THE SIGHT & THE SOUND 1/6 : Flight onboard Belavia TU-154M EW-85741 from Minsk (MSQ) to Warsaw (WAW)

Daniel’s Travel Vlog FLIGHT #1/6 BELAVIA TU-154M EW-85741 MINSK (MSQ) – WARSAW (WAW), JUNE 7, 2014 This video has been remastered and substantially improved in Sight & Sound and replaces the video published in 2014. Since the author of this video series consistently persuaded the owners of Merlintour to consider the charter of the Ruby Star AN-12 for passengers, Merlintour finally decided to relaunch their successful Belarus Aviation Tours in 2014, adding more and more rare Soviet aircraft types to the menue to satisfy the greedy appetite of an ever growing Avgeek scene. A cross country tour on Ruby Star’s AN-12 was the main dish on the planned agenda, yet that not being enough, Managing Director Boris Vlassov, being the Chief Representative of Belavia in Western Europe, pulled the strings to pay the legendary Belavia TU-154 a worthy tribute by changing aircraft from the regular Boeing 737 on Belavia’s rotation to Warsaw with EW-85741, the Grand Old Lady of Soviet Aviation, before retirement. This video invites you on board of EW-85741 on this short scheduled flight to Warsaw on June 7, 2014 in beautiful weather and puts the viewer into the passenger’s seat to experience what it is like to fly a Russian Classic Airliner in 2014. While ground handling in Minsk was very friendly and surprisingly open minded, ground staff in Warsaw was extremely rude, most unfriendly and tried everything possible to stop filming on the ramp, using physical force and treating us as criminals, a shocking experience. History of Tupolev 154M EW-85741 Airframe 91A896 was manufactured 1991 and delivered to the Estonian Division of Aeroflot in July, 1992 and registered CCCP-85741. CCCP-85741 was taken over by ELK Estonian Airways and registered ES-LTR in 1994. ES-LTR joined the fleet of Belavia and was registered RA-85741 on August 29, 1998. RA-85741 was included into the Belarus registry on February 6, 1999 and received the registration EW-85741. After a short term lease to ELK Airways of Estonia, from June, 2000 until December 26, 2001, registered ES-LTC, she returned to Belavia and received her former registration EW-85741. EW-85741 has been leased to Shaheen Air International - a private Pakistani carrier - from February 26, 2004 until September 3, 2004 and from February 19, 2005 until May 5, 2005. On June 7, 2014, EW-85741 operated for merlintour on a special aviation enthusiast rotation to Warsaw, replacing the usual Boeing 737, sparking remarkable media attention. EW-85741 operated a number of enthusiast charter flights in the following months, including the official final flight of a Belavia TU-154 on October 9, 2016 to St. Petersburg although this aircraft was still operating after this date on scheduled Belavia services. After EW-85703 was retired on January 30, 2016, EW-85741 closed the chapter of operating Soviet built aircraft at Belavia together with sister ship EW-85748, operating charter flights from Gomel to Siberia in late 2016 EW-85741 was retired on December 30, 2016 and is stored at Minsk Airport. Watch and enjoy with me the Sights & Sounds of Classic Aviation. Thank you for watching my channel Flight details Flight : B2 895 Date : June 7, 2014 Aircraft : TU-154M (instead of B 737-500) Registration : EW-85741 Former registrations : - CCCP-85741 (Aeroflot) - ES-LTR (Estonian Air) - RA-85741 (Belavia) - EW-85741 (Belavia) - ES-LTC (Elk Airways) - EW-85741 (Shaheen Air International) Built : 1991 From : Minsk-2 (MSQ) To : Warsaw (WAW) Take off : h (0656 UTC) Touch down : h (0751 UTC) Flying time : 55 minutes Flying distance : 605 km Altitude : feet Speed : 850 km/h Flight Captain : Trofimov, Alexandr First Officer : Bolshakov, Alexandr Flight Engineer : Ogurtsov, Yuri Navigator : Balakan, Dmitry Cabin Crew : Petrakova, Alexandra Cabin Crew : Mikhailovskay, Olga Cabin Crew : Belsky, Alexandr Cabin Crew : Sadryeva, Lilliya