1/ Sanctions and GPS jamming have had a hugely disruptive effect on Russian civil aviation, according to airline pilots. They have had to fly with suitcases full of old paper charts, turn off critical safety systems, and fly defective aircraft with dubious Chinese components.⬇️ 
2/ The Russian independent media outlet The Insider has been speaking with a number of airline pilots about the impact of sanctions on their work.
3/ Prior to the imposition of sanctions, Russian airlines used Western aeronautical chart systems such as Jeppesen from the US and Lido from Germany. These were disconnected after sanctions were introduced, leaving Russian airlines without electronic charts.
4/ According to one pilot, "there was only one option: switch to paper charts. And we, in fact, flew like that for a while. We had a large suitcase, containing paper charts for every country."
5/ Aeroflot sought frantically to find a Russian replacement and hired a small St Petersburg company, OOO AOMP, to develop an indigeneous app called Skyback Pro. It proved unable to produce replacement charts quickly and with high quality, leading to a lot of errors.
6/ Previously, pilots and flight dispatchers had used the Western systems to automatically generate safety-critical flight calculations in advance of flights. Now, however, they have to do it by hand:
7/ "I recently flew from Moscow to Yekaterinburg and back. As usual, I arrived at the airport a couple of hours before departure to have time to do the flight calculation. But it turned out that everything had to be done manually.
8/ "I was surprised to find that I had to prepare using old paper charts. We barely had two hours to prepare everything and call the necessary authorities for flight approval."
9/ Access to reliable weather forecasting services has also been cut off, meaning that weather information is now taken from open sources and the Internet. As a pilot puts it: "Weather information is taken from the Internet, from open sources. What's the weather like in Surgut?"
10/ "They climb up and look. Oh, the weather is fine. Okay, let's fly. This absolutely does not comply with any international standards."
11/ "That is, now you can fly without flight documents, you can fly without flight calculations, you can fly without hazard maps, you can fly without diagrams of restricted areas, including areas over which air defence can target you.
12/ "We add fuel simply by eye, knowing roughly how much is needed, based on some old calculations. And then we add another five tons to make sure there's enough."
13/ Pilots are also seriously affected by GPS jamming and other anti-drone measures in strategic areas, especially over Moscow. They are having to turn off collision detection systems in response to false alerts, as one pilot explains.
14/ "We were flying to Sochi, and right over the sea, a warning started blaring about a possible collision with a mountain. Just like in many films, in such cases, the plane starts blaring a pull-up. That's exactly what happened to us.
15/ "This happens at night, when you can't see anything. The system exists precisely for this purpose, to warn us. Well, what if I made a mistake somewhere, turned the wrong way, and ended up not over the sea, but actually flying toward the mountain.
16/ "Of course, we started to perform the manoeuvre. Then our crew was severely scolded for it. Didn't you know you were over the sea? Why did you do that? That's why now, because of this GPS spoofing."
17/ Pilots over Moscow simply turn off the ground collision warning system completely, especially at low altitudes, as well as the Traffic Collision Avoidance System that prevents air-to-air collisions. GPS jamming causes erroneous proximity warnings and alarms.
18/ It also disrupts the ability of air traffic control to track where each aircraft is. Manual tracking has to be done instead, but this is prone to errors, which may be particularly dangerous if an aircraft is flying near a military facility which has air defence systems.
19/ A lack of spare parts is also causing increasing numbers of system failures. Some are more hazardous than others. For instance, if the weather radar fails, the aircraft can still be flown, as long as there is good visibility and no adverse weather along the route.
20/ The pilot makes the decision on whether the aircraft is flight-worthy by reviewing the aircraft's technical log before departure. However, due to the increasing number of failures, Aeroflot has abandoned its previous rules and is now allowing a far greater number of defects.
21/ Aircraft are now able to depart with a larger number of more serious equipment failures. But even with higher tolerance for faults, the sheer number of failures has caused serious disruption. More than 200 incidents were logged in 2024 alone.
22/ "There was one time when they changed planes four times. First, they changed one plane, changed passengers, transferred baggage, then a second time, a third, and only on the fourth did they fly. The number of aircraft breakdowns has increased dramatically."
23/ Incidents have included hydraulic failures leading to emergency landings, and engine failures causing engine fires. Aeroflot has had particular problems with the engines on its Airbus A320-200 planes, which have proved very difficult to maintain without support.
24/ According to official statistics, in 2024 alone, Russian airlines decommissioned 58 aircraft due to problems with repairs and spare parts. Even brand-new aircraft have had to be idled due to a lack of demand caused by the closure of international routes.
25/ A pilot recalls: "At the airline where I used to work, 19 new planes are parked at the fence. The company was closed because all aircraft were banned from flying out of Russia. They simply ruined the company."
26/ "The personnel, trained flight personnel with all the necessary permits, were dispersed. Nobody cares about human fates. Established businesses have been destroyed. Planes, including the newest Boeings, simply sit idle at [Moscow] Sheremetyevo.
27/ They occupy parking spaces on the aprons. You can admire them there."
28/ To deal with the shortage of spare parts, airlines are cannibalising unused or faulty planes: "If an aircraft develops a defect that prevents it from flying, it is put on the scrap heap, awaiting its turn or used as a donor aircraft for other aircraft."
29/ "This is a common occurrence now, and an aircraft that is situated on the scrap heap quickly becomes unusable. No amount of mothballing will help. Repairing it afterwards is very difficult, if not impossible.
30/ "We had an airplane whose engine had reached the end of its service life, and it was heavily dismantled for parts and spare parts. Then, when new engines were installed, new parts were purchased, it was slowly reassembled, and it flew again."
31/ Airlines can still obtain spare parts through front companies in various countries, particularly Turkey, as well as from Chinese vendors of unlicensed third party spare parts of questionable quality.
32/ They are now pinning their hopes on the Trump Administration's recent suspension of aviation sanctions against Belarus, which is likely to lead to Russian airlines purchasing parts for their aircraft through Belarusian companies.
33/ Aircraft maintenance was previously done entirely abroad in Turkey or Western Europe. Russia has set up its own maintenance centres in Arkhangelsk, Moscow, and St. Petersburg to perform a full service cycle with the exception of engine repairs.
34/ Despite sanctions, The Insider reports, "specialists from major companies such as Lufthansa, United Airlines, and others unofficially visit there to explain to Russian specialists what needs to be done to the aircraft."
35/ In late July 2025, Aeroflot suffered a devastating hacker attack which wiped about 7,000 of its servers. This had a drastic effect on aircraft safety, as it destroyed many of the airline's maintenance and service databases. The Insider reports:
36/ "Information about which spare parts were on the planes, how long they had been in service, and whether they were fit for use disappeared. All of this is important for safety and insurance payments.
37/ "Now, data must be manually restored from paper logbooks, which is very difficult and almost impossible to do completely. As a result, Aeroflot's flight safety has noticeably worsened."
38/ Pilots also complain that they are no longer being told what cargo they are carrying, and have no idea if their civilian aircraft are being used to transport weapons, ammunition or other dangerous goods in contravention of international standards. /end
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