Azernews.Az

Aviation officials of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries met in Baku last week for broad discussions on issues including flight safety, amid mounting concerns over a slew of consecutive plane crashes in Russia.
The 28th session of the CIS Intergovernmental Aviation Committee (IAC) mulled creating an international system of independent enquiries under the organization.
Participants focused on issues regarding flight safety in the CIS states, including proposals on state support for airlines in the conditions of the present-day global economic downturn.
Attendees agreed upon a 2009 plan on implementing a collaborative project of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the CIS committee. The activities include holding seminars on flight safety, to be organized in cooperation by Airbus and Boeing.
The CIS aviation officials also looked into the proposals of ICAO and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The two groups had recommended heeding attention to issues of increasing collections of funds related to traffic control and airports, as well as customs duties, in light of soaring world prices for fuel, which pose a threat of worldwide crisis in the air transportation field and the aviation industry as a whole.
The CIS states` representatives also approved amendments to existing requirements on the equipment used at airports and runways, as well as the life-span of freight planes.
The session was attended by IAC Deputy Chairman, Alexander Filatov, and the Director of the Azerbaijan State Civil Aviation Administration, Arif Mammadov.
Six plane crashes have been reported in Russia so far this year. In mid-September, the crash of a Aeroflot Boeing 737 plane in Russia`s Perm province killed all 88 people on board, including 12 Azerbaijanis. That accident was Russia`s worst crash since 170 people died in August 2006 when a TU-154 plane crashed in Ukraine on a flight from the Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg.
A total of 410 people were killed and 105 others were injured in plane crashes around the world in the first half of 2008, which involved 21 military and 34 civil aircraft. 25 of the accidents resulted from technical malfunctions, while seven were caused by pilots` errors, five - by inclement weather, and the rest by other causes that were not disclosed. 10 of them took place in the United States, five in Sudan, four in Russia, three in Britain, and two each in Pakistan, Georgia, Italy, Chili, and Indonesia. The planes that crashed the most this year were Cessna, Antonov and MiG-29.
The CIS Intergovernmental Aviation Committee, which comprises all 12 former Soviet republics, was founded under the December 1991 Agreement on Civil Aviation and the Use of Airspace.