Vladimir Morozov
Recently, many media outlets reported on the story of pilot Belov, who in 2023 successfully landed an Airbus 320 in an emergency situation due to technical issues with the aircraft.
None of the passengers or crew members were injured, and only a few people sought medical attention.
It turns out that instead of receiving awards and honors for saving the lives of 161 people (including 23 children) in an extreme situation, Belov was suspended from flying and is being sued for 119 million rubles in compensation for the “damaged” aircraft.
The airline “Ural Airlines” received insurance payments of $13.3 million and 20 million rubles (totaling over 1 billion rubles). It is reported that neither the passengers nor the airline have any complaints against the pilot.
Who initiated the criminal case for violating safety rules? Was it the insurance company, trying to recover at least 119 million rubles? That’s the amount estimated by a certain commission, whose expertise, according to the defense lawyer, was conducted with gross errors, and there’s no real confirmation of the amount. Or was it the federal authority regulating civil air transport relations, as the saying goes?
Either way, we are witnessing another vomit of capitalism, where money is more important than justice. And the pilot from a family of pilots, who showed courage and professionalism in an emergency situation, saving people’s lives, has been brought to court and deprived of the right to practice his profession. He now works as a courier to survive.
Is this really the traditional values we’re supposed to embrace? Or are we still not embracing them yet?
Dmitri Drobnitsky
Vladimir Golstein
Yuri Chekalin
