Plane Crash in Russia - Lets try this again...
 

So a Tupolev crashed. That's interesting. I have flown recently with Aeroflot and S7 airlines in Russia but on Airbus planes.

I saw the Tupolev's parked at the airports and sort of thought they were mothballed.

Surprisingly, the service on Aeroflot and S7 airlines is much better than we get from our domestic sirlines back home, the meals were good (and fairly large), and the stewardesses were friendly.

One interesting thing about Russians when they fly: when the plane lands, they all give the captain and crew a huge round of applause. For me, getting safely back on the ground is a minimum requirement.

Rest in Peace

Maybe they should applause when it takes off too

I flew in a couple a few years ago.... amazed they could even fly. Talk about a POS. One of our flights (from Samara to Moscow, I believe) went wrong mid-flight. I could feel the crew doing odd things with the plane, so I figured the computers were having problems and the crew were flying the plane. We were met with all the emergency vehicles when we landed in Moscow at around 3 AM.

I was on an Ilyushin 96 a few years ago.
The longest non stop domestic flight in the world, or so I was told.
Yuzhno to Moscow.
If nothing else, it was interesting. The control tower in Yuzhno had the glass on one side boarded up. It looked like the boards were there a while.
edit: My condolences to the people of Poland and to the people who lost family on board this flight.

I've flown Aeroflot a fair bit. I was always amused by the five different classes on board. I mean for a classless society this was pretty odd. But if you every got into first or second—it was difficult to imagine better on-board service.

The planes themselves were crude but tough. Like everything Russian.

A very sad day for the Polish people.

As i said in the other thread, my condolences to the Poles for their loss.