A Tu-154 operated by Iran Airtour crashed on Friday while landing in the northern Iranian city of Mashad. Initial reports indicate that the Russian-built aircraft blew a tire shortly after touching down. A fire, sparked by a wing raking the ground, then engulfed the plane. Twenty-nine of the 148 people on board were killed.

Given the frequency with which Iran’s aging and poorly maintained planes inadvertently return to earth, Friday’s aerial disaster hardly comes as a shock.

Still, the crash of the Tupolev is unwelcome news for Russia’s beleaguered aviation program. On the same day that the Iran Airtour plane went down, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he is charging Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov with the task of improving Russian civilian and military aviation safety. Vladimir Vladimirovich’s (TM) actions come in direct response to a spate of accidents since May that have claimed the lives of 410 people in the airspace over the former Soviet Union (FSU).

Putin’s choice of Defense Minister Ivanov is telling. It is another signal that the Russian President is intent on drawing the country’s aviation programs under still firmer state control.

ScP