The Ural Airlines Airbus A320 that was forced to land in a wheat field after running out of fuel is to be dismantled, according to Russian media reports.
FlightMode, a Russian aviation Telegram channel, said that after a thorough evaluation has been completed, the decision has been made to dismantle the plane for parts and not attempt to fly the Airbus A320 out of the field as was previously proposed.
The Telegram channel reported on January 10, 2024, that financial restraints meant any further attempts to rescue the plane intact had been exhausted.
All assets on the Ural Airlines plane that can be reused in the future will be removed and transported from the field.
There has been no official statement by Ural Airlines, and when approached by the Russian website 66.RU, the airlines said, “no decisions will be made until the end of the investigation”.
The fate of the aircraft reportedly hinged on negotiations with the insurance firm, AlfaStrakhovanie.
On January 10, 2024, AeroTime reported that Ural Airlines had paid the owner of the wheat field a year’s rent to cover their costs until September 2024.
“There was a decision that the ground would freeze – they would take off. But the ground is frozen – they don’t take off. The airline entered into a lease agreement with the owner of the field for a year. And then – I don’t know what will happen, maybe they’ll conclude a contract for another year,” the head of the Ubinsky District in Russia, Oleg Konyuk, said on January 9, 2024.
On September 12, 2023, the flight crew aboard the A320 were forced to land in the field just outside Novosibirsk, in southern Siberia while diverting to Novosibirsk Airport (OVB).
The aircraft had been due to land at Omsk Tsentralny Airport (OMS) but the Airbus A320 experienced a failure of its hydraulic system and selected to land at OVB instead.
After an initial report into the incident was published on October 31, 2023, the Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia (Rosaviatsiya) came out and said a new investigation was needed due to “newly discovered circumstances”.
Izvestia then reported on November 17, 2023, that Rosaviatsiya had “identified 15 errors and contradictions” with the original report.
Among its concerns the Russian agency was particularly troubled by the “unacceptably low level” of the pilots training and discrepancies found in the report.
