Polar Airlines

Is Polar Airlines safe?

Polar Airlines scores lower than Utair (44) and Yakutia Airlines (53). In the last 20 years one of its Mi-8 helicopters crashed with 24 people killed, and it has written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary four more aircraft since 2012, two of them after crews landed in weather below the airport's limits. In December 2023 an An-24 crew mistook a frozen river for the runway. We score it 42. For people in the villages of northern Yakutia it is often the only way in or out, so the useful question is how to fly it with the least risk, not whether to avoid it.

Our confidence is low. Russian accident reports have become harder to reach since 2022, and we could not check every helicopter event on the airline's certificate.

The Deputatsky helicopter crash

On 2 July 2013 a Mi-8T with three crew and 25 passengers, including children, left Deputatsky for the village of Kazachye. The weather got worse en route. The crew did not turn back, descended below the safe height for the mountains and flew into a slope at about 650 metres, 40 km from Deputatsky. The helicopter burned, and 24 people died.

The Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) put most of the blame on the captain, who broke visual flight rules. It also found that the airline had not briefed the crew on the route and altitude filed in the flight plan, that the crew had not prepared together, and that loose baggage, mail and freight in the cabin and passengers without seat belts added to the deaths. The terrain warning system, had it been switched on and the crew trained to use it, might have prevented the crash. MAK also faulted Rosaviatsia's licensing board, which had issued the captain's airline pilot licence without noticing his lack of instrument skills.

Four more write-offs since 2012

• Deputatsky, 21 November 2012. An An-26 with 26 people on board touched down left of the centreline, caught a snow bank and ran off the runway. The nose gear collapsed. MAK cited the landing technique and a runway that did not meet the rules for unpaved strips.
• Near Vilyuisk, 16 August 2013. An An-2 biplane made a forced landing after its oil pressure fell. The pilot did not shut off the ignition or fuel, and a fire destroyed the aircraft. All 11 people got out.
• Belaya Gora, 11 October 2016. An An-26 began its approach with visibility at 1,900 to 2,500 metres against a minimum of 4,000. In a snowstorm the crew landed on the frozen bank of the Indigirka, 390 metres short of the runway and 230 metres to its left. The gear collapsed and a propeller tore off; all 33 people survived. The first factor on MAK's list was the lack of standard operating procedures from the airline.
• Aldan district, June 2022. A Mi-8MTV carrying 19 smokejumpers and a fire spotter for the forest fire service came down hard in the forest near Chagda. No one died, but 15 people were taken to hospital in Yakutsk, two in a critical condition. MAK opened an investigation.

The list leaves out an An-3T that Polar crews were ferrying to Yakutsk in January 2007: its engine failed, the crew landed in a forest clearing near Ust-Ilimsk and the damaged aircraft was repaired.

Incidents and the Zyryanka landing

On 28 December 2023 flight 217 from Yakutsk, an An-24 built in 1971, came in to Zyryanka in poor visibility. The airport's gravel runway runs beside the Kolyma, and the crew landed on the river ice instead. All 30 passengers and four crew were unhurt. Rosaviatsia classed it as a serious incident. The East Siberian transport prosecutor said the preliminary cause was a piloting error, and in April 2024 the airline dismissed the captain after the prosecutor's check.

Other logged events are technical: hail damage to an An-24 nose in 2018, engine shutdowns on An-24s near Yakutsk in 2019 and 2020, a nose gear that would not retract, a Let L-410 with an unsafe nose gear indication in 2021, and in April 2025 an An-24 from Zyryanka that landed at Yakutsk on one engine after oil was lost. Each ended with a safe landing. Few such events reach outside sources, so a short list reflects the data, not a clean record.

An old fleet with few parts

The airline lists 65 aircraft: 13 An-24s, 4 An-26s, 7 An-2s, 6 An-3s, 5 L-410s, 2 Dash 8-300s, small training aircraft and 25 Mi-8 helicopters, 16 of them the older Mi-8T. Many of the turboprops are around 50 years old. In January 2024 Polar's acting technical director told reporters that every operator of the An-24 and An-26 had struggled for two years to find parts and engine components. Western support for its Dash 8s and the Czech-built L-410s has been cut by sanctions.

Oversight

Polar Airlines is not named on the EU Air Safety ListEU Air Safety ListThe European Commission's list of airlines banned or restricted from flying in EU airspace because they do not meet international safety standards.More in the glossary of 9 June 2026, which bans 22 other Russian airlines, among them its neighbours Yakutia Airlines and ALROSA. Under our rules a Russian airline that is not listed and has no IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit scores 25. It answers to Rosaviatsia, which ICAO has flagged with a Significant Safety Concern since June 2022.

Before you fly Polar Airlines

• Expect delays and take them. Many of its airports have gravel or snow runways, no instrument landing system and weather that changes in minutes. Two of its write-offsHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary came after crews landed below the weather minimum. A flight that turns back or does not leave is the system working.
• Wear your seat belt on helicopters, and ask for loose freight to be tied down. MAK found that unsecured cargo and unbelted passengers added to the deaths in 2013.
• Plan for days, not hours. With subsidised flights to small settlements running once or twice a week, a cancelled flight can mean a long wait. Book a buffer before any onward connection in Yakutsk.

How we scored it

The accident record (60) sits at the floor of the band for one fatal accident in 15 years: a helicopter crash that killed 24, plus four more write-offsHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary, mostly with crew and airline findings, on a small number of flights. The fleet (20) is old, Soviet-built and short of parts. Oversight (25) reflects no IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary and ICAO's open concern about Russia, and the incident record (40) includes a landing on a frozen river in 2023. For a Yakutsk airline that flies more jets on paved runways, see Yakutia Airlines.