List of provisionally suspended aircraft, operating in the Russian Federation

The aircraft in the following table do not have Certificate of Airworthiness, approved by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and are considered dangerous to the passengers and airway traffic.

As a result of the international sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation in early 2022, the access to spare parts and servicing of all aircraft was restricted. At that time many of the airframes operating in the Russian Federation were leased from foreign lessors and registered in Bermuda or Ireland. On 12^th of March 2022, the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) suspended all Certificates of Airworthiness of the aircraft operating under the Article 83bis Agreement between Bermuda and the Russian Federation. The reason given by BCAA was that the Bermuda’s civil authority was unable to oversee the maintenance and operations of these aircraft and hence unable to certify their airworthiness. Very similar situation occurred in Ireland, affecting more airplanes operating in the Russian Federation.

These aircraft were re-registered in the Russian civil aircraft registry from 14^th to 29^th of March 2022, effectively confiscating them from their overseas owners. The re-registration of aircraft without owners’ consent is a breach of ICAO standards, and consecutively the airframes may be grounded if they land in airports outside Russia. Their maintenance and operation is not overseen by ICAO, which means that there are not certified for safe travel.

The condition of the aircraft in the list is deteriorating since March 2022. Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier suspended maintenance and support of Russian aircraft on 2^nd of March 2022. Soon after, on 11^th of March, China blocked sales of aviation spare parts to Russia. It is not known, how these aircraft are kept so long without proper service and there are many rumours of covered problems.

Originally, there were 682 aircraft in the list. However, 46 airplanes left the Russian Federation. Some were returned to the owners, others were not taken from the production facility at the time of registration and were sold to another customer, so there are 636 aircraft to account for. Several of these aircraft were parked and not used, few were “cannibalised” for spare parts. It is almost impossible to know the status of each and every one of the problematic aircraft, but the tracking data shows that more than 73% are still in active use.

The ownership, proper maintenance and the airworthiness of these aircraft is questionable. Most of them are frequently detected in the sky and continue to fly.