Rosaviatsia will study the possibility of lifting the ban on taking off at Gelendzhik airport towards the mountains with a magnetic heading of 008 degrees, the head of the agency Dmitry Yadrov said in response to a proposal by Krasnodar Territory senator Alexander Trembitsky during a meeting of the Federation Council’s committee on economic policy.
“For about 13 years this issue has been on the agenda, and will not be resolved in any way, although in 2011 such a take-off was carried out, and its safety was confirmed. I propose to return to the discussion of this topic. As a young professional manager, you will think of some way out,” Alexander Trembitsky appealed to the head of Rosaviatsia.
Due to the existing ban on take-offs at the airport in Gelendzhik towards the mountains, the load on the neighbouring airport in Anapa increases, as well as on transport logistics in connection with the delivery of passengers there, he explained. Dmitry Yadrov noted that the issue “has a place, but it should be approached very carefully” in terms of flight safety.
“We have indeed prepared an instruction to our research institute based on the types of aircraft to work out this situation,” he said. – We have a similar take-off course in Vnukovo: when flying with this course, wide-body aircraft and several types of business jets are constantly dodging into the relevant restricted zone – they simply cannot withstand the trajectory when performing take-offs. We have the same scheme in Gelendzhik. And earlier, at high intensity, when we used this course in Vnukovo, we faced evasion every day, 5-7 cases per day. And if we have 5-7 cases of evasion in Gelendzhik, it is clear where the aircraft will be.”
Since February 2022, the airport of Gelendzhik is closed for servicing flights due to the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. Before the restrictions, all take-off operations were carried out towards the sea and landing operations were carried out from the sea side. But due to strong winds, the airport was often closed, so arriving aircraft were forced to leave for an alternate aerodrome in Anapa, and those planning to fly out of Gelendzhik were stuck there for a long time, Interfax writes.
In 2017, Pobeda appealed to Rosaviatsia to approve pilot training programmes for takeoffs and landings in Gelendzhik from the mountains, but the agency refused to do so. The airline filed a lawsuit against Rosaviatsia, but at the court hearing a representative of Rosaviatsia stated that taking off towards the mountains in Gelendzhik was prohibited for safety reasons. As a result, the court recognised Rosaviatsia’s refusal to perform take-offs in Gelendzhik with a magnetic heading of 008 degrees as lawful.
