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Yesterday, a partial radio failure forced an Airbus A320 operated by Aeroflot to return to its departure airport. The plane was on a scheduled flight from Moscow, Russia, to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. But how exactly did this incident unfold?
The flight in question
Aeroflot flight SU2694 is a regular weekly service from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) of the Russian airline. Its destination is Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS), which has always been the third busiest airport in Europe in terms of passenger numbers. However, the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic caused it to drop to fourth place in 2020.
The scheduled flight departure varies slightly from week to week. However, data from RadarBox.com shows that 2:25 p.m. local time is the most common time. Arrival in Amsterdam is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. local time, an estimated duration of three hours and 40 minutes.
Aeroflot typically deploys Airbus A320 family aircraft on this route. However, there have also been occasional cases of the airline’s Boeing 737-800 operating flight SU2694. Dutch airline KLM competes for Aeroflot on the Moscow-Amsterdam corridor. Meanwhile, AirBridgeCargo has a monopoly on dedicated route freight services.
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What happened?
According to The Aviation Herald, yesterday’s iteration of Aeroflot flight SU2694 did not go entirely as planned. Departing slightly late at 2:47 p.m. local time, the flight ran into trouble soon after leaving the Russian capital.
Specifically, after stabilizing at 28,000 feet, the aircraft crew reported a “partial failure of the radio communication system”, as confirmed by the airline. As a result, they selected the transponder code for loss of communication.
At this point, the crew began to go through the relevant checklists. Eventually, one of the plane’s three radios helped reestablish communication to some extent. Nonetheless, the crew chose to return to Moscow and were the first to descend to 17,000 feet. Now flying at a lower altitude, the aircraft entered the cargo hold to burn enough fuel to avoid an overload landing at Sheremetyevo.
Flight SU2694 finally landed safely on SVO runway 24L at 17:29 local time. Aeroflot has deployed a replacement Airbus A321, registered as VP-BFF, to transport passengers and crew to Amsterdam. This left Moscow at 7.20 p.m. local time and landed in Amsterdam at 8.30 p.m. Overall, the delay due to the radio failure was four hours and 25 minutes.
The plane involved
The aircraft that suffered the partial radio failure was an Airbus A320-200, which bears the registration VQ-BEH. According to Planespotters.net, this aircraft is just over 11 years old and arrived at Aeroflot in December 2009. It also bears the name I. Pavlov / I. Pavlov.
VQ-BEH sports a two-class seating configuration. SeatGuru reports that this consists of 20 reclining business class seats in a 2-2 layout, followed by a standard 120-seat economy cabin. The aircraft returned to service today. According to RadarBox.com, its first flight after the incident landed in St. Petersburg from Moscow at 11:48 a.m. local time.
What do you think of this incident? Have you ever flown on one of Aeroflot’s Airbus A320s? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
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