Landing with a claim: TFR demands 127 million rubles from the pilot for an emergency landing

The claims against the pilot Sergey Belov, who landed a plane with 161 passengers in a wheat field in 2023, increased to 127 million rubles, Izvestia learned. The investigation demands to reimburse the cost of damaged parts of the Airbus A320, including seven engine fan blades, four brakes and wheels. The UK believes that the crew commander is to blame for the lack of fuel that led to the emergency landing, and on October 29, he was repeatedly charged with violating safety regulations. At the same time, Ural Airlines, which owns the plane, has received an insurance payment and has no property claims against the pilot. The defense also disputes the amount of damage and the validity of the expertise on which the prosecution is based. New details of the case can be found in the Izvestia article.

A new charge

On the morning of October 29, the Eastern Interregional Transport Administration re-charged Sergei Belov, the crew commander of the Airbus A320, who made an emergency landing in a field in September 2023. According to investigators, the cause of the accident was a critical shortage of fuel, for which the pilot is responsible. His actions are classified as a violation of the rules of traffic safety and operation of air transport.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Alexander Polegenko

The re-accusation followed after the Eighth Court of Cassation returned the criminal case to the Prosecutor's Office in August to eliminate violations. The qualification of Belov's actions has not changed, but the amount of material claims against him has increased significantly.

According to the new version of the charges, which appeared at the disposal of Izvestia, the investigation requires the recovery of 127.1 million rubles from the pilot — about 20% more than before.

According to the TFR, due to the forced landing of the airbus with passengers "in an unsuitable place", two dozen aircraft parts were damaged, including the flaps of the main landing gear on the right and left worth 12.1 million rubles, seven engine fan blades worth 7.2 million rubles, four main wheels of the Airbus, each of which is estimated at 3.2 million rubles, and other details.

According to the prosecution, on September 12, 2023, the ship's commander Belov and co—pilot Semenov performed a regular flight on the Sochi - Omsk route. During landing at Omsk airport, a technical malfunction occurred: the "working fluid of the green hydraulic system" of the aircraft began to leak, which was necessary, among other things, for cleaning the landing gear.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Eduard Kornienko

The investigation believes that the crew commander ignored the malfunction message and warnings that the landing gear of the aircraft was not fixed in the retracted position. The prosecution believes that Belov "showed frivolity" and did not check the correctness of calculations of fuel reserves made by the co-pilot. Deciding that there was enough kerosene to land at an alternate airfield, he refused to land in Omsk and continued the flight to Novosibirsk "with the existing technical malfunction."

However, soon problems with the hydraulic system and loose landing gear led to fuel overruns, and the pilot had to "visually search for an emergency landing site." The crew landed the plane in a wheat field 180 km from Novosibirsk. All 161 passengers remained alive and unharmed. In July 2025, Belov was charged, and Ural Airlines was recognized as a victim in the case.

Disputed damages

Sergei Belov's defense insists that the examination on which the accusation is based was conducted by a DOSAAF specialist who does not have a pilot's license, experience in flying passenger jets and flying an Airbus A320. According to Belov, he also did not examine either the emergency board or its black boxes.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Alexey Maishev

In this regard, the pilot insists on a second flight technical examination with the participation of a specialist with experience in managing Airbus family aircraft. He also recalled that the criminal case had been returned for further investigation, including due to the lack of evidence of damage. At the same time, Ural Airlines officially stated that there were no property and financial claims against him. According to Belov, after the incident, the company received insurance payments more than ten times the amount of damage claimed by the investigation.

He also claims that no commodity expertise was conducted to determine the actual amount of losses..

"The case file does not contain data on the dates of manufacture of the damaged parts, the degree of their wear, the nature of the damage, the original price, the cost at the time of the incident and repair costs," the pilot explained in an interview with Izvestia.

He claims that the defense requested a commodity examination and seizure of documents, but the investigator rejected these requests, citing the fact that the amount of damage is confirmed by information and a certificate from the airline itself.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

After the investigation of the incident by the Federal Air Transport Agency was completed in 2024, Belov wrote a letter of resignation from Ural Airlines. According to his representatives, the pilot now has no permanent income and has to make do with odd jobs.

Izvestia contacted Ural Airlines for comment on the case, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Debriefing

Alexander Romanov, an ex-aircraft commander and flight safety specialist, believes that in aviation accidents they often try to assign responsibility to flight personnel.

"In such cases, there are often sweeping accusations," the expert noted. — The planes are insured, the damage is compensated. Therefore, material claims against the crew in this case are incorrect and even dishonest.

According to Romanov, it is the wrong approach to demand compensation from pilots if no one was killed or injured in the accident, and the insurance company covered the losses. He stressed that the task of pilots is to safely control the aircraft and competently respond to violations and deviations that occur in flight.