Kommersant: Federal Air Transport Agency is studying the incident with the SSJ, which released the landing gear at an altitude of 10 kilometers ) airline “Azimut”. According to preliminary data, the crew commander mistakenly pressed the emergency landing gear release button when the plane was at an altitude of 10 kilometers, which provoked a dangerous rapprochement between the SSJ and another plane. This is reported by Kommersant.
It is noted that the incident took place on October 29 on a regular flight from Sochi to Bryansk. When the aircraft flew in the Krasnodar region, data on the loss of the satellite navigation system signal were repeatedly triggered in the cockpit. To disable these alerts, the pilot wanted to press the Alert cancel button, but accidentally pressed the emergency landing gear release. These buttons are 10-15 centimeters apart.
This led to the fact that the chassis was released at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour with a maximum allowable of 472 kilometers per hour. As a result, the drag increased and the aircraft's speed decreased. This, in turn, led to the vessel gaining altitude and approaching another aircraft, which was on a collision course.
The crew managed to stabilize the flight, but the vessel was forced to land at the Rostov-on- Don. No damage to the vessel was found during the inspection.
The Federal Air Transport Agency notes that earlier the reasons for such situations were the human factor. This definition refers to the deviation of pilots from standard procedures, lack of interaction between crew members, overloading one of the pilots with tasks, as well as inattention and haste. The results of the investigation of the incident are still unknown.
Earlier in Russia, there were several emergencies due to errors in aircraft control. So, in 2014, a cadet of the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation confused the tumblers on the DA-40NG training aircraft and accidentally turned off the engines during takeoff. The accident killed a student and instructor.