Passengers falling from the gangway. The baby who fell from the ramp in Pulkovo is in an induced coma

The emergency occurred in the main air harbor of the Northern capital. A woman with a child in her arms got off a plane that arrived on Thursday evening from Moscow. But something went wrong - the ladder folded - and the mother and baby fell down from a three-meter height.

Two victims

Ural Airlines flight 091 arrived in St. Petersburg at 19.00. Passengers, as usual, were given a teleport. However, when exiting the Airbus plane, a 44-year-old passenger and her one-year-old child fell off the ramp and were injured. The ladder simply collapsed under the passenger’s feet.

Airport doctors promptly transported passengers to the health center to provide first aid. Currently, the passengers have been sent by ambulance for hospitalization to one of the hospitals in St. Petersburg, this is how the press service of the Air Gate of the Northern capital commented to Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The official representative of the air harbor of the city on the Neva Margarita Potekhina added that other passengers were not injured. The reasons for the fall of the mother and child and the malfunction of the ladder are now being determined.

It is reported that the victims were taken to the airport health center and then hospitalized. The woman was taken to the 26th city hospital with a broken leg, the child with a traumatic brain injury was taken to the Filatov Children's Hospital. The baby is in serious condition after the fall.

Those responsible for the emergency face criminal charges

In St. Petersburg, transport police officers are conducting an investigation into the fall of a citizen and her young child from a plane at Pulkovo airport at about 19:00 on September 28, the department reported. The fall of a passenger from Moscow and her child from a plane at Pulkovo airport Law enforcement officers are already interested. The Ministry of Internal Affairs for Transport in the Northwestern Federal District began checking the circumstances of the emergency that occurred at the airport. An employee of the transport prosecutor's office immediately went to the scene of the incident. At the same time, the North-Western Transport Prosecutor's Office took control of the case.

MEANWHILE

Late in the evening it became known that the transport investigation department of the North-Western Transport Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a case under the article “provision of services that do not meet the requirements for the safety of life or health of consumers.” So far, in fact, the perpetrators have not yet been identified.

As Komsomolskaya Pravda learned, the victims were a grandmother and granddaughter. Now the baby’s mother Daria reports that the child is in serious condition in intensive care, doctors put her into an artificial coma.

Mom has numerous fractures, but her condition is stable,” says Daria. - They didn’t really explain anything to me, they only said that it was the airport’s fault. I know that my mother and my daughter went out first. The blow fell on both of them.

The woman assured that she intends to bring the case to court.

© Photo by the press service of the North-Western Transport Prosecutor's Office

“Pulkovo: chaos reigns at the airport. This is what the ship's commander said at the 40th minute of waiting for the gangway. “After the recent tragedy with a girl who fell from the ladder...,” this entry appeared on Thursday evening in the Live Journal of Deacon Andrei Kuraev.

Similar messages began to multiply on social networks like mushrooms after rain: “An hour of unsuccessful showdowns, nerves, running around. And, spitting on the chaos on the part of the Pulkovo airport workers, we, having bought new tickets, still fly home. Tired, but not defeated”, “These are semantic hallucinations. How to unsee this? It’s not even trash...”

Judging by the online scoreboard, many flights were delayed at night, and some took off late. The prosecutor's office has already become interested in this story. The Northern Capital Gateway LLC (the airport management company) the next day stated that 11 flights were indeed delayed due to the fact that after the tragedy, fewer self-propelled airstrips are being used at the airport. However, they noted that over 20 more flights were delayed for other reasons - due to the late arrival of aircraft, poor weather conditions, and technical problems.

“In this case, all interested parties should write complaints to the regulatory authorities: Rospotrebnadzor, the prosecutor’s office. Flights are delayed at Pulkovo, citing safety reasons. But they create a situation with the opposite effect - after all, there are many passengers, including those with children. What kind of security are we talking about if this situation has a detrimental effect on their health?” — says lawyer Andrei Tyndik.

People started talking about safety at Pulkovo after the tragedy that occurred on September 28. Then, under the grandmother, who was carrying her granddaughter in her arms, part of the platform of the self-propelled ladder collapsed. As a result, passengers fell from a height of more than three meters. The victims were taken to the hospital. The grandmother received fractures and after some time she was transferred to outpatient treatment. Recovery will take at least two months. Doctors fought for the girl’s life for two weeks. They did everything possible to save the child. But on October 14, the girl died.

The photographs published on the website of the North-Western Prosecutor's Office for Transport show that the metal part of the ill-fated ladder is literally hanging on two thin cables. In the most prominent place of the structure there is the inscription “Pulkovo Airport”.

The North-Western Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for Transport opened a criminal case under paragraph 2 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (provision of services that do not meet the requirements for the safety of life or health of consumers, if this act negligently resulted in the infliction of serious harm to human health). Later, two suspects from among the employees of Northern Capital Gateway LLC (Pulkovo management company) were detained: Valentin Chernaenko and Alexander Kozelsky. Kozelsky, who was responsible for repairing a faulty passenger ramp, was placed under house arrest by the court. But Chernaenko was released, refusing to allow investigators to place him in custody.

The press service of the Northern Capital Gateway reported that airport representatives contacted the relatives and provided them with financial assistance, and also offered to help with organizing the funeral. Friends of the family confirmed that money was transferred to the girl’s mother when the child was in intensive care. In addition, according to the airport representative, a personal apology was made to the family.

After the incident, the airport began its internal investigation. According to the agency's interlocutor, all ladders of a design similar to those involved in the tragedy on September 28 have been temporarily taken out of service. They will be put into operation after an additional check of their technical condition.

At the same time, the airport emphasized that the information that “single delays” on October 19 were associated with self-propelled ramps is unreliable. According to the airport's press service, in connection with the investigation, 11 stairways of the same configuration were taken out of service to assess their technical condition. Some of them, after confirmation of safety, were returned to work; the rest are still being checked.

This explanation did not satisfy everyone. “The airport is operating normally and does not blush even because of the ‘incident’,” this comment appeared in the Pulkovo group on the social network.

Meanwhile, the Investigative Committee is inspecting airstairs at other airports in the Northwestern Federal District. And already in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Syktyvkar, Yaroslavl and Pskov.

According to the Air Code of the Russian Federation, the airline bears responsibility for the passenger while he is on the territory of the airfield. “Article 117 of the Air Code of the Russian Federation establishes provisions on the liability of the carrier for harm caused to the life or health of an aircraft passenger. The carrier's liability continues throughout the air carriage. In this case, air transportation means the period from the moment the passenger of the aircraft undergoes pre-flight inspection for boarding the aircraft and until the moment when the passenger of the aircraft, under the supervision of authorized persons of the carrier, leaves the airfield. Thus, the presence of a passenger on the ramp falls under the concept of air transportation, therefore, the airline will compensate for the damage to the victims,” emphasized lawyer Vladimir Starinsky.

However, it is worth noting that carriers enter into agreements with airports for ground handling. These documents contain a list of services provided, for example, boarding, baggage transportation, meals, etc. In this case, the boarding ramp belongs to Pulkovo Airport (which the latter does not hide).

Here we can recall the tragedy of 2014, when a Falcon-50 plane collided with a snowplow at Vnukovo and caught fire. As a result, the crew and passenger, the president of the Total oil company, Christophe de Margerie, died. Then the airport employees were found guilty. In particular, the driver of the snowplow Vladimir Martynenko and the engineer Vladimir Ledenev were sentenced to 4 and 3 years in prison. However, both convicts were released from punishment under an amnesty with their criminal records expunged.

In the case of the tragedy at Pulkovo, all that remains is to wait for the court’s decision.

Nikita Kochetov

FALL FROM THE SECOND FLOOR

“The baby has flown away, I will miss you,” - a photograph of a fair-haired girl with a mischievous ponytail on top of her head - the last one on Daria Petrova’s VKontakte page. About a month ago, her 44-year-old mother Maria Leonidovna and her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Varenka flew to Moscow to visit relatives. The grandmother and granddaughter were supposed to return back on Thursday, September 28.

The evening flight of Ural Airlines took off from Domodedovo at 17.42. Exactly an hour later they were congratulated on their arrival at the air harbor of the Northern capital. The ramp was docked to the Airbus. About ninety people walked along it. And on the 91st, part of the ladder came off and Maria Leonidovna and Varenka in her arms fell to the ground. They flew three meters - this is the height of two floors.

I was waiting for them in the arrivals area, all the passengers had already gotten out, but mom and Varya weren’t there,” Daria told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “Then my mother called and said that they were at the first aid station.

The victims are now in the hospital. Varya - in the fifth children's city hospital named after Filatov. The baby has a traumatic brain injury, bruises of the heart, lungs, and liver. The girl was put into an artificial coma...

Mom was also transferred to intensive care. She has two broken ribs and a broken leg. And a concussion,” Daria retells the conversation with the doctor. The woman is in hospital No. 26. She cannot explain what exactly happened. Judging by the photographs distributed by investigators, the platform that leads to the ramp simply folded and hung upside down.

OLD AND UNRELIABLE?

The Pulkovo press service reported that an investigation is underway and they will refrain from making other comments for now. But the Investigative Committee, it seems, has already come to conclusions. On Thursday, late at night, the department opened a criminal case under the article “provision of services that do not meet the requirements for the safety of life and health of consumers.”

Investigators questioned airport employees who carried out maintenance on the ramp, she commented. press secretary of the North-Western Investigation Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Maria Dobrynina. – Technical documentation on the ladder was confiscated. I can't say exactly how old he is, but he is very old.

How long has this ladder been inspected? Pulkovo has not yet answered this question either.

An interlocutor of Komsomolskaya Pravda from the field of aviation security, on condition of anonymity, noted that questions may still arise for flight attendants.

They often ignore the rules and transport carts with food or something heavy along passenger ramps. That’s why he broke down,” our interlocutor noted. – It is strictly forbidden to load it; for this purpose there is a special catering machine and an elevator.

SPECIFICALLY

Vladimir IVANOV, aviation historian:

- “Old” for a ladder is a relative concept. They all must undergo daily, weekly, monthly and routine inspections, where the need for repair work and control is assessed. Checks must take place regularly. This is all a human factor, because even if it is old, the defect would have been revealed during a morning inspection. I think that the airfield team was simply inattentive when inspecting the equipment. The specialist should have seen that deformation had begun. In my practice, this has never happened to a ladder step folding like this.

THERE WAS A CASE

In the summer of 2015, there was a similar incident at the same airport. Then a seven-year-old passenger on the St. Petersburg-Vladivostok flight fell onto the asphalt from the ramp. The boy fell into a 30 by 40 opening in the gangway. The child then suffered serious injuries. And after a two-year investigation, the ladder operator (trolley driver) of the special transport operation department of the apron maintenance service of the Northern Capital Gateway company - this is the operator of Pulkovo - was sent to trial.

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Gangway in Pulkovo: inspection after the tragedy.