Sukhoi SuperJet-100 makes belly-landing in Iceland

A Sukhoi SuperJet-100 plane made a belly-landing at Iceland’s Keflavik Airport on Sunday, July 21. The incident occurred at 05:25 local time (09:25 Moscow time). No one was injured, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft said. “At the final stage of certification tests for extended operations - automatic landing (ICAO CAT III A certification programme), the plane touched down with its gear up while making a landing with imitated engine failure and side wind,” the company said. “During the incident, there were five people aboard the plane, including three crewmembers and two certification centre experts. None of them was injured. One of the experts got his leg injured during the evacuation from the plane,” the company said. The plane’s systems worked normally during the incident, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft said, adding that the plane would be repaired to continue the certification flight programme. Sukhoi SuperJet-100 is a regional 100-seat plane designed and made by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft in cooperation with Alenia Aermacchi. Its basic version can fly for a distance of up to 3,048 kilometres. An increased range is 4,578 kilometres. The company plans to start making a long-range version of the plane from 2013 and to offer a business version of the plane in 2015. It may be of interest to Middle East countries. The SuperJet, the first new Russian passenger plane over the past 20 years, is being created through unprecedentedly broad international cooperation that involves more than 30 major international aerospace companies, system and component suppliers. Sukhoi SuperJet-100 integrates the world's best industry practices and solutions. Sukhoi SuperJet-100 integrates the world's best industry practices and solutions. All aircraft will be certified in accordance with both Russian and international requirements. SSJ100's technical and operational performance make the product fully marketable and capable of taking a solid share in the highly competitive global market. Thus, Sukhoi expects to sell 800 aircraft until the year 2024, while the global demand for the aircraft of this class totals 5,400. So far the company had secured 73 solid orders for the aircraft. SuperJet-100 will in the future provide the basis for a whole family of planes, including transport and special purpose planes. However now the main goal is the certification of the plane and serial production of 60-70 planes annually. The Sukhoi SuperJet-100 family consists of two types of aircraft of basic and increased flying ranges with the carrying capacity of 75 and 95 passengers respectively.