#antonov

Flight deck of the mighty Mriya

For regional flights from its base just East of the name-giving Ural mountains - which serves geographically speaking as the division line between the continents of Europe and Asia - Ural Airlines used around half a dozen An-24 such as RA-46532, all of them adorned in the distinct color scheme of the period. Compared to other CIS airlines, Ural was rather swift with introducing its own brand on its fleet, and hybrid aircraft with basic Aeroflot-style liveries were no-where to be seen with them.

Unfortunately, poor Anuschka only had one more month of service life before her when seen leaving her stand at Samedan on a ice-cold, clear winter day for a sight-seeing flight. On March 15, 2003, she would suffer a total loss of engine power on climb-out to a similar flight, caused by icing of her air intakes and an improper fuel mixture selected for the carburator. The crew would turn her around and try to gilde her back to the runway, almost making it but then hitting bushes near the threshold and flipping over. Luckily, all occupants walked away from the scene with minor injuries, but the aircraft resting on her back in deep snow was declared a write-off within hours.

Antonov An-225 Mriya

Tulpar Avia Service used a pair of Antonov 24 turboprops on domestic and international flights out of Alamaty, Kasakhstan. That included a twice-weekly Almaty - Karaganda - Novosibirsk service with return leg after a night-stop in Siberia. That connection across a distance of approx 2100 kilometres / 1134 nautical miles translated into a pair of roughly two hours twenty minutes legs the author and a dozen fellow aviation journalists and enthusiasts had the pleasure to witness in the rather spacious cabin of the 1967 vintage Antonov earlier the same day.

@csakakarnodkellettvolna

With airframes ageing, the maintenance hungry «Antey» as the type was usually referred to in Russia was gradually retired by the early 2020s. Attempts to bring one airframe back into service - presumably to cover logistics needs for heavy transports following Russian losses in Syria and Ukraine - ended in tragedy in early December 2025 when RF-08832 broke up mid-air during her first post-maintenance test flight out of Ivanovo-Severny (sic!). The accident is supposed to be due to fatigue and excess stress on the airframe.

Rubystar Airways / Antonov An-12BK / Maastricht Aachen Airport