Never Let The Truth Get In The Way Of A Good Story

[willedoo]

Never ceases to amaze, some of the comments from the media in the nightly news.

 

I was watching the SBS news report on Friday's crash of an Il-76 at Brazzaville, Congo. They wrapped up the report by saying that the Ilyushin 76 is banned in many countries including Australia, because of it's poor safety record.

 

I must be missing something here, I was always under the impression they were banned because the D30-Kp engines did not meet ICAO noise and pollution requirements. All the aircraft converted with Ps-90 high BP engines satisfy ICAO requirements and are allowed to fly in the EU and other countries.

 

I'm not sure what constitutes a poor safety record in the context of the aicraft itself, in SBS's view. There has been a lot of losses of Il-76's over the years, but the aircraft itself is inherently safe and reliable. I don't know of any incidents related to inherent design faults or weakness of the aircraft.

 

The reasons behind the crashes have been pilot error, weather, hostile action, and most notably, lack of maintenance by independant operators.

 

Some ex Air Force Il-76's that saw heavy service with the Soviets in Afghanistan suffered unusual stresses to the airframes due to the take off and landing methods, where they were flown outside the manufacturer's limits in order to avoid shoulder fired missiles. With the fall of the Soviet Union, a lot of these ended up in private hands, and, combined with a lack of maintenance, eventually fell victim to degradation of the airframes caused by these stresses.

 

There's nothing unsafe about the aircraft, in the original form that it leaves the factory. As long as it's operated according to the manufacturer's recommendations and maintained properly, all's ok.

 

Using the logic of SBS, if thirty people bought a Cessna 206 each, flew them round the clock with little or no maintenance, and they eventually crashed, then it follows that the Cessna 206 would have a poor safety record.

 

I guess one of the advantages of television journalism is that everyone forgets about the news five minutes later, so it doesn't have to be as factual as the printed media.

 

Maybe SBS is right and I'm wrong. Maybe it is just a bad plane.

 

Cheers, Willie.

 

http://avherald.com/h?article=459df3ac

 

Photos of EK-76300

 

c/n 073410300.

 

It's an old Il-76T manufactured in 1977, and been around a bit. Originally Air Force CCCP-86729, then reregistered RA-76430. Other registrations have been HA-TCI ( Hungarian Ukranian Air Cargo, 2001). ER-IBF (Jet Line International, 2006). TN-AHT (Heavy Lift Congo,2008).

 

At one stage, it was thought to have been part of Viktor Bout's fleet with Air Pass in Swaziland and then sold to Centrafrican Airlines in 1998. Also was operated by Tatarstan airline, Iron Dragon-Fly.

 

EK-76300 was one of only about twenty Il-76T 'Falsies' known to be built. These were built with a tail gun station instead of the normal pointed tail cone of the civil 'T' version, but were designated 'T' instead of 'M' for some unknown reason.

 

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch==("ilyushin il-76/78/82" OR "beriev a-50/be-976")&airlinesearch=&countrysearch=&specialsearch=&daterange=&keywords=ek-76300&raHA-TCInge=&sort_order=photo_id desc&page_limit=15&thumbnails=

 

 

[siznaudin]

Great post - somehow, although we're SBS viewers, we missed that one - which means we missed nothing. Not good enough, SBS!

 

 

[willedoo]

Not good enough, SBS!

Yes, fancy picking on the poor old Il-76.

It's easy to feel sorry for the presenters at times; they only read out what someone else has written for them. They must go home sometimes and think, 'Jeez, that didn't sound right.'.

 

Having said all the above, I've got a lot of respect for SBS, they stand out in Australia in the news and current affairs department. Probably if I ever had to be critical of them, for anything other than bagging a perfectly good aeroplane, it would be for under reporting or convenient omissions, rather than blatantly stretching the truth. Can't blame them though, there's a big boat out there that doesn't want to be rocked.

 

Half the battle seems to be competition for ratings; the news these days seems to have become entertainment, like some reality show, rather than serious reporting of events. I guess it's always been that way, but modern technology and helicopters etc. seem to have made it more so. Maybe a lot of people only want to sit down for half an hour and watch a few car crashes, house fires, and robbers being chased and be satisfied they've seen the news. If that's where the market is, the producers will keep dishing it out.

 

I guess I'd better quit while I'm ahead, I wouldn't like to upset Lee Lin.

 

Cheers, Willie.