Cassation Court left the SSJ 100 pilot in force
As it became known to Kommersant, the Cassation Court confirmed the verdict of the Aeroflot pilot Denis Evdokimov, due to the fault of which in 2019 during the landing of SSJ 100 in Sheremetyevo in the tanned during the strike on the runway of the liner, 41 people died. The pilot who was a six-year term in a colony-settlement, who turned out to be a former FSB officer and a war veteran, demanded the abolition of the sentence, and his defense insists that the cause of the tragedy was constructive shortcomings of the aircraft. It should be noted that the lawyers of the victims of the victims of the dead – they are conducting a lawsuit in Paris with foreign companies manufacturers of SSJ equipment.
A meeting of the first cassation court of general jurisdiction in Saratov, which examined the complaint of Denis Evdokimov on sentence The Khimkinsky court and the court of appeal, took a little more than an hour. The former pilot himself participated in it through video conferences from a colony-settlement No. 2 in Zelenograd, where he is serving a six-year sentence appointed by the court. The ex-pilot was convicted, we recall, under an article on violation of the rules of movement and operation of air transport, entailing the death of two or more persons (part 3 of article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
With his defenders, he asked for the verdict to cancel, and return the materials to the prosecutor or send it to a new judicial consideration – or, in extreme cases, soften the punishment imposed on him.
In particular, the former pilot believed that the verdict was based on unacceptable evidence, but the court did not eliminate the contradictions, but gave them an accusatory slope, without accepting the arguments of the defense and thus grossly violating his “constitutional right to judicial protection”.
The lawyers of the ex-pilot, in particular, noted that the documents indicated by the court governing the pilot when landing with the disabled autopilot in the Direct Mode mode do not contain anything “with the exception of the general phrases on the need to own the technique of piloting, taking measures to ensure the safety of people on board, the flight in accordance with the requirements of the production manuals flights « . At the same time, the defenders emphasize, the procedures of this leadership themselves are « only a recommendation for the operator. » In addition, according to them, in the case there is no study of the “causal relationship between the serviceability and malfunction of the aircraft and the actions of the pilot”, and the technical inspection, including the construction of the chassis, which should exclude the occurrence of a fire during a rough landing, was not checked at all.
The defense also indicated that the experts who gave the conclusion on SSJ 100 flew only by passengers, were not familiar with its design and did not check for a malfunction.
In addition, in their studies, they relied, according to lawyers, only on the “intermediate and non -actual information of the preliminary report of the MAC”, received immediately after the disaster. Meanwhile, the final report appeared a few days after the meeting of the cassation instance.
In court, among other things, it was mentioned that the convict is a war veteran, and also “has extensive experience of flight work, including as part of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, his characteristics are impeccable, complaints about his skills, discipline and attitude to the performance of duties.” However, these circumstances, the defense noted, by the courts, when pronouncing the sentence and considering the appeal as mitigating were not taken into account.
Lawyers also emphasized, including with reference to the surviving crew members that the fire broke out on board when it was already on earth, and the death of people from poisoning with products of combustion and thermal burns is not related to Denis Evdokimov’s actions.
Colleagues believed that he had to be judged only in part 1 of the article imputed to him, the statute of limitations for which had long expired. Representatives of the victims also insisted on such retraining in cassation. “From the first process, in the Khimki City Court, we spoke about the lack of a causal relationship between the actions of the pilot and the fire of the fuel tanks that led to the death of people,” said “Kommersant”, representing the interests of the victims Lyudmila Ayvar.
She recalled that a trial in Paris with foreign companies -manufacturers of the main SSJ systems, which allegedly did not meet the established standards of flight suitability, has long been initiated. The defendants in claims are seven firms (and besides them Aeroflot). The process is currently suspended, since the court refused to accept a number of documents not certified in accordance with French law by judicial translators, but will soon be resumed.
According to Kommersant, lawyer Mikhail Zagainov, who, together with colleagues, was the interests of 15 families who lost loved ones as a result plane crashthe plaintiffs carefully monitor the process of Denis Evdokimov.
However, according to him, the verdict made by the Russian court will not affect the course of consideration of the case in French jurisdiction. Lawyer David Kukhalashvili, a colleague of Mr. Zagaynov, noted that the recognition of the crew commander guilty in the framework of the Russian criminal case in itself does not exclude the presence of technical malfunctions of the aircraft. Moreover, this does not exempt the defendants in the case of liability for possible production defects of equipment that could contribute to the development of an emergency.
Be that as it may, the cassation instance in Saratov, the arguments of Denis Evdokimov, did not convince his defense and lawyers, and the decisions of lower courts were upheld. Comments regarding the process, lawyers Denis Evdokimov promised to provide Kommersant later.
