Mid‑flight emergency: Russian plane's cabin pressure failure

The decompression of the cabin in a Russian aircraft and a sudden drop in pressure nearly ended in disaster. The Nordwind Airlines plane, heading for Orenburg, had to return to the airport in Moscow.

Shortly after taking off from Sheremetyevo Airport, the Nordwind Airlines Airbus A321 passenger plane sent a distress signal - Artem Korenyako from the Federal Aviation Transport Agency reported on Telegram.

The passenger plane took off on May 6 at 10:27 AM Greenwich Time and set its course. However, almost 40 minutes later, it turned out there was a serious malfunction. Due to decompression in the pilot's cabin, the pressure dropped sharply. The crew started to follow emergency procedures.

The pilot was forced to decrease the altitude from 10,000 to 3,000 metres, causing masks to drop over the passengers' heads. The plane temporarily disappeared from radars, raising even more concerns among flight controllers.

The "Kyiv Post" has been reporting on the deteriorating condition of Russian commercial airlines due to Western sanctions for some time. In February, the "Wall Street Journal" published an analysis by the German research company Jacdec, which showed that 2023 Russian airlines recorded 74 malfunctions during flights, more than twice as many as the previous year. Furthermore, the Russian Federal Aviation Transport Agency discovered over 400 equipment defects before flights, such as in engines, undercarriage, flaps, software, or hydraulic systems. "Moscow Times" reports that in January this year, ten serious malfunctions were recorded, and in the first quarter of 2024, 6 engine defects were found.