Sukhoi Superjet100 from Russia - how safe?

[ivanhow]

Sukhoi Superjet100 Passenger aircraft from Russia (went missing)!

"The twin-engine Superjet 100 vanished from radar screens on Wednesday, 50 minutes into what was meant to be a short flight to show off its capabilities to prospective buyers.."

These superjets must be so cheap, it attracted a lot of purchase from Indonesian local airlines.

[patrick]

Latest news reports read..."Updated at 4:10 a.m. ET: Indonesian rescuers said Thursday that they had discovered bodies near the wreckage of a Russian-made airliner that disappeared from radar south of the capital Jakarta.
The crew of a helicopter searching for the jet had earlier spotted debris on the edge of a cliff in a mountainous area at 5,500 feet, a senior rescue official said."

[ivanhow]

A JV from several european and american companies, but fully built in Russia, and so begs the question, "Can the Russians be trusted for their aircraft technology?"

The Sukhoi Superjet100 was supposed to be using 'cutting edge' technology, using electronic 'fly-by-wire' as opposed to the manual control system, and with built-in failure detection system, supposed to be cost-efficient to run due to it's lighter weight, reduced fuel consumption, and lower maintenance cost, belonging to the regional class. If not for this incident/accident this Sukhoi Superjet100 seems to be a good alternative in terms of fuel efficiency and low maintenance cost.

[SiangMalam]

These superjets must be so cheap, it attracted a lot of purchase from Indonesian local airlines.

That is one statement that shows how naive and how ignorant of the situation in Indonesia... it was a demo flight and the people in the plane are guests from the aviation companies like Melati, Lion, Nusantara, Mandiri, Riau Air, Garuda etc... the plane is owned by the Russian company and was in Jakarta for a demo flight, no Indonesia company has any of the plane... yet!

For you info, Lion Air has a fleet of more than 100 of the latest Boeing 737-900ER not your MAs 737-800ER! Same with Garuda! And Garuda recently signed the biggest aviation contract in history to buy a new fleet of Airbus planes...

Please do not insult the Indonesians as "cheap" anymore... they are getting ahead of us...

[SiangMalam]

Do you know where the plane crashed? In the Salak Mountain areas of South Jakarta! In bad weather! Any plane flying there in that kind of weatherat such low height in that area would most likely be in trouble! We even have to avoid passing thru Salak when we flew back on helicopter from Kalimantan and flying towards Halim Airport (vs Soekarno Hatta Airport)

[ivanhow]

Thanks SiangMalam, for the insight into the situation in Indonesia. I'm surely convinced that your database of the economic situation in Indonesia is much current.

Altho I'm not familiar with the current economic demands of airliners in Indo, a general perception of it being a product of Russia trying to regain it's lost glory in those "Russian Union" days speaks of comparative price/performance to outbeat it's current rivals in the aircraft industry. Otherwise, it wudn't attact buyers. The fact it had attracted buyers speaks of it being an attactive buy. Cheap does not necessarily mean outclass, and it does not necessarily mean inferior either, just relatively cheaper that those of it's rivals in the same category. In my 2nd post, I did mention that, "The Sukhoi Superjet100 was supposed to be using 'cutting edge' technology".
Perhaps to some, 'cheap' is equated to 'inferior'.

Yet, I do hope to visit Indo more often to see how advanced they are compared with Bolehland.

I was viewing the mountanous areas south of Jakarta in search for Gunung Salak, and found a feature resembling that of a long dormant volcano now covered with green vegetation, and marvelled at the difficult terrain around that region. Because the Superjet100 was said to be equiped with advanced features, it's probably more superior in navigational aspects as well as manoeuvrability. If not mistaken, the pilot had more than 15 yrs experience and had flew in many type of terrain. Perhaps it was human error that caused the flight to crash into the mountaneous cliffs. Or perhaps a combination of human error, and the aircraft's advanced features did not function as expected. It was a second flight, the first went well, and perhaps the pilot thought it wanted to 'test' the more advanced features to demonstrate it's manoeuvrability during flight that did not function as expected. Just speculating!