MOSCOW. April 11 (Interfax-AVN) - About 50 air accidents are registered in Russia every year, reads the explanatory note to the bill on state regulation, supervision and monitoring over flight safety and use of Russian airspace, submitted to the State Duma for consideration by Vasily Klyuchenok, the First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council's Defense and Security Committee.
He thinks that with the overall reduction of flight time by 2.8-3.2 times, the number of air accidents with state and commercial aircraft has grown, a source in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament told Interfax-Military News Agency.
According to Klyuchenok, this can be explained by the legal vacuum that exists in the sphere of flight safety now.
The concept of the bill is based on the fact that flight safety should be exclusively the concern of the State and requires a set of legal and organizational fundamentals to regulate, control and supervise this important issue. These fundamentals, in their turn, should be based on a single national policy pursued by all federal administrative bodies and all aviation authorities of Russia. The funding for the activity of bodies to exercise control in this sphere should come from the federal budget.
There are over 30 federal laws, 10 decrees by the President, over 50 ordinances by the Government and 150 orders and instructions of ministries regulating the flight safety now, reads the explanatory note.
Klyuchenok, the Commander of the Air Force in the Volga Military District in 1997-1999, also thinks that the bill he drafted was made because of the critical situation with flight safety in Russia now.