Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Horrific Details Surface on Lokomotiv Tragedy

September 6, 2012, 9:21 PM ET [35 Comments]
Travis Yost
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Make sure to follow Travis on Twitter!
--

Almost one year ago to the day of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl catastrophe, a new report has surfaced regarding the tragedy surrounding the devastating plane crash that claimed the lives of forty-four, including notable players in Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins, and a pair of famous coaches in Igor Korolev and Brad McCrimmon. Be warned: It's downright enraging.

The startling details have been collected by the blog over at Deadspin, but the initial report came via Russia Today:

Today Russian officials announced that they were charging Vadim Timofeyev, the deputy head of the Yak-Service airline, with breaching air safety rules after an investigation revealed that neither of the two pilots of that plane should have been flying. A previous investigation found that the plane's brakes had been accidentally applied during take off.

According to Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the committee that conducted the investigation, the captain had "falsified documents," and the co-pilot had never been trained to fly that particular type of aircraft. One pilot also had sedatives in his system and the other had a motor-skill debilitating disease.


When the initial investigation was conducted on the Lokomotiv air disaster, focus immediately shifted towards both technical failures and pilot error. After reading the above, pilot error wasn't really an encompassing -- or, acceptable -- description of what unfolded.

Falsified documents? Sedatives mid-flight? Debilitating disease? The KHL's always been viewed as a Wild West league when paralleled to the NHL in North America, and these kinds of horrific details certainly aren't going to do much to dispel that myth. Pilot error? No. I'd offer criminal negligence.

In the end, it's just an exclamation point on what many already knew: This disaster was entirely preventable, and many lives were wasted due to the wanton disregard for human life by Yak-Service and the pilots in operation.

--


Thanks for reading!
Join the Discussion: » 35 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Travis Yost
» Wrapping Things Up
» Enforcer
» Random Thoughts
» Shot Coordinate Fun
» Any Room?