According to media reports, on April 4, local time, a flight from Siberia to Moscow hung up the 7700 emergency code over the Russian Kirov Oblast, and someone anonymously reported that there was a threat of explosion on the plane. The aircraft finally flew safely to Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport at 15:00 local time on the 4th.
Judging from the flight time at that time, the passenger plane should have flown from Tyumen Rosino International Airport to the Sukhoi Superjet 100 of Aeroflot B of Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport B, referred to as Sukhoi Super 100 and SSJ-100, aircraft registration number RA-89046, flight number SU6362. It's a 68- to 103-seat regional airliner, slightly larger than our 78- to 90-seat ARJ21, but much smaller than the 168- to 190-seat C919.
In 2000, in order to revitalize its own aviation manufacturing industry and obtain capital injection from the United States and France, Russia decided to develop a new regional airliner by sukhoi aviation group. Its positioning is similar to that of COMAC's ARJ-21, Japan's Mitsubishi's MRJ, and Canada's Bombardier's CRJ. After seven years of hard work, the first SSJ-100 prototype was unveiled on September 26, 2007, and the first flight was completed in 2008. On April 19, 2011, the first production SSJ-100 was delivered to Armenian Airlines, and on April 21 of that year, the first passenger flight from Yerevan to St. Petersburg was successfully completed.
From 2011 to the present, a total of 189 SSJ-100s have been built and are still in production. The only crash occurred on May 9, 2012, when an SSJ-100 aircraft was on flight demonstration in Jakarta and crashed at Mount Sala, Java, Indonesia, killing all 45 people on board, and the final investigation was attributed to pilot control problems.
On May 5, 2019, an SSJ-100 operating Aeroflot Flight 1492 suddenly failed engines and caused a fire during the flight, and the aircraft subsequently successfully forced a landing at Moscow International Airport, but an explosion occurred immediately after landing, killing 41 people, 33 passengers and 4 crew members, but 6 of them were seriously injured.
The SSJ-100 engine, the SaM146, is a PowerJet joint venture joint venture jointly funded by Snecma in France and saturn research and production consortium in Russia. Its airborne electronic equipment is mainly provided by well-known Italian and French avionics manufacturers, and the entire aircraft development process is even funded by the United States and France, while the certification, market development, sales and after-sales service in the Western market are responsible for the Italian company Alenia.
In the current situation, the production, maintenance and operation of the SSJ-100 have naturally been greatly affected. Like the SSJ-100, the Boeing and Airbus aircraft currently operating in Russia have many difficulties, such as the inability to obtain aircraft parts produced by Western countries, so that they have to use the old Ilyushin and Tupolev aircraft, and even convert the cargo aircraft into passenger aircraft for operation. Russia's S7 Airlines, for example, is putting 2 Il-96s and 3 Il-86s back into service, while another airliner, the Tu-214, has also been put back into service.
On the other hand, Russian passenger, cargo and transport planes flying abroad are being detained by Western countries, such as the An-124 Rusland transport aircraft that transports COVID-19 test kits and other epidemic prevention materials to Canada on February 27, which was detained at Toronto Pearson International Airport and has not been returned. According to Russian statistics, at least 78 of their aircraft are currently detained by Western countries.
Of course, the Russian side also immediately retaliated, announcing that it would "retain" all Boeing and Airbus aircraft in its territory, with more than 500 aircraft, which were leased by Aeroflot. However, the operation and maintenance of these airliners in Russia is obviously no longer supported by Boeing, Airbus and other Western airlines, so there are not many who can really fly.
In this case, the burden on the shoulders of Russian domestic airliners is naturally getting heavier and heavier, especially the latest SSJ-100, which is one of the few popular aircraft. The hanging out of the 7700 emergency code this time is a dangerous omen for both the SSJ-100 and Aeroflot.