Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ A widespread 'collapse' of Russian airports triggered by Ukrainian drones resulted from a cascading series of disruptions. Airports lacked stairs to disembark passengers, aircrew exceeded their regulation hours, and planes ran out of space to park. ⬇️

https://x.com/MariaSc90701399/status/1941567951397847283

2/ A Ukrainian drone attack on targets in the Moscow region on 5 July triggered Russia's 'Carpet' plan – when aircraft are grounded until the alert is over. On this occasion, however, it triggered chaos across 10 timezones, costing an estimated 20 billion rubles ($256 million).

3/ Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport was among the worst affected. It was effectively shut down between 5 to 7 July, with thousands of passengers delayed by many hours. The incident shows how Ukraine's attacks can cause huge economic damage even without physically impacting targets.

4/ The Baza Telegram channel has provided a detailed explanation of what went wrong:

5/ "According to Baza's sources, during the aviation collapse that lasted from July 5 to 7, Sheremetyevo Airport faced a major shortage of boarding stairs and maintenance personnel: there simply wasn't enough special equipment and people involved.

6/ "The thing is that during the pandemic and the Special Military Operation, the number of flights decreased significantly.

7/ "According to sources, in order to avoid unnecessary costs for servicing unused equipment, such as boarding stairs, the airport simply took them out of service.

8/ "At the same time, it is impossible to quickly put the stairs back into operation: they must undergo special maintenance. As a result, due to their shortage, people had to wait for several hours for the stairs

9/ "In addition, the lack of parking spaces added to the problems. Airplanes maneuvered on taxiways, waiting for space to become available, and then waited for the ramps to be delivered. Some flights had to be sent to neighbouring terminals.

10/ "In turn, due to delays, pilots and flight attendants used up their working hours. At the same time, due to the fact that the delayed flights were sent first, those flights that were supposed to depart on schedule were also delayed.

11/ "Because of this, it turned out that pilots and flight attendants of all flights worked more hours and quickly used up their working hours. Working in excess of the fixed norm is prohibited, and in connection with this, there was a shortage of employees.

12/ "At the same time, many ran out of working hours in other cities. As a result, they could no longer return back as employees; a new crew had to be assigned to their places. The previous workers got to the departure point of the next flight as passengers.

13/ "According to sources, Sheremetyevo also had a shortage of towing vehicle drivers.

Similar difficulties affected the provision of in-flight meals. Suppliers could not cope with the workload due to a shortage of cars and employees to deliver new food and clean up used dishes.

14/ "As a result, some planes had to wait for several hours to be loaded with food. Thus, many of today's flights were not provided with food.

15/ "According to Rosaviatsia [the Federal Air Transport Agency], from 5 to 7 July, airlines cancelled 485 flights, 88 were redirected to alternate airfields. Also, 1,900 departure and arrival flights were delayed.

16/ "Passengers were issued 43,000 ticket refunds, 94,000 people were accommodated in hotels. At the same time, 199,000 vouchers for drinks and 155,000 for food were issued.

17/ "UPD. The Sheremetyevo press service claims that, in fact, Sheremetyevo and its subsidiaries have enough equipment and personnel, passengers were understanding of the situation (and even sang songs), and "work carried out at a high level" and the additional resources of…

18/ …personnel and equipment brought in allowed the schedule to be met in a relatively short time." /end

Source:
t.me/bazabazon/39007