In KBR, former pilot seeks reinstatement in MIA detachment

In the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), Andrei Gonibov, a former helicopter pilot-navigator from the special-purpose aviation detachment of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), is seeking reinstatement at work and claims that he was dismissed on trumped-up reasons.

In June, the Nalchik City Court rejected his appeal for reinstatement; and Gonibov appealed against it. The consideration of his complaint is scheduled for August 14. The legal department of the MIA argues that Gonibov's reinstatement is impossible, because of the changed staff schedule of the detachment.

Andrei Gonibov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that in 2008 he had strained relations with the commander of the helicopter detachment of the MIA for the KBR Arthur Loskov. The conflict escalated after on November 3-4, 2008, under the commander's order, some commercial flights were committed, which, as it turned out later, had not been sanctioned by Yuri Tomchak, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the KBR.

On November 3, 2010, a fight burst out in the office of the detachment navigator with Gonibov's participation; and a criminal case was opened against him under Part 1, Article 116, of the Russian Criminal Code on the fact of beating his colleague; and on December 15, 2010, Gonibov was fired because of a breach of contract.

The court then found one of the breaches of the contract in the fact that on November 1, 2010, Gonibov refused to prepare the estimate documentation on the flight of a Ka-226 helicopter from the manufacturer to Nalchik. Gonibov explains the refusal by the fact that he was not familiar with this helicopter model.

"The order to commit the flights of the Ka-226 was knowingly illegal; therefore, the refusal to fulfil it was a measure to execute the law. In fact, Gonibov was fired for enforcing the law," says Mukhtar Asanov, Gonibov's advocate.