroflot’s
Cold War fleet – the Tupolev Tu-154. Wikipedia lists more than 50 major
incidents involving this model, eight involving Aeroflot, and 39 of which
resulted in the loss of lives.

The Nineties were the turning point. The breakup of the Soviet Union saw
Aeroflot rapidly shrink, dividing into a number of smaller regional airlines
(it carried just 5.9 million passengers in 2003, although it has since
expanded to 26 million passengers a year). In 1994, the same year the
Russian government sold off 49 per cent of its stake in the airline,
Aeroflot was involved in nine incidents or accidents. That fell to just two
for both 1995 and 1996. Since then, it has been as safe as houses, barring,
that is, the 2008 crash of Aeroflot Flight 821, due to pilot error – and
possible alcohol consumption.

Those Soviet aircraft have been replaced by Western-built jets. The Tupolev
Tu-154 was retired in 2009, and its fleet now consists almost exclusively of
Airbus and Boeing aircraft, including 777s and A330s, both rated among the
safest models by AirlineRatings.com.

Its efforts to redefine itself as a modern and reliable aircraft extended to
hiring rebranding consultants in the early 2000s. In 2013 it scored the coup
of an official partnership with Manchester United and it even gave its cabin
crew uniform a makeover – though the hammer-and-sickle logo remains.

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