Qualla: Kolavia Flight 348 https://qualla.com/kolavia-flight-348 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:36 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/v/d/u/h/kolavia-flight-348-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kolavia Flight 348 https://qualla.com/kolavia-flight-348 Kolavia Flight 348: Introduction https://qualla.com/kolavia-flight-348/ Photo credit Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation, CC BY-SA 2.0. New Year's Day in Surgut dawned at minus thirty-something, the way it always does in Western Siberia. At Surgut International Airport, 134 people boarded Kolavia Flight 348, a Tupolev Tu-154B-2 bound for Moscow. Among them were members of Na Na, a Russian pop group from the 1990s, returning from what must have been a festive performance. At 10:00 local time, as the aircraft was being pushed back from the gate and the crew began starting the three tail-mounted engines, fire erupted in the center fuselage. It spread into the passenger cabin with terrifying speed. What followed was an evacuation in arctic cold, passengers spilling onto the tarmac in varying states of panic and injury. Three people did not survive. Forty-three others were hurt. The aircraft, registration RA-85588, was destroyed. And the cause, when investigators traced it, pointed to a maintenance gap so fundamental it seemed almost impossible.

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Image: Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/v/d/u/h/kolavia-flight-348-wp/vduh-kolavia-flight-348-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kolavia Flight 348: A Twenty-Eight-Year-Old Workhorse https://qualla.com/kolavia-flight-348/ Photo credit Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation, CC BY-SA 2.0. RA-85588 had lived several lives before its last morning. Built in 1983, the tri-jet Tu-154B-2 entered service with Aeroflot as CCCP-85588, one of hundreds of the type that formed the backbone of Soviet domestic aviation. After the Soviet Union's dissolution, it was re-registered...

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Image: Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/v/d/u/h/kolavia-flight-348-wp/vduh-kolavia-flight-348-a-twenty-eight-year-old-workhorse.mp3 0:06 2 full Kolavia Flight 348: Sparks in the Fuselage https://qualla.com/kolavia-flight-348/ Photo credit Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the crew connected the generators to the electrical network during engine start, they followed standard procedure. What was not standard was the condition of the generator contactors housed in an electric panel on the right side of the fuselage. These contactors, electromech...

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Image: Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/v/d/u/h/kolavia-flight-348-wp/vduh-kolavia-flight-348-sparks-in-the-fuselage.mp3 0:06 3 full Kolavia Flight 348: The Panel Nobody Checked https://qualla.com/kolavia-flight-348/ Photo credit Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation, CC BY-SA 2.0. Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, known by its Russian acronym MAK, recovered both flight recorders and conducted an exhaustive investigation. Their final report, released in September 2011, delivered a finding that was both straightforward and damning: no maintenance sched...

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Image: Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/v/d/u/h/kolavia-flight-348-wp/vduh-kolavia-flight-348-the-panel-nobody-checked.mp3 0:06 4 full Kolavia Flight 348: Grounding the Fleet https://qualla.com/kolavia-flight-348/ Photo credit Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation, CC BY-SA 2.0. Russia's Federal Transport Oversight Agency moved quickly. All Tu-154B variants were advised to cease operations until the investigation concluded. The grounding order reflected an uncomfortable truth about Russia's aging commercial fleet in 2011: the Tu-154, a design from the 19...

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Image: Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/v/d/u/h/kolavia-flight-348-wp/vduh-kolavia-flight-348-grounding-the-fleet.mp3 0:06 5 full