Fascinating Video: Russian Pilots Of The Congo

This reminds me of a at least 10-years old French documentary about safety of Congolese aviation. Looks like things haven’t changed much since then...

Here’s the full documentary:
https://youtu.be/tzkJDAWoiZc

I think it was explained well in the beginning by the Congo officer. They came right after the USSR collapsed ( when pilots were not in shortage ) and they were military pilots know how to man the russian military planes ( probably only). They are not someone ready to be hired by any commercial airlines.

You need to come out to Uganda sometime and take a jumpseat ride with our 727 freighter on a trip into Somalia or Yemen. You'll get a new appreciation for what "real" old school aviation is like.

It's easy, Lucky. It's the side deals which bring them there, ferrying gold, weapons, other stuff, adventurous stuff which can bring them lots of money, possibly too a few violent or final encounters. If you are a movie person, think Air America, Blood Diamonds or The Wages of Fear. Probably rough trade, jail birds or undesirables in the "Polished World" too.

Some 15 years ago, or so, the late Peruvian airline TUA, had a fleet almost exclusively 50 passengers turboprops Antonov 26s with ex-Aeroflot pilots which plowed the back country Andean routes of Peru from Lima and 1 or 2 big cities. The planes still "smelled" the old soviet panes plastics. Always full, it was 1or 2 hours this or 24 hrs very dangerous roads.
Those pilots all looked like the dirty dozen and were all known to ferry illicit cargoes. I was a regular passenger (only coffee trade, less lucrative..).

These guys could all be played by Humphrey Bogart or Yves Montand.

First Belgians and now Russians in the Congo! What's next?!

One of my friend's dad was a commercial pilot in the USSR, but when it fell and they came to the US, his qualifications didn't really transfer over. He said he was too old to start over, so I would imagine these pilots have a similar story. He ended up driving buses in the US and made a pretty good living.

@Mitch Cumstein

The Chinese are in Congo, and all of Sub-Saharan Africa - doing huge infrastructure buildout in exchange for rare earth minerals, copper, coltan, and oil. There is a reason there are so many Chinese restaurants in Luanda, and Ethiopian Airlines flies 34 weekly nonstops from Addis to China.

You should check out 'worst place to be a pilot' about newly qualified pilots flying Suzi air in Indonesia and Papua.

I believe this is quite old, probably 15 years . Only for the money and lots of alcohol . But fascinating.

@Ken, it's not 15 years old. Two clues, Obama is speaking from the Presidential podium so at least 2009. More subtle clue is that they visit Dallas supermarket in Goma, which opened in 2012.

Really respect these pilots!

Irrellevant to this particular video, but another video I found on YouTube that made me immediately think of how you would react to it. This was genuinely hilarious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrICG1c1tWY

Living in our sanitized first world it is fascinating to have a glimps into alternative lifestyle. This is like Air America for old Russian pilots. No glass cockpit and Garmin hand held by the wind shield. Pretty cool flying.