(Moscow) An Airbus A320 of the Russian company Uralskie Avialinii (Ural Airlines) had to make an emergency landing in a field in Siberia on Tuesday following a hydraulic incident, Russian authorities said.
Targeted by Western sanctions because of its offensive in Ukraine, Russia is facing problems with maintenance and access to spare parts for the Airbus and Boeing aircraft that Russian companies operate, leading to fears for air safety in the country.
According to the Russian air security watchdog, Rossaviatsia, the plane linking Sochi, on the Black Sea, and Omsk in Siberia, landed in a field near the village of Kamenka, in the Novosibirsk region.
According to the regional Ministry of Health, cited by the Tass agency, four minor injuries were recorded. Two suffered bruises and had to undergo radiological examinations, while the other two were treated on an outpatient basis.
The Russian Investigative Committee, in charge of the main investigations, opened a criminal investigation for “violation of air transport safety rules”.
“The causes and circumstances of the incident are being established,” he added.
The airline’s general director, Sergei Skouratov, later indicated that “the green hydraulic system of the aircraft” had stopped working.
“The plane has three hydraulic systems, green, yellow and blue, which are responsible for various working parameters of the plane,” he said, according to Russian news agencies, during a conference of press.
Images released by rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations show the plane, resting in a field, with the slides deployed and one side of the fuselage showing traces of a fire above the right wing.
