Special flight squad "Russia"

IL-96-300PU during the visit of Vladimir Putin to Saudi Arabia

Until 1956, the top leaders of the USSR flew in military aircraft piloted by Air Force officers. This tradition was interrupted on April 13, 1956: Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 496-295C The Ministry of Defense of the USSR was relieved of the obligation to transport senior officials of the country.

On May 5, 1956, the Head of the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation of the USSR issued Order No. 27 on the creation in the structure of Aeroflot of a special aviation unit (UNU) with a base at Vnukovo Airport. Later, the UNU was renamed Separate Aviation Unit No. 235. The first commander of the detachment was A. I. Kolevatov, and the flight crew was recruited from the crews of the Moscow Transport Administration of Civil Aviation .

From 1972 to 1986, the Government Squadron was headed by the Hero of Socialist Labor Konstantin Sergeyevich Nikitenko . On April 15, 2016, one of the aircraft of the Government Squadron, which was previously called separate squadron No. 235, was named after the commander of this unit, K. S. Nikitenko. Now the plane with the nameplate K.S. Nikitenko is part of the special detachment "Russia" of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

In Soviet times, a special flight detachment was charged with transporting not only the top leadership of the party and government of the USSR, but also the heads and public figures of countries friendly to the USSR. From 1959 to 2009, the airline also, in order to provide flight crews, carried out regular and charter passenger commercial air transportation in the USSR (Russia) and abroad.

With the collapse of the USSR , changes took place in the air fleet of its leaders. In 1990, Separate Aviation Unit No. 235 was renamed the Separate Aviation Division of Civil Aviation, and in 1993 it was transformed into the State Transport Company “Russia” .

In October 2006, Pulkovo Airlines was annexed to the Rossiya State Customs Committee . The combined airline began flying under the flag of the State Customs Committee "Russia" , and the name of the airline changed to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Transport Company" Russia " . "

On January 31, 2009, by order of the Government of the Russian Federation, the government squadron was separated from the State Customs Committee "Russia" . As part of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation , the Federal State Budget Institution “Special Flight Detachment Russia” was established. In the period from April 15 to July 1, 2011, during the repair of the runway in Vnukovo , the squad changed the home airport for some types of aircraft to Sheremetyevo . ^[one]

According to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, special-purpose aircraft are allocated with the written consent of the President for the transportation of persons replacing government posts of the Russian Federation, certain posts of the federal public service, and other persons ^[2] .

According to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, “Special Flight Squad“ Russia ”” provides personal service ^[3] :

• President of the Russian Federation ;
• the newly elected, but not inaugurated (before the inauguration) President of the Russian Federation ;
• Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation ;
• Chairman of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation ;
• Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation ;
• Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
• Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation ;
• Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation ;
• Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation ;
• Head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation ;
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation .

Also since 1978, as part of the operator’s certificate (“under the flag”) of a government squadron, there has been aviation of the United Federal Aviation Special Forces (OJSC SN) of the FSB of Russia transporting the heads of this service.

In May 2013, Patriarch Kirill was provided with an IL-96 aircraft for a visit to China. The press service of the Russian Orthodox Church explained that this was done "as an exception in connection with the flight range" ^[4] . Later, the Presidential Administration explained that the transportation was carried out on the basis of a one-time permit of the President of Russia ^[5] .

In February 2016, Patriarch Kirill was provided with an IL-96 aircraft for a pastoral visit to Latin America, starting from Cuba, where a historic event was to take place - a meeting with the Pope .

At the end of December 2016, the plane SLO "Russia" was sent to the office of the President of the country to leave diplomats from the United States. ^[6]

On September 29, 2017, two Tu-214 aircraft of the Rossiya special operations detachment were connected to the transportation of VIM-Avia airline passengers from Antalya. Elena Krylova, spokeswoman for the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, said that this was done by order of Vladimir Putin. ^[7]

As of December 2016, the fleet has the following types of aircraft ^[8] :

Air fleet of the SLO "Russia"

The presidential plane of Russia , or board number one , is the plane of the President of Russia . The aircraft is an office and a mobile center for government control. The work of the “air residence” of the President of Russia is ensured by the special flight detachment (SLO) “Russia”.

History

On June 23, 1941, at the Vnukovo airport, the Moscow Special Purpose Air Group (MAGON) was formed, which was engaged in the transportation of the USSR leadership on Li-2 , PS-9 , C-47 aircraft . The abbreviation MAGON already existed at that time MAGON UPA (Polar Aviation Administration of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route). After the war, MAGON was reborn again at the polar aviation airport Zakharkovo, which was located on the channel to them. Moscow opposite the Northern River Station. JV Stalin took advantage of the MAGON Vnukovo air group the only time he visited the Tehran Conference at C-47 . ^[9] In the late 1940s, saloon modifications of the IL-12 and IL-14 appeared in the park.

On April 13, 1956, the Council of Ministers issued a Decree on the creation of a Special Purpose Squadron (GA) as part of the Moscow Civil Air Transport Administration. In 1957, AON carries out air transportation on Tu-104 and Il-18 aircraft . The latter was a favorite aircraft of N. S. Khrushchev , however, at the UN General Assembly session in New York, he flew on a Tu-114 , which is most likely due to the technical characteristics of the aircraft. The practical flight range of the IL-18 is 6500 km, of the Tu-114 is 9720 km (in the latter case, with a load of 15 tons). With a distance in a straight line Moscow - New York of 7510 kilometers, it was not possible to use the IL-18 for this non-stop flight.

Since 1959, the AON has been called Aviation Squad No. 235, and the short-range Tu-124 and Tu-134 , light Yak-40 , as well as Mi-4 helicopters are added to its fleet. The IL-14 piston was replaced by the An-24 turboprop. And for some time, two Tu-116s , strategic Tu-95 bombers converted into salons, were used as flagship aircraft for particularly long-range flights. In 1963, the Vnukovo-2 terminal was built, which still receives and sends government flights. Only in 1969, L. I. Brezhnev transferred from IL-18 to the jet IL-62 , which became the main cabin aircraft of the USSR until 1995.

Since 1993, the SCC "Russia" has been engaged in elite transportation. In 1995, board No. 1 of Il-62 , inherited by B. N. Yeltsin from M. S. Gorbachev , was replaced by the latest Il-96 -300PU (PU - control point), equipped with the Swiss company Jet Aviation. With the arrival of Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, the second such aircraft appeared in the detachment, equipped in Russia, but under the supervision and technology of the British company Dimonite Aircraft Furnishings.

Since 2009, the squadron has been withdrawn from the State Customs Committee "Russia" and belongs to the Office of the President of the Russian Federation , transporting only a limited number of persons specified by order of the President of the Russian Federation.

Fleet used to transport the President of Russia

• Mi-8 - 9 pcs (RA-25529, RA-25533, RA-25538, RA-25540, RA-25633, RA-25634, RA-25635, RA-25636, RA-25827).
• Yak-40 - 2 pcs. (RA-87968, RA-87972);
• Tu-134 - 2 pcs. (RA-65905, RA-65911);
• Tu-214PU - 2 pcs. (RA-64517, RA-64520);
• Tu-214SUS - 2 pcs. (RA-64522, RA-64524) - standby;
• IL-96-300PU (M) - 2 pcs. (RA-96012, RA-96016) - control point (modified) - standby;
• IL-96-300PU (M1) - 2 pcs. (RA-96020, RA-96021) - control point (modified) - flagship;
• IL-96-300 - 1 pc. (RA-96023) - special equipment "Salon";
• IL-96-300PU (M1) - 1 pc. (RA-96022) ^[10]

IL-96-300

A special version of the IL-96-300, designed to transport the President of the Russian Federation . IL-96-300PU ( control point ) is built in four copies. It has practically no differences in flight performance from the basic version, except for an increased range due to some improvements. The aircraft is equipped with equipment that allows the control of the armed forces in the event of a nuclear conflict .

Externally, the aircraft also has no differences from the basic version, with the exception of an elongated fairing of communication systems in the upper part of the fuselage. The first aircraft of this version was assembled in 1995 for Boris Yeltsin. The second, for Vladimir Putin, the IL-96 (b / n 96016) took off on April 21, 2003 . He was tested by Honored Test Pilot of Russia Viktor Galkin .

On board the IL-96-300PU there are three bars, a relaxation room with two beds for the presidential couple, and an office area of ​​10 m².

On May 26, 2010, a state contract was signed for the supply of two more aircraft with Il-96-300PU (M1) control posts. According to the website of the Federal Treasury, the contract value is 10.39 billion rubles. The first of them (RA-96020) took off in August 2012 and was handed over to a government squadron in December of that year. The second (RA-96021) took off in August 2013 and was delivered to the SLO Rossiya on January 30, 2014 ^[11] . It is expected that from 2014, the old IL-96-300PU (b / n 96012 and 96016) will be transferred to the reserve ^[12] .

On April 25, 2013, a state contract was signed for the supply of another fifth aircraft with Il-96-300PU (M1) control posts. According to the website of the Federal Treasury, the cost of the aircraft is 5.2 billion rubles. Delivery was planned before the end of 2015 ^[13] . The liner was delivered to the customer July 22, 2016 ^[14]

• During the existence of the squadron, 2 plane crashes took place. Both of them occurred in the 1960s and are associated with the development of IL-18 aircraft. On August 17, 1960, near Kiev, due to equipment failure , a plane crashed on a flight from Cairo to Moscow . Killed 34 people. On April 6, 1967, for unidentified reasons , an airplane crashed during take-off on a technical flight Domodedovo - Vnukovo during takeoff . Killed 8 crew members.
• On February 9, 1961, the Il-18 , on which Leonid Brezhnev (then Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ) flew to Guinea , for unknown reasons, was attacked by the French Air Force fighter over the Mediterranean Sea, which made three calls at a dangerously close distance from the aircraft and twice opened fire on a Soviet aircraft with the subsequent crossing of its course. Pilots managed to get their plane out of the firing zone. Subsequently, Brezhnev appreciated the skill and courage of the crew commander of that flight, Boris Bugaev . During the leadership of the Brezhnev Communist Party, Bugaev became the Minister of Civil Aviation , the Chief Marshal of Aviation and twice Hero of Socialist Labor ^[15] .
• In January 1998, the Mi-8 helicopter, on board of which were Boris Nemtsov , Sergey Yastrzhembsky and Tatyana Dyachenko with his son Gleb, made an emergency landing 12 kilometers from Torzhok due to a false alarm about a fire. No one was hurt, but the visit of distinguished guests to the residence of the President of Russia was delayed for several hours ^{[16] [17]} .
• The largest incident that occurred with airline planes in Russian time took place on February 8, 1999 . Then, on the platform of Vnukov-2, due to errors of the ground services of the airline during the taxiing of Il-96, on board of which was Boris Yeltsin , who arrived from the funeral of King Jordan Hussein , the wing of McDonnell Douglas DC-9 of the Italian Air Force damaged by a wing, DC-9 must It was a few hours later to fly to Rome with an Italian delegation led by Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema , who was on an official visit to Russia. No harm done. Subsequently, the DC-9 was declared unrepairable and decommissioned, the IL-96 after minor repairs returned to service. According to the results of the incident investigation, the head of the Rossiya State Customs Committee Vladimir Kachnov was removed from his post, and the airline compensated the Italian side for the cost of the damaged aircraft ^[18] .
• In December 2000, during the visit of Vladimir Putin to Cuba at the Havana airport, the navigator of an airline escort aircraft died. In March 2007, in the cockpit of Norilsk, in the cockpit of an Il-62 aircraft flying from Moscow to Anadyr, a 40-year-old flight engineer died ^[19] .
• On August 2, 2005, the Il-96-300PU with the president on board, due to malfunctions in the braking system, could not take off from the airport of the Finnish city of Turku , where Vladimir Putin was on an official visit ^[20] . On August 22, at the suggestion of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Field of Transport, flights of all Il-96 aircraft were banned. The ban resulted in multimillion-dollar losses of airlines using IL-96, primarily Aeroflot ^[21] . On October 3, VASO Director General Vyacheslav Salikov was dismissed, ^[22] IL-96 flights were resumed on the same day. The flight ban lasted 42 days.
• On October 19, 2015, a dangerous approach of the Swiss Air Force F / A-18 fighter and the Tu-204 aircraft took place in Swiss airspace, on which the Russian delegation headed by State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin was sent to Geneva ^[23] .
• On November 18, 2016, in the Swiss airspace, 3 Swiss Air Force fighters escorted a Russian Il-96 plane flying to Peru a few minutes to the border with France.

• The first passenger of the government squadron was the President of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Antonin Zapototsky . The flight was performed on the only aircraft in the detachment at that time - the Il-12 Lux .
• Joseph Stalin was a big fan of aviation, but he did not like to fly. Nevertheless, he arrived at the Tehran Conference from Baku on a C-47ON (Special Purpose) aircraft, a cabin version of the American military transport Douglas C-47 Skytrain . «Дугласы» с 1935 года выпускались в СССР по лицензии под индексами ПС-84 и Ли-2 , однако поставляемые по ленд-лизу машины были более поздней модификации, чем выпускавшиеся в СССР, с более совершенным комплексом навигационных приборов, что и определило выбор.
• Первый секретарь ЦК КПСС Никита Хрущёв предпочитал летать на Ил-18 , его выбор объясняется тем, что у Ил-18 четыре двигателя: вероятность того, что такое количество моторов откажет разом, крайне низка. Также в составе правительственного авиаотряда был Ту-114 — турбовинтовой дальнемагистральный пассажирский самолёт, спроектированный в 1955 году на основе бомбардировщика Ту-95 . На нём в 1959 году Никита Хрущёв совершил трансатлантический рейс из Москвы в Нью-Йорк . Полёт прошел благополучно, но по прилёте произошел конфуз. В аэропорту не нашлось подходящего для советского самолёта трапа, и Хрущёву пришлось спускаться по лестнице пожарной машины. Впрочем, под конец визита в США трап был изготовлен, и генсек благополучно отправился обратно. Хрущев не раз летал на Ту-114.
• Леонид Брежнев летать не любил, однако от путешествий на самолёте не отказывался. Он побывал пассажиром Ту-104 , Ту-154 , а еще специально для генсека был построен особый лайнер Ил-62М . Самолёт был предназначен для перевозки главы государства с максимально возможным комфортом. Леонид Ильич был заядлым игроком в домино , поэтому практически после каждого перелёта приходилось полировать стол в основном салоне, так как он был в царапинах.
• В 1974 году в Отдельном авиационном отряде № 235 по требованию Андропова была введена должность заместителя командира части по режиму. Её замещал офицер КГБ ^[24] .
• В советское время иностранные делегации путешествовали по СССР на советских самолётах. В 1972 году Ричард Никсон , находясь с визитом в СССР , должен был вылететь на советском «Иле» в Киев . Однако произошел конфуз, двигатель лайнера не запустился. Произошла и заминка с предоставлением запасного борта. Результатом этого происшествия стала отставка руководства правительственного авиаотряда.
• 1 апреля 2011 года на совещании Совета Безопасности РФ по вопросу развития авиастроения Дмитрий Медведев подверг резкой критике свой новый самолёт Ту-214ПУ, на котором в первые месяцы эксплуатации наблюдались многочисленные технические проблемы ^[25] . Сам Медведев предпочитает пользоваться зарубежными воздушными судами ( Airbus A319 , Dassault Falcon 7X , AgustaWestland AW139 ), которые в годы его президентства впервые за долгое время стали закупаться в спецотряд.
• Плохая погода иногда накладывает свои коррективы на график перелёт первых лиц государства. Так, 30 октября 2012 года и 4 февраля 2013 года самолёт Дмитрия Медведева из-за плохой погоды в Москве вынужден был уходить на запасной аэродром Санкт-Петербург (Пулково) ^[26] . Однако известны и случаи давления первых лиц на экипаж. В мемуарах многолетнего шеф-пилота правительственного авиаотряда Владимира Потёмкина описан случай, когда 30 января 1992 года Борис Ельцин приказал во что бы то ни стало приземлиться в Лондоне в нарушение метеоминимума экипажа ^[27] .
• СЛО «Россия» не имеет в своём парке грузовых самолётов. В период с 1993 по 1999 годы в составе ГТК «Россия» эксплуатировались самолёты Ан-124 (что можно видеть, в том числе, в фильме Ширли-мырли ), однако затем они были проданы ^[28] . Поэтому для перевозки автомобильных кортежей и прочих грузов для обслуживаемых лиц в настоящее время привлекаются самолёты 224-го лётного отряда .
• В 2014 году на перевозку пассажиров авиаотряда из федерального бюджета выделено почти 2 млрд рублей ^[29] .

• Air Force One — самолёт Президента США
• Воздушный флот правительства Германии

• Страница на сайте Управления делами президента РФ
• Интерьер самолёта президента РФ (60 фото)