DUSHANBE, July 29, 2013, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan has temporarily suspended operation of Chinese-made MA-60s after a recent accident at the Dushanbe airport, when MA-60 belonging to Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, suddenly “hit earth,” Alisher Rustamov, the head of the Civil Aviation Department, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 29.
“It is a constructional error of the plant and we are currently waiting for Chinese specialists who will arrive in Dushanbe to establish the cause of the accident,” said Rustamov. “And only after their resolution we will decide what to do with these Chinese aircraft.”
This aircraft is reportedly not certified to fly in the CIS member nations and Tajikistan is the first air carrier within the CIS area to operate MA-60.
Tajik national air carrier, Tajik Air, has acquired two MA-60s from China”s Xi”an Aircraft Industrial Corporation. The aircraft have been acquired due to loan taken from China’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank. The loan is repayable in twelve years.
The Xian MA60 is a turboprop-powered airliner made by China”s Xi”an Aircraft Industrial Corporation under the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I). The MA60 is a stretched version of the Xian Y7-200A, which was produced based on Soviet aircraft Antonov An-24 to operate in rugged conditions with limited ground support and has short take-off and landing (STOL) capability. The airplane received its type certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in June 2000. The first aircraft was delivered to Sichuan Airlines in August 2000.
As of October 2006, XAC has received over 90 MA60 orders. The factory had delivered 23 MA60s by the end of 2006, and expects to deliver an additional 165 units by the end of 2016.
