You can increasingly hear on the news that a plane crashed in a particular region and many people died. Alas, today such disasters occur so often that many are no longer very surprised by such news. Some Russians believe that airliner crashes in their country are due to the fact that they are outdated, as they were assembled during the Soviet Union. However, planes also crash in other countries to which Soviet designers have nothing to do.

Moreover, American, German and French airliners are considered the most powerful and reliable. What is the reason then? In general, planes crash for completely different reasons, and this is not always due to a malfunction of the aircraft itself. Quite often the reason lies in the pilot himself, who controls the airliner. Let's take a closer look at why planes crash and can it be prevented?

Causes of plane crashes

In half of air accidents, pilots are at fault, because they are responsible for ensuring that the plane takes off and lands successfully. Disasters often occurred due to the fact that pilots could not quickly make the right decision in difficult weather conditions. Also, the cause of tragedies was often poor health or fatigue of the pilot, flying the aircraft.

All pilots are checked before the flight:

• Health status: this includes measuring pulse, blood pressure and temperature.
• The presence of alcohol or drugs in the blood using special screening testing.

In order to obtain a license and fly airplanes, applicants for the post of pilot have to undergo many medical commissions, take a lot of tests and undergo a long probationary period. However, as practice shows, even with high qualifications and work experience, some make mistakes that cost the lives of not only them, but also their passengers.

Also, the causes of incidents can be:

1. Aircraft malfunction or obsolescence of equipment are quite common causes of plane crashes. It’s not necessarily the case that old airliners can crash; quite often, modern aircraft get into accidents. It is very important that the aircraft is in good working order and that all its mechanisms are in excellent condition. If any part breaks, it is necessary to make a thorough repair and check the device several times before sending it into flight. A terrible crash occurred in 1985 when a Boeing 747 collided with Mount Otsutaka, killing 520 passengers. The reason was that the plane was poorly repaired and in the air it could not cope with the obstacle.
2. Adverse weather conditions. Before sending an aircraft on a flight, it is necessary that authorized persons thoroughly study weather who are waiting for him on the way to his destination. If there is a risk of thunderstorms or severe hurricanes, the flight must be rescheduled. But often people neglect this, resulting in disasters.
3. Manager error. For this reason, only 6% of air accidents occur. Incorrect decisions by the dispatcher, reloading the aircraft, or contamination of the fuel can also lead to a terrible tragedy.
4. Terrorists. In situations where an airplane needs to fly to hot spots, there is always a risk that it could be “shot down” by terrorists. Recently, such an incident happened to a Malaysian B777 plane, which was flying through eastern Ukraine, where hostilities have been ongoing for several years. It was shot down, killing 298 passengers.

These reasons for a plane crash are the most common. But history knows cases of quite terrible tragedies, the causes of which were quite unforeseen circumstances. They could be called ridiculous if they did not entail human deaths. These include:

• disaster on August 25, 2010 in the Republic of Congo, when one of the passengers managed to bring a live crocodile on board. When he suddenly escaped from the bag, panic began on board, people rushed to one end, which led to an imbalance. As a result, the plane crashed and took 20 lives.
• On November 23, 1993, several prisoners who escaped from prison hijacked a plane flying from Ethiopia. They demanded to go to Australia, but did not allow the plane to be refueled, which is why it ran out of fuel and crashed near the shore. 127 people died in this tragedy.
• in October 1996, an equally strange and at the same time sad incident occurred when someone forgot to remove the tape from the sensors, due to which the instruments showed inaccurate data, and the pilot could not accurately determine the speed and altitude of the aircraft, which led to accident that claimed 70 lives.

Of course, any unforeseen situations can happen in the air, under which it is difficult to navigate and make the right decision. But that’s why pilots are needed, to guarantee a safe flight for passengers. It’s not for nothing that they study this for many years, undergo long practice and training before flying airplanes. It is very important that the pilot is not only experienced, but also responsible and courageous. He should not be afraid of difficulties and unforeseen situations. It is also important to prepare the aircraft well for flight, which is done by specially trained people. Their responsibilities include careful monitoring of the operation of all aircraft systems and devices. They must eliminate all malfunctions in the operation of the aircraft in order to prevent dire consequences.

After terrible plane crash, which happened on Sunday in the Moscow region, the editor of one of the Mail.ru portals contacted me and asked several questions that concern the majority of air passengers today. I answered all the questions on Monday, but for 3 days now the article has been undergoing approval from the editor-in-chief, journalists have doubts, they want to get a comment from the aeronautical engineer, but no one gives them, and the interview is losing its relevance. You can even see the date of creation of this text just above. I don’t like this kind of bureaucracy, I publish all the interviews on my channel.

Everything has its own service life, but I would not focus on the age of aircraft now and recommend that passengers, with panic in their eyes, look for signs of aging immediately before the flight. A disaster can happen to a new plane, but an old one can fly safely for a long time and without incident. From my point of view, competent and timely maintenance plays a big role aircraft. It is very expensive. Very. Something goes wrong on airplanes all the time, this is normal. As a rule, these are some minor breakdowns - from a broken coffee maker in the kitchen to a burnt-out indicator light. Airlines that have enough funds to maintain their own team of technicians and the ability to purchase spare parts in advance quickly repair their aircraft. Technicians come on board immediately after passengers disembark and change what is needed literally within an hour, while cleaning services are cleaning and flight attendants are serving and receiving meals. Once the system is up and running, even serious problems can be resolved fairly quickly.

Small charter or local airlines often accumulate faults and then send the aircraft for full repairs. It's cheaper. Therefore, first of all, I would recommend everyone to weigh the risks in advance. Just without any fear, soberly analyze the price of the ticket, the size of the airline, its recognition, and imagine yourself there general director: How much money would you be willing to allocate for timely operational repairs of aircraft; would these expenses pay off? After this, you will have no questions about whether it is worth flying with a particular airline. By the way, I’m not against low-cost airlines; they save money on the lack of food service, and not on safety, although such companies are also different. I don’t contact travel agencies, I don’t fly charter airlines, they are often actually managed by the heads of travel agencies, at the forefront of which is the number of tickets sold, and not security problems in air transport.

As for small local airlines, I don't fly with them either. Perhaps if some small local airline purchases or leases modern aircraft and receives sufficient funding from the regional budget, my opinion will change. Nowadays, I more often observe that local airlines fly aircraft that have been decommissioned by major carriers or new, but very old aircraft models that have been outdated for a very long time and have lagged behind technological progress, so they are certainly less safe than their modern counterparts. The claim that short flights are more dangerous is just a myth; it all comes down to the aircraft operated by local airlines and the level of their maintenance.

In addition, the level of training of pilots, flight attendants and other personnel major airlines very different from the qualifications of local or small charter airline employees. Small and little-known companies often employ those who were not hired by larger ones or were fired from them due to some violations or poor results in regular examination testing. I wrote about this too.

It's sad that there are very few items on my airline priority list. I won’t list anything now, everything can be found on my channel, but I am for healthy competition, I, of course, don’t like this situation. It’s especially offensive for residents of remote settlements. From my point of view, on this moment It is actually safer for them to travel by train or road to the regional center, and then board a plane there. But in no case do I encourage anyone to do anything, this is my personal point of view. Everyone takes risks as they see fit. If we take general statistics, then an airplane is truly the safest form of transport; the death rate on the roads is many times higher.

If you have already bought a plane ticket, checked in your luggage and boarded the plane, it is better to just relax and calm down, distract yourself with something from negative thoughts. Take care of your nervous system and heart. You can read more about how to overcome your fear of flying. No one will thank you for a long flight delay due to the removal of already loaded luggage. This process is quite long and expensive. For every hour of downtime, the airline loses a lot of money, especially at a foreign airport. When a passenger is removed from the board, his luggage is also removed along with him; to do this, all the suitcases are unloaded back, the necessary luggage is found, and then loaded back again.

If we still talk about the visual signs of an old aircraft, then this is, first of all, an old model, put into mass production 100,500 years ago, as well as the presence on the doors, in the toilet or other places of technical inscriptions in languages ​​​​unusual for this country, in Russia It is customary to write “open the door”, “flush”, etc. in Russian and English. I flew on a plane that was previously operated by AeroMexico; in some places the technical inscriptions were preserved in Spanish. These are signs that were inherited from the previous airline. The main thing to remember is that, for example, for Turkish Airlines Inscriptions in Turkish and English will be the norm. In America, all signs are often duplicated in Spanish, including on airplanes. If you see another airline's logo on a cart or some container in the kitchen, this is not a sign of an old plane. This only means that the catering service, which serves food for several airlines at once, mixed up containers and trolleys or simply did not find what they needed. of this flight quantity of equipment with the logo of this company.

Photo found on the Internet. A common picture for our airlines: inscriptions in Russian and English. Photo found on the Internet. Bad example, but I couldn't find a better one. Typically, the inscriptions in a third language (in this case, Turkish) are located somewhere to the side of the main sign with instructions in Russian and English. These are signs that were inherited from the previous airline.

If we talk about the plane crash, yesterday almost all the media circulated the news that the cause was icing. This is a fundamentally incorrect formulation! In the event of icing, the An-148 most likely would not have been able to gain altitude and would have crashed immediately after leaving the runway. As far as I understand, he managed to gain altitude, and he did not fall instantly. Therefore, it is definitely incorrect to say that anti-icing treatment was not carried out before departure.

I definitely don’t want to make any diagnoses right now, I don’t have the necessary data before my eyes, I didn’t witness the disaster, I’m not a member of the accident investigation commission, I’m not even an aviation engineer or a pilot. But I can say one thing for sure. According to preliminary data from the IAC (Interstate Aviation Committee), “... a factor in the development of a special situation in flight could have been incorrect data on the flight speed on the pilots’ indicators, which, in turn, was apparently associated with icing of the PPD (total pressure receivers) when turned off their heating systems..." This suggests that either something was faulty in the plane, or the pilots did not turn on the PPD heating system, or it did not work. Icing of an aircraft is when the fuselage, wing, and engines are covered with a thin crust of ice, and not freezing of the full pressure receivers. Therefore, even in the title of the article it is necessary to write about icing of the PPD. By missing one seemingly small detail, you can radically change the meaning of what was said, confusing everyone. I understand that the headline should be bright, but not so much that it lies.

A reader recently wrote to me. I hope I answered the question.

P.S.: A resident of Orsk wrote to me, I am publishing her long, emotional, but very meaningful letter.

In conclusion, I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the Saratov Airlines An-148 plane crash.

I wish everyone that such disasters will not happen again, and that the number of takeoffs will always be equal to the number of successful landings. Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Love!

However, today air travel is considered the most in a safe way travel. However, as we know from official reports, plane crashes still happen in our 21st century. As scientific and technological progress has reached unprecedented heights, planes with people on board continue to fall.

Airplane crash statistics

In terms of the number of plane crashes that occurred worldwide from 1945 to March 2012, the top three were the United States (784 cases), Russia (326 cases) and Canada. There, over the specified period of time, 177 plane crashes were recorded.

The least number of air transport accidents occurred in Argentina and Nigeria. In these countries during the same time there were 40 and 38 plane crashes. These facts speak only about those plane crashes in which there are human casualties. Aircraft crashes where there were no casualties among passengers are not taken into account by these statistics.

Events preceding the occurrence of an emergency during flight

The design of a modern airliner and its on-board multi-stage control system minimize possible emergency situations aboard. But a catastrophe in the air and the crash of an aircraft can be caused by unfavorable weather conditions or improper operation of ground services regulating the movement of air transport, as well as errors made by technicians when servicing aircraft on the ground.

Incorrect actions by the crew or errors during piloting can also lead to an inevitable plane crash. All this together is called the human factor. It is he who often becomes the invisible companion of plane crashes or aviation accidents with fatal outcome.

Violations of regulations during preventive inspection of the main components and assemblies of the aircraft or the installation of low-quality components during the maintenance of air transport are the main reasons for the failure of various systems. This entails the occurrence of an emergency during the flight, which may result in a plane crash.

In order to reduce the influence of the human factor, as a result of which structural elements of the aircraft body, engines and control system mechanisms can be damaged, the Ministry of Transport in 2014 tightened the procedure for the certification of pilots and their admission to work in civil aviation. Control over the actions of technical personnel servicing aviation equipment was also strengthened.

As practice shows, most air accidents occur during takeoff or landing of an aircraft. During the flight, when the aircraft has already reached the required altitude and is on a given course, aircraft collisions or foreign objects entering the engines cannot be ruled out. Both of these phenomena, although rare, have nevertheless already taken place. And they are also included in the list of common causes of plane crashes.

The most notorious plane crashes and their causes

A striking example of how the notorious human factor became the cause of a plane crash is the crash of the Yak-42 plane, which occurred on September 7, 2011 at the Tunoshna airport in the city of Yaroslavl. It is worth recalling that the Yaroslavl hockey team “Lokomotiv” and its coaching staff died in that plane crash. After an investigation and analysis of the crew’s conversations, it was determined that the plane crash occurred due to uncoordinated actions of the crew during takeoff.

The plane crash that happened on the night of July 2, 2002 over Germany also caused a great resonance. Then, over Lake Constance near the German city of Uberlingen, a Russian passenger plane "TU-154" of the airline " Bashkir Airlines"and cargo Boeing 757, providing international cargo transportation. In that disaster, 71 people died, including 52 children whose parents had sent them on vacation to Spain.

The investigation and study of materials on this plane crash took a lot of time and the conclusions were very controversial. Swiss air traffic control officials tried to shift responsibility onto the Russian pilots, who, in their opinion, did not understand their commands to English language. As a result, the Swiss air traffic controllers, who were absent from work at that moment, were themselves found guilty of this plane crash and loss of life.

As a rule, a plane crash is not caused by one single factor, but by a whole series of events that cause irreversible processes in flight safety. And such a chain of tragic accidents remains the main cause of accidents that occur with airplanes.

Paradoxical as it may be for a program with a similar name, it was the one that helped me mentally prepare for the first flight and even more: thanks to her I I look at the sky with loving eyes- because now I notice not only the noise of airliners flying over the city, but also their beauty! After 20 years, I was finally able to appreciate the beauty of life near an airport: after all, every day I can admire hundreds of beautiful planes taking off 🛫 and landing 🛬!

"Air Crash Investigations"- an educational documentary series produced in Canada, which can be watched on the channel National Geographic. Each of his episodes tells about an exceptional aviation accident - be it terrible crash or the miraculous rescue of the plane. 16 seasons and more than a hundred episodes have already been filmed!

These are stories about real events.

They are based on official reports and eyewitness accounts.

✈ ABOUT educational moment:“Investigations” introduces us to aviation: the structure of the aircraft, the basics of aerodynamics, and professional vocabulary. With their help we find out what's in the air aircrafts, contrary to popular belief, it is not magic that lifts, but lifting force! What if at the most crucial moment of the flight the pilots are discussing whiskey, tango or foxtrot, this does not mean that they are tipsy! And it’s impossible to fly on a plane without spoilers! Don't be afraid - you can do it all without even being tech savvy! Key points are explained in a more than accessible form with visual illustrations:

Hydraulics are the lifeblood of an airplane. It allows you to apply force to the controls: retract/extend the landing gear, control the flaps. If it is not there, you can simply throw the steering wheel out the window.

We are also introduced to the work of the aircraft crew, dispatchers and experts. The program features the best representatives of these responsible professions, true fans of their craft, who infect us with their love for aviation.

✈ P helots- the central characters of the story. And sometimes they really heroes! Those who do not panic in a critical situation and do not give up until the last minute - remembering that the lives of hundreds of passengers are in their hands; those who remember everything they have ever learned, improvise and try the most incredible ideas - just to reach the ground; those whose instincts are heightened so much that it seems as if they are merging with the plane - they feel the wounded machine so subtly - these are the pilots who work miracles! These people are truly admirable and incredibly inspiring!

Through a terrible process of trial and error, the commander determines what the damaged aircraft can and cannot do.

At that moment I felt the weight of these four stripes on my shoulder straps. I am the captain of the aircraft. If I don't do anything, we'll all die.

✈ B tour guides- not just the face of the company, welcoming you on board the plane with a smile. The main task of a flight attendant is not at all to provide the passenger’s everyday needs such as lunch or a warm blanket - his main task is to ensure safety during the flight. The guides are trained to act in case of fire or landing on water, and are able to provide first aid medical care and it is their responsibility to prepare the cabin for a hard landing and organize the evacuation of passengers. The lives of people in critical situations depend on their speed and composure.

I focused on being useful. Maybe for your own sake - when you calm someone down, you calm down yourself.

We simply didn’t have time to be scared - we had to prepare the salon for emergency landing. I only got scared when I took my placeplace.

✈ D dispatchers watching the fate of each side from the ground. Usually their task is to put the plane on the desired course and altitude, report weather conditions, and authorize takeoff or landing - they do this hundreds of times a day. But there are days when, instead of the usual " I understand, I occupy flight level 3000" or " Taxiing to runway Alpha" the words that every dispatcher hopes to never hear are heard in the headphones: " Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! I'm in distress! "And sometimes the dispatcher can only helplessly watch the dot on the radar, praying that the crew will cope, because the only thing worse than a distress message is the moment when this dot disappears from the screen and the radio air is filled with silence...

I heard that the Boeing 767 had just landed safely. The plane remained intact and we screamed with joy - after all, all these people will spend the night in their own beds today!

The feeling of horror intensifies at the airport. Two aircraft disappeared from the approach control tower locator. An air traffic controller's worst nightmare is a mid-air collision.

✈ P passengers: Survivors of the disaster share their memories of the ill-fated flight - about the atmosphere in the cabin, about how the people around them felt. It’s impossible to imagine what it’s like to see a burning engine or the rapidly approaching ground through the window and not know what fate awaits you - will you see your loved ones again or will these terrible minutes be the last minutes of your life. Their relatives talk about the dead. We're used to dry statistics like: " N passengers and n crew members were killed," but we must remember that behind each number there is a whole person - the whole world! With its own history, its own plans and dreams.

We sent them her photo. She should not be just a seat number or an amount of material compensation for them - they should understand that she was a person.

The woman was sitting next to me, and her husband was sitting on the other side of the aisle. And they reached out to each other, trying to touch at least their fingers to say goodbye.

✈ WITH researchers- these are modern Sherlock Holmeses and Dr. Houses from aviation. After each serious incident, they have to thoroughly study all the materials and conduct hundreds of tests, and often reveal all the ins and outs of the crew and airlines, brushing aside attractive options like “lupus” and “vasculitis” along the way, in order to ultimately come to the only correct diagnosis and, finally, rid aviation of this infection forever. But seriously, what is the progress of the investigation? First, investigators need to get to the scene of the accident, which can sometimes be problematic - after all, planes crash in a variety of places - in the mountains at an altitude of several kilometers or a hundred meters from the runway, in the middle of the ocean or in the middle of the desert, over swamps infested with crocodiles , or over the impenetrable jungle.

On the first day we had eight snake bites, three broken legs and one cardiac arrest.

Even at the first glance at the crash site, you can draw some conclusions about what happened. For example, by the radius of scattering of airplane debris, one can judge whether it fell apart in the air or remained intact before hitting the ground. Based on the length of the destruction strip, one can determine the angle at which the plane entered the ground. And by the condition of the blades, it is possible to determine whether the engines were working right up to the collision or whether they stalled while still in the air, which may have provoked the disaster. To accurately establish the whole picture, it is necessary to find the recorders, as well as collect and study all the fragments of the aircraft.

It's like being a detective because you're looking for clues that might lead to what happened.

While information is being extracted from the damaged black boxes, investigators are putting forward the most daring theories. If there was a sudden failure of systems or some strategically important element failed, be it an engine or an elevator, then the lives of thousands of passengers around the world traveling on the same model of aircraft are at risk. Investigators use a variety of specialists - from metallurgists to meteorologists - to carefully examine the collected details, interview eyewitnesses and study documentation to find confirmation or refutation of their assumptions.

We worked on an aircraft that has been incredibly safe throughout its history - now 30 years. We tried to prove that an excellent student has defects.

If the technical causes of the accident no longer exist, the investigators' attention turns to the crew members. Often, decoding the voice recorder and information from the flight data recorder puts everything in its place. Psychologists help to understand the reasons why an experienced commander could confuse right and left, and why the co-pilot did not dare to point out the mistake. Investigators are analyzing conversations in the cockpit, studying personal files and work and rest schedules, talking with relatives, finding out all the details, right down to what the pilots had for dinner and what time they went to bed on the eve of the tragedy, communicating with their colleagues, trying to understand what kind of atmosphere reigned in the team, arrange real flights with professional pilots or simulate emergency situation in a flight simulator to see if the pilots could have avoided disaster or were doomed.

Why did they do what they did. Or why they didn't do what they should have done.

Sometimes it takes more than one year to find the right answer.

So

✈ P Why do planes crash? As a rule, a combination of several factors leads to a tragic outcome. A flaw in the design of the aircraft, a malfunction of an instrument, a defect in a part, an explosion, negligence of maintenance personnel, an error by the dispatcher or crew, difficult weather conditions - this is not the whole list possible reasons crashes. Even a bird strike can be a serious test for an aircraft. Is it worth mentioning that wasps once caused a fatal accident... The goal of the investigators investigating each incident is to identify the tragic chain of circumstances that brought the plane to the brink of death, and to propose ideas for improving flight safety that will help avoid such tragedies in future. Just imagine that there were times when smoking was allowed on flights, when pilots were separated from passengers only by a curtain instead of an impenetrable door with a combination lock, and when not every plane was equipped with flight recorders and basic smoke detectors - sometimes there was such smog in the cabin that it was difficult to understand whether the smokers were doing their best or whether a real fire had started on board!

We must learn a lesson from every incident. But unfortunately, these lessons come at a very high cost...

✈ M oi conclusions:

• Flights are becoming safer. Each serious incident leaves its mark and affects the entire industry as a whole: those responsible are punished, conclusions are drawn, standards change, regulations are adjusted, designs are improved.

• We are all humans. Although most accidents occur due to the human factor, this is not a reason to refuse to fly. After all, we are not giving up taxis and buses, minibuses and trams, ferries and subways, but they are managed by the same people who are also prone to mistakes.

• Which have not be avoided. You can be afraid to fly, spend your whole life locked up within four walls and still die in a plane crash - you can’t hide from fate ( as an example, El Al flight 1862, which killed 4 people on board and another 43 on the ground. I won’t insert shocking photographs here, I’ll just say that the 11-story building was cut by Boeing like a knife).

• Miracles happen! Stories about people who survived the disaster ( take a look at the list of plane crashes with only one survivor - it's impressive! Take flight attendant Vesna Vulovic, who survived a fall without a parachute from a height of 10,000 meters, or seventeen-year-old Juliana Köpke, who made it out to people 9 days after a plane crash in the wild jungle!), inspire hope that even if something terrible happens to the plane, there is always a chance of salvation, albeit tiny!

✈ AND selected episodes :

2x01 Overboard / Blowout(British Airways flight 5390, June 10, 1990) - 5,000 m above the ground, the windshield falls out, and the pilot of the airliner is pulled out.

3x04 Suicide attack / Fight for Your Life(FedEx Flight 705, April 7, 1994) - During the flight, a flight engineer attacks his colleagues in an attempt to hijack the aircraft.

4x10 Ghost plane / Ghost Plane(Helios Airways flight 522, August 14, 2005) - an airliner with a hundred passengers on board circles over Athens for a long time, not responding to calls from the ground.

5x02 Fatal landing / Gimli Glider(Air Canada flight 143, July 23, 1983) - at an altitude of 12,000 meters, the engines stall, turning the huge Boeing into a helpless glider.

10x05Landing on the Hudson / Hudson River Runway(US Airways flight 1549, January 15, 2009) - fromAfter 90 seconds of flight, the airliner loses its engines as a result of a collision with a flock of birds.

11x13Explosion over Sioux City / Impossible Landing(United Airlines Flight 232, July 19, 1989) - fEngine fragments damage the aircraft's tail, leaving it without hydraulics.

12x01 Struggle for control / Fight for Control(Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 008, June 8, 1983) - a broken propeller crashes into the fuselage, depriving the pilots of the ability to control the aircraft.

13х04 Tragedy on the Potomac / Disaster on the Potomac(Air Florida flight 90, January 13, 1982) - immediately after takeoff, the airliner falls onto a frozen river, breaks through the ice and goes under water.

P.S. A note to boys and girls who are still in search of themselves: if you have not yet passed forty, you are taller than a meter with a cap, but you do not hit your head on the ceiling, and you were smart enough to maintain your health from a young age - you still have a chance to try yourself in aviation. Honestly, I was so imbued with the beauty and thoughtfulness of the airplanes shown here, the complexity and responsibility of the pilot’s profession, that I decided to take to the sky myself - only I wasn’t tall enough... So I can only be content with the airliners flying overhead, watching them with a dreamy gaze . But at least I have this wonderful dream, albeit an unrealistic one)

IN last days news feeds are literally full of news about tragic incidents in the American army. Of course, emergencies have happened to the Stars and Stripes before, and like everywhere else, they happen regularly. But so much at once!

In Tennessee, as a result of the crash of an F-18 aircraft from the group aerobatics US Navy pilot killed. On the same day, an F-16 of the Thunderbirds aerobatic team crashed in Colorado: the pilot survived, having ejected in time.

At the same time, information arrived that three servicemen were killed and six more were missing in the area of ​​the Owl Creek training ground in Texas. The incident occurred when an army truck fell into the river.

The American military is also unlucky outside the country. Thus, in Estonia, where large-scale Baltops exercises started the day before, even before the start of the maneuvers, the first emergency occurred: one of the three American B-52s did not reach Tallinn due to a breakdown. Fortunately, there were no casualties here.

Colossus with feet of clay

The US Army positions itself as the strongest, most powerful and invincible. According to the Global Firepower Index portal, which regularly analyzes the state of military power of 126 countries, the United States actually ranks first in the ranking of the most militarily powerful states (Russia is in second place, China is in third place) . GFI experts, as a rule, evaluate the state of the armed forces in accordance with the total population, the economic state of states, and also compare specific indicators of the technical equipment of the army and navy.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time that signals have appeared indicating that these rating studies do not correspond to real situations. The “colossus” of the American army is increasingly showing its “feet of clay.” Thus, at recent hearings in Congress, the alarming situation in military aviation and concern was expressed about the increasing number of aircraft accidents.

The head of the Armed Services Committee, Congressman Mark Thornbury, was straightforward: in his opinion, the troops are not ready to fully implement the US military strategy. In 2016 alone, Marine Corps aviation recorded 3.96 accidents for every 100,000 flight hours, down from an average of 2.15 over the past decade. The number of various incidents in ground forces aviation has also increased significantly.

Moreover, these incidents were not always associated only with pilot errors. The American military notes that in a number of cases problems arose due to poor training of equipment, insufficient level of maintenance, lack of repairs and upgrades to the required extent. And this is in aviation, but what can we say about the ground forces!

Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security researcher James Hasick pointed out in a recent article for the National Interest that due to a lack of funds, the US Army has no realistic plan to replace Abrams tanks, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Paladin self-propelled guns before 2030. The analyst quoted in his publication the words of General David Bassett, who is responsible for the procurement of ground weapons for the army: “many years ago we were limited by technology, today we are limited by lack of money.”

Money down the drain

Generals are generally not particularly diplomatic, are not experienced in the subtleties of politics, and tend to “cut from the shoulder.” Thus, speaking recently before a House of Representatives committee as part of the discussion of the new defense budget for 2017, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, frankly stated: in the coming years, they will not be able to withstand the threats that the country may have to deal with. all types of armed forces.

He explained the problems with combat readiness (and the general had them in mind) due to years of “unstable financial conditions.” In particular, according to Dunford, the Navy and Marine Corps will not be ready to operate at the required level until 2020, and the Air Force until 2028.

However, analysts are convinced that the state of combat readiness, and especially the training of personnel, is not always associated only with the “infusion” of money, which American military leaders traditionally demand. The US defense budget already exceeds that of other continents, reaching exorbitant amounts.

At the same time, as The Economist magazine notes, countries such as Russia and China, if not superior to the United States in defense investments, are certainly superior in terms of the efficiency of these expenditures. In the Russian and Chinese armies, the magazine draws attention, various weapons are being improved, and a special emphasis is placed on personnel training.

And yet, the US military never tires of repeating: the problems in their army are caused precisely by budget cuts. Thus, retired Major General Robert Scales recently said that the US Army has been “broken” for the third time since the mid-20th century. According to the general, cuts in military spending led to a sharp decline in field exercises and untimely renewal military equipment, reducing combat effectiveness. All this has a detrimental effect on the morale of military personnel, in connection with which Robert Scales called the leadership in Washington “ungrateful, ahistorical and strategically deaf.”

An army of suicides and rapists?

Indeed, there are many facts that indicate the other side of the problems in the state of the American army. We are talking about poor training of personnel, an extremely low level of moral readiness, indiscipline, and the dominance of crime.

Totally agree last years shooting incidents were recorded at the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas (two servicemen were killed here), at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas (two wounded), at the Fort Lee base in Virginia (a female soldier was killed) .

Three soldiers were killed and two were wounded as a result of a shootout with each other at the Fort Hood base in Texas (the shooter committed suicide). Two National Guardsmen were wounded as a result of the “battle” at the Millington base in Tennessee. The fire even opened in the US Navy complex in Washington, where an employee dismissed from service for inappropriate behavior killed 12 people and injured 8 people. The attacker himself was later shot dead by the police.

Human rights activists from Human Rights Watch recently presented a shocking report revealing another secret side of the life of American military personnel, which affects the morale of the army. It turns out that recently thousands of military personnel have been subjected to sexual abuse.

Human Rights Watch employees in their report emphasized that the Pentagon is aware of the problem of violence, and US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter even calls on his subordinates to “bravely report all such incidents that undermine the foundations of the American army.” However, as human rights activists note, those who dared to report such incidents to the command were hastily fired under various pretexts.

Is it possible to embrace the immensity?

However, American leader Barack Obama considers all talk about the decline of the country and the weakness of its armed forces to be “political chatter.” This is how he characterized the current rhetoric that “our enemies are getting stronger, and America is getting weaker.” According to the head of the United States, such statements are “the work of Republicans aspiring to the presidency, who say that the United States is losing its position in the world, while its opponents are strengthening.”

In his last State of the Union address to the US Congress, Obama once again stated, “The United States is the most powerful nation on Earth.” As for the state of the country’s army, then, according to the American leader, “the United States spends more on its armed forces than the next eight powers combined.” “No country attacks us or our allies because it knows it will be destroyed,” Barack Obama emphasized in his message.

But be that as it may, the opinion of experts about the situation with the country’s military power is far from being so enthusiastic. Many of them are inclined to give a predominantly negative assessment of Obama's activities as commander-in-chief. In particular, according to James Carafano, a leading expert at the Heritage Foundation research center (a strategic institute that studies international politics), in recent years the United States has not only experienced a decline in the number of personnel in the armed forces, but also a decline in combat effectiveness compared to what was present in the past. as of September 11, 2001.

According to an expert who cites the index of US military power calculated by the Heritage Foundation, the ability of the US army to dominate at least two fronts of combat operations is currently assessed as “extremely weak.”

It is the insufficient attention of the country's leadership to the issues of real development of the army, improving its technical component and - especially - increasing the level of training of personnel, as analysts believe, that ultimately leads to a sharp jump in the number of accidents and incidents.

According to experts, including the already mentioned James Carafano and retired General Robert Scales, the situation is also affected by the large-scale involvement of the US military in events outside the country, including constant participation in hostilities. Attempts to “embrace the immensity” lead to the fact that the soap bubble called the “US Army” is increasingly bursting with deafening force, leading to unnecessary casualties and losses...

Dmitry Sergeev