DUSHANBE, July 26, 2011, Asia-Plus — The Ministry of Transport (MoT) has set up a special commission to study the situation around East Air, Minister of Transport Nizom Hakimov announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 26.
According to him, the probe into the issue will be conducted strictly in accordance with Tajikistan’s civil aviation legislation and international agreements signed by the country.
“There are many delinquencies in this case and we have to investigate them,” the minister said, noting that the findings will be published later.
Hakimov noted that the ministry has nothing to do with recent staff changes in East Air. “East Air is a private company and this issue is in competence of shareholders,” the minister said.
On the statement that former director of East Air organized hijacking of two planes of the company, Hakimov said, “This incident is direct violation of Tajikistan’s civil aviation legislation.” “We will study the issue and introduce appropriate measures.”
We will recall that senior representatives from Dushanbe International Airport have accused former director of East Air Vladimir Kuimov of hijacking two aircraft of East Air. An official with Dushanbe international Airport told Asia-Plus on July 20 that those two planes were supposed to operate flights from Dushanbe to New Delhi and from Kulob to Moscow on July 19. “However, the aircraft did not return from Moscow,” said the source, “We have information that they were illegally sent to Kyrgyzstan.” According to him, the former director of East Air Vladimir Kuimov is behind that.
As it had been reported earlier, Firdavs Mukhtorov was appointed acting director of East Air, a charter airline based in Dushanbe, on July 16, replacing Vladimir Kuimov.
According to Vladimir Kuimov, he was outside the country for health reasons when senior representatives of the Dushanbe airport came to the East Air office and appointed new director of the company – Firdavs Mukhtorov. “They entered the office without the knowledge of the company director general,” said Kuimov, “It was the raider capture. We have sent our lawyers to the company.”
Meanwhile, the new director of East Air, Firdavs Mukhtorov, says that there was no any raider capture. “Under Article 54 of Tajikistan’s Civilian Aviation Code only citizen of Tajikistan may be director of the company, while Vladimir Kuimov is not citizen of Tajikistan and he had worked as acting director of the company for three years,” sad Mukhtorov. “The shareholder who assumes the 51% ownership interest in the company has decided to appoint me director of the air company.”
According to Mukhtorov, Vladimir Kuimov, who was outside the country, officially delegated his authority to Stanislav Yanchuk and the procedure of appointment of new director general of East Air was held in the presence of Mr. Yanchuk. The East Air Vice-President Pyotr Ivannik, who also owns aircraft of Eastok Avia FZE, also attended the procedure of appointment of the new director general of East Air, Mukhtorov added.
In the meantime, owners of aircraft have reportedly suspended flights operated by East Air from Kulob to Moscow and St. Petersburg following this incident.
East Air is a charter airline based in Dushanbe. Wikipedia reports the airline provides charter services for various airlines, including Eastok Avia and Iraqi Airways.
The East Air fleet reportedly consists of: 1 Airbus A320 (1); 2 Boeing 737-200 (one of them is operated by Tajik Air); 2 Boeing 737-300 (one of them is operated by Icar Air); and 2 Boeing 737-400 (one operating for Eastok Avia and one operating for Iraqi Airways.
East Air now operates to the following destinations: Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg); and India (New Delhi).
