Russian regional airlines were bleeding money, so they fired their mechanics. Now Russia’s Transport Ministry wants pilots to maintain their planes themselves (see story here).
That could be tricky, as Western sanctions have cut them off from spare parts. But this doesn’t actually change things very much, because in Russia airplane parts have always been sourced by stealing them off another airplane.
(They’ll be shot if they’re caught, but so what? They’re going to get shot in Ukraine anyway, when their draft numbers come up.)
If they can’t get parts, it’s not that big a deal, because Russian planes tend to be single-use anyway (photo below). As for flying as a passenger on one of these planes, given typical life expectancy in Russia, does it actually matter? You’re going to die regardless, and probably sooner than in most countries (details here; to find Russia, scroll down the rankings to “111”).
One final note: They ran out of money to pay the stewardesses, too, so you’ll have to get your own inflight drinks. BYOB. Most people do anyway.
