Inspectors reject the version of poor-quality fuel in Tu-154 of "Dagestani Airlines"

The investigation has rejected the version that the crash of the Tu-154 of the "Dagestani Airlines" at the Domodedovo Airport on December 4 was caused by low-quality fuel, put into the aircraft fuel tanks at the stay at the Vnukovo Airport. As reported by the Airport, the Transport Department of the Russian ICPO (Investigatory Committee at the Prosecutor's Office) has allowed using the earlier sealed up vessel of fuel for fuelling other aircrafts.

As reported at Vnukovo, several hours after the crash of the Tu-154, an inspector arrived to the Vnukovo fuel storage with the aim to sample the kerosene from the underground reservoir, which had been used for fuelling all the aircrafts on December 4. The sample was taken by officials of the organization, licensed to conduct such tests - the Fuel Laboratory of the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation; then, the ICPO official sealed up the neck of the tank and banned its use for further refuelling.

On December 6 in the evening, as reported by Elena Krylova, official spokesperson of the Vnukovo Airport, they received a fax from the above Department of the ICPO, where the inspector allowed to open the reservoir and use the fuel. In the coming days, according to Ms Krylova, the Airport hopes to receive an official conclusion that the "fuel suspicions" have been lifted, the "Kommersant" writes.

According to the spokesperson, they had no doubts at Vnukovo of the fuel quality, on the day of the accident 17 car-tankers received fuel from that reservoir and serviced about 50 aircrafts; none of them had any in-flight problems with fuel.

Meanwhile, the version of low-quality fuel is actively discussed by the pilots of the crashed aircraft. Thus, Mustafa Bilalov, the Tu-154 squadron commander, put the version of low-quality fuel as the most likely in his talk with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. The second pilot Magomed Shamalov believes that the accident occurred because the airport employees had "forgotten to fill in the 'Arctic' - something like a car antifreeze liquid - into the engine fuel system. Therefore, they had supposedly failed "one after another," the "Life News" writes.

According to the "Caucasian Knot", this is already at least the fourth case, since October 2007, of emergency landing of aircraft of the "Dagestani Airlines".