Russia to Consolidate Domestic Air Traffic Control
Written by LYUBOV PRONINA, MOSCOW
Friday, 29 July 2005
Russian defense industry and civil aviation authorities will by year’s end work out the concept for a single authority to control domestic air traffic, a senior Air Force official said July 26.
“The Air Force and the Defense Ministry have voiced their position, and we are now at the coordination stage with the government to work out financing, training of the staff and subordination,” Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy commander of the Air Force, told reporters at a briefing. “Our view is that the military have the priority as we are in charge of the national security.”
His remarks came two weeks after Russian fighter jets and rocket batteries were placed on alert after a Vietnam Airlines passenger jet bound for Moscow entered Russian airspace, allegedly without permission. The military maintained that the airline officials failed to file proper documents with Russian air traffic controllers on time.
The Air Force’s chief, Gen. Vladimir Mikhailov, said then that air traffic controllers had been aware of the flight. He put the alert down to poor coordination between civil and military aviation authorities.
President Vladimir Putin on Feb.5 said that a single Federal Air Navigation Service will have to be created.
Nogovitsyn said that the military daily registers about 60 domestic commercial flights that lack proper identification. Under Russian legislation, the military can shoot down passenger liners hijacked by terrorists only if there are no passengers on board.
In 1983, Soviet fighter jets shot down a Korean Airlines passenger jet after it strayed into Soviet air space, killing all 269 people on board.
Source: PakRev.com
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July 30, 2005 at 5:25 am