FLIGHT #4 BELAVIA TU-154M EW-85741 MINSK-ST. PETERSBURG Being tempted by the idea to join the final scheduled flight of Belavia's legendary TU-154M on a rotation from Minsk to St. Petersburg and back, it just made sense to change my usual access to Belarus from a direct flight from Frankfurt to a Motor Sich Airlines flight from Zaporizhia, Ukraine. Especially, because a YAK-40 and an AN-140 have been planned for scenic flights out of Minsk, the possibility was likely to get a two hour YAK-40 and a two hour AN-140 ride in and out of Minsk for 150 EUR. Once in Zaporizhia, I could not resist the idea to explore once again the network of this very unusual and unique fine little airline, operating solely aircraft of Soviet and Ukrainian production, equipped with engines developed and manufactured by the Motor Sich Engine Plant. It was raining cats and dpgs on this Sunday morning and there was absolutely no point in exploring the plane from the outside - even though there were absolutely no restrictions on ramp side in Minsk - because not only myself but the camera in my hands, protected through my rain jacket would have been soaked wet and damaged for good. That is why I tried to make the best of the situation and cabin footage is the "treat of the day". History of Tupolev 154M EW-85741 Airframe 91A896 was manufactured 1991 and delivered to the Estonian Division of Aeroflot Soviet Airlines July 1992, registered CCCP-85741. CCCP-85741 was transferred to ELK Estonian Airways and registered ES-LTR in 1994. ES-LTR joined the fleet of Belavia and was registered RA-85741, August 29, 1998. RA-85741 was included into the Belarus register February 6, 1999 and received the registration EW-85741. After a short term lease to ELK Airways of Estonia, registered ES-LTC, from June 2000 to December 26, 2001, she returned to Belavia and received her old registration EW-85741. EW-85741 has been leased to Shaheen Air International - a private Pakistani carrier – from February 26, 2004 to September 9, 2004 and again from February 19, 2005 to May 5, 2005. On June 7, 2014 EW-85741 was used by merlintour for a special aviation enthusiast rotation to Warsaw sparking remarkable media attention. This flight rotation to St Petersburg on October 9, 2016 is said to be the final scheduled flight operated by a TU-154M of Belavia. The TU-154M is scheduled to be retired by early 2017 for good. Watch and enjoy with me the Sights & Sounds of Classic Aviation. Thank you for watching my channel Flight details Flight : B2 941 Date : Sunday, October 9, 2016 Aircraft : TU-154M Registration : EW-85741 Previous registrations : - CCCP-85741 (Aeroflot) - ES-LTR (ELK Estonian Airways) - RA-85741 (Belavia) - ES-LTC (ELK Estonian Airways) - EW-85741 (Belavia, Shaheen Air International) Built : 1991 From : Minsk (MSQ) To : St. Petersburg (LED) Take off : 08.44 h (0544 UTC) Touch down : 09.44 h (0644 UTC) Flying time : 1 hour Flying distance : 713 km Altitude : 30.025 / 30.000 ft Speed : 494 / 527 / 399 / 665 / 571 / 484 knots Captain : Grishin, Alexandr 2nd Pilot : Shishkovec, Alexey Flight Engineer : Veretennikov, Vladimir Navigator : Yakovlev, Vitaliy Cabin Crew : Shulga, Tatyana Cabin Crew : Glinskaya, Catherine Cabin Crew : Potapenko, Alesya Cabin Crew : Kurzov, Dmitriy Cabin Crew : Makovski, Andrey