The Russian air force command wants to bring back into service its trainer variants of the Tupolev Tu-134 airliner that were grounded by a presidential order last year, saying there is no suitable replacement for training its bomber pilots and navigators. It also has appealed to defence minister Sergei Shoigu for additional funding to return the 50 aircraft to use.
All Tu-134s were ordered grounded by then-President Dmitry Medvedev following the crash of a civilian RusAir example outside Petrozavodsk in June 2011. An investigation determined that the accident was caused by pilot error and that technical factors were not involved.
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