Tuesday, February 3, 2009

In Other News . . .

A vigilant Beet-nik drew my attention to these three stories from today's Moscow Times.

First, Aeroflot passengers rejected their pilot, suspecting he was drunk. Turns out he was. My favorite quote:

"I don't think there's anyone in Russia who doesn't know what a drunk person looks like," said Katya Kushner, who, along with her husband, was one of the first to react when the pilot made his announcement. "At first, he was looking at us like we were crazy. Then, when we wouldn't back down, he said, 'I'll sit here quietly in a corner. We have three more pilots. I won't even touch the controls, I promise.'"

Then, it turns out that the pilot of the flight that crashed in Perm last September tested positive for alcohol.

Investigators said Medvedev [the pilot], who was due to land the jet, passed the wheel to another crew member, saying, "You see yourself that I can't," the report said.

Nice.

Finally, a helicopter full of VIP's crashed in a remote part of Russia last month, killing everyone on board. Turns out the VIPs were senior government officials shooting endangered argali sheep from the air.

Oy. [smacks forehead]

4 comments:

Tina in CT said...

OMG! After the aggravation my daughter and SIL had with Delta this winter, she said they would now fly Aeroflat. I just left a message on her blog to read what you've posted. I never trusted this airline and what you wrote confirms it. I hope they stay with Delta and its aggravations. Thank you for posting.

Susan said...

aeroflat was banned from the Seattle airport because they (the pilots) couldnt understand english and landed on the wrong runway!!

Anonymous said...

Yikes! And my girlfriend wondered why I was petrified when flying last summer.

I have no fear at all of flying, but last summer I had to fly from the Udmertia to Moscow. I try to avoid flying in Russia because of the frequency of accidents, and so I had insisted on getting the train there (18hrs). On the way back, though, I had to fly back for work commitments. The Yak was falling to pieces. I just had to get drunk and get to sleep.

Perhaps the pilots have similar problems?

Seriously, I cannot understand why this kind of thing goes on. How does he even get on a plane?

katbat said...

I flew aeroflot about 10 years ago and I remember asking my husband why there were so many flies buzzing around inside the plane! :-)