AVIATION/ RUSSIA TO PROBE LOSS OF CONTROL IN TU154

Russian military prosecutors have launched a probe after a military passenger plane experienced a severe loss of control shortly after takeoff last week. An amateur video shows the RUSSIAN AIR FORCE Tupolev TU154B-2  in a condition known as Dutch roll, at a very low altitude, minutes after taking off from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow on April 29. The Pilots circled and managed to land the airliner on their 2nd attempt, pictured above, despite the aircraft banking and pitching wildly. "The military prosecutor's office has begun an investigation to establish the cause of the incident that could have led to an air crash," a prosecutor told Russian media. Media reports said there had been a failure in the plane's control system. The aircraft in question had also reportedly been in storage and had not flown in almost 10 years before the flight on April 29. The TU154B is a Soviet-designed plane that entered service in the 1970s. Russia's flagship Airline AEROFLOT took all of its remaining 23 TU154s out of service in January last year. About 3 months later, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed along with 95 others in April last year when a POLISH AIR FORCE TU154 crashed near the western Russian city of Smolensk. Last September, an ALROSA MIRNY TU154 made a miraculous emergency landing on a derelict airstrip in the remote Komi region after its electrical systems failed midflight. Russia's transport watchdog finally ordered domestic Airlines to ground their TU154Bs after a KOLAVIA TU154B exploded in a fireball before takeoff from Surgut, in Siberia, in January, killing 3 people.