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- Stumbling block: equipping aircraft with video surveillance systems has reached a dead end
Stumbling block: equipping aircraft with video surveillance systems has reached a dead end
Russian airlines are seeking to delay the mandatory equipping of aircraft with video surveillance systems for three years, as there is still no certified equipment in the country, Izvestia has learned. Carriers offer to temporarily use alternative means of video recording — mobile phones of flight attendants, office tablets and video recorders. The Interior Ministry opposes the postponement, considering cameras to be a necessary tool for investigating crimes on board. How the problem can be solved and whether it is worth equipping foreign aircraft with such systems is described in the Izvestia article.
Why don't airlines install video cameras on planes
Russian airlines have faced a problem in meeting the requirements of legislation on equipping aircraft with video surveillance systems, Izvestia found out. There is still no equipment on the market that would simultaneously comply with transport safety standards and aviation regulations. The carriers are seeking a three—year postponement and are offering to temporarily use alternative means of video recording - smartphones of crew members, service tablets and video recorders. In their opinion, this option will allow us to find a compromise with the Interior Ministry, which opposes the postponement.
The authorities have been trying to oblige airlines to install cameras on board for 15 years. The Ministry of Transport established the first requirements in 2011, but for several years their implementation was not actually monitored due to technical impossibility. In 2016, Rostransnadzor began fining carriers, after which the Ministry of Transport proposed to postpone the deadline to 2019. In 2018, the government shifted them to 2020-2025. Subsequently, the dates were revised several more times, and in April 2022, a resolution was adopted that fixed the current dates.
Thus, starting from September 1, 2025, the requirement to equip video surveillance systems applies to passenger aircraft with a maximum certified take-off weight of more than 45.5 tons, included in operators' certificates after that date. For the remaining aircraft, the deadline is set for September 1, 2027. The cameras should provide video surveillance and video recording in the crew cabin, on the access routes to it and in the passenger cabin. The same requirements are established for foreign airlines operating flights to Russia.
Planes of foreign carriers are equipped with such systems directly at aircraft factories by order of operators, a top manager of one of the airlines told Izvestia. In Russia, according to him, the responsibility for retrofitting the existing fleet is assigned to the airlines themselves. The new domestic MS-21, SJ-100 and Tu-214 will be delivered to carriers with video recording systems installed.
To be installed on airplanes, the equipment must comply with both transport safety requirements and FAP-21 aviation regulations. However, there are no manufacturers in Russia that produce certified systems that meet both conditions. The Ministry of Transport confirmed the absence of such technical means at interdepartmental meetings and in letters to airlines (Izvestia has one of them).
Production of the MC-21 medium-haul passenger aircraft
Two Russian developers, Baiterg LLC and DNII Volna JSC, undertook the certification of equipment for foreign aircraft. Both companies created aviation video surveillance systems for the MS-21 and SSJ-New. Currently, Baiterg is receiving a manufacturer's certificate according to FAP-21 for a video registration system that includes a router server, an information storage device and an internal video camera. The work, according to the company, will take about ten months. Volna is preparing the Obzor-C system for certification and allocates seven to nine months for this. This is stated in the documents of the companies reviewed by Izvestia.
The carriers who found themselves in the most difficult situation were those who, after September 1, 2025, included additional aircraft previously used by other airlines in the operators' certificates. They are already subject to mandatory equipment requirements, but carriers cannot purchase the appropriate systems.
The Association of Air Transport Operators (AEVT) in its appeal to the General Directorate for Transport of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Izvestia has it) She said that airlines were actually outside the legal field: legislation obliges them to install equipment that manufacturers are not yet ready to produce for aviation. In the appeal, the association pointed out a contradiction to the principle of enforceability of mandatory requirements, enshrined in Federal Law No. 247-FZ. At the same time, legal entities are subject to administrative liability under Article 11.15.1 of the Administrative Code — a fine of 100 to 200 thousand rubles or suspension of activity for up to 90 days, as well as criminal liability under Article 263.1 of the Criminal Code ("Violation of requirements in the field of transport security").
Representatives of the aviation community have repeatedly asked the Ministry of Transport to postpone the dates of equipping or cancel the requirements due to their impracticability, but the agency refused, citing the position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which insisted on the need to equip aircraft with video surveillance systems to investigate crimes and administrative offenses on board, the AEVT said in a statement.
Back in the summer of 2025, the Ministry of Transport proposed extending the period for equipping aircraft until September 1, 2027, and prepared a corresponding draft government decree. In an explanatory note, the agency explained the next postponement by the predominance of foreign equipment in the Russian fleet, the difficulties of its maintenance and sanctions restrictions. But the Interior Ministry did not approve the project, pointing out that there were no objective reasons for not refitting the aircraft. After the refusal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Transport stopped working on the project. The documents attesting to this were reviewed by Izvestia.
The issue was discussed again at an interdepartmental meeting on March 30, 2026 with the participation of representatives of relevant departments and the aviation industry. According to the protocol (the editorial office has it), the Ministry of Internal Affairs insisted on the need to equip aircraft with video surveillance systems. Rostransnadzor conceptually supported this position, but pointed out the need to establish enforceable requirements. Representatives of the largest airlines drew attention to the economic inexpediency of retrofitting aircraft that are planned to be decommissioned, the risk of rising air transportation costs and unequal competition conditions with foreign carriers. As one of the options, they suggested installing the systems only on new domestic aircraft. UAC then confirmed plans to equip new Russian aircraft with video surveillance systems.
Later, the carriers contacted the government and the Federation Council, including former Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saveliev (Izvestia has it). In a recent response to an appeal from one of the carriers, the Ministry of Transport reported that the position of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has not changed and a decision has been made on the conceptual possibility of equipping aircraft with video surveillance systems, indicating that the deadlines for meeting the requirements remain uncertain to date.
Ural Airlines told Izvestia that the entire fleet of the carrier's aircraft is subject to the requirements and must be equipped with video surveillance and video recording systems by September 1, 2027. The main difficulty in the airline was the lack of certified solutions that comply with transport safety standards. Until two Russian manufacturers have completed equipment certification, it is difficult to reliably determine the full cost and timing of equipping the fleet, including installation and necessary approvals. The airline supported the postponement, taking into account the availability of the equipment and the time required for its implementation.
An editorial source in one of the major airlines also noted that the main difficulty in meeting the requirements lies in the lack of equipment on the Russian market, which is simultaneously licensed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and manufactured by an organization certified according to the requirements of the FAP.
— To date, there is no equipment that meets all the necessary requirements. It is necessary to review the current requirements of the resolution, extending the mandatory equipment of video surveillance systems exclusively to newly developed aircraft of Russian manufacturers," he said.
Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other major airlines.
Sources in two major airlines told the editorial board that the carriers intend to contact the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Internal Affairs again through AEVT with a proposal to postpone the mandatory equipment for another three years or cancel the requirement, as well as to develop an alternative option for recording what is happening on board.
How do carriers propose to replace video cameras
Until realistic deadlines are set for equipping aircraft with fixed video surveillance systems, carriers suggest temporarily using alternative means of recording what is happening on board. Among the options are flight attendants' mobile phones, office tablets and video recorders.
In particular, the Dozor devices are being considered, the initiative for the use of which came from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a source told Izvestia in one of the airlines. Recorders are attached to employees' clothes and do not require installation in the aircraft structure, so they do not need to be certified as on-board equipment. A set of such a device costs about 100 thousand rubles, the source estimated.
However, wearable recorders have limitations. The weight of the "Dozor-78" without attachment is 140 g, and the weight of the complete set is 364 g. According to the source, it is inconvenient for flight attendants to constantly wear such devices. In addition, there are still issues of offline operation and duration of recording, as well as the collection and storage of materials: this will require servers and divisions that will administer recordings in different regions. In case of severe turbulence, the recorder can also detach from clothing and injure passengers.
The installation of stationary systems requires changes to the design of the aircraft, the development and approval of design documentation. Such work can only be carried out during heavy forms of maintenance comparable to C-check. Even with certified equipment, ready-made documentation and financing, it will take from one and a half to three years to equip the fleet, according to an expert assessment.
A video surveillance system for one aircraft can cost about 20 million rubles, an Izvestia source at one of the airlines estimated. This amount includes equipment and documentation, the work of the design bureau, simple aircraft and system integration. At the March interdepartmental meeting, former State Duma Deputy Vladimir Yefimov also drew attention to the significant costs of carriers and suggested using these funds to maintain the airworthiness of aircraft, taking into account the geopolitical situation.
What could be the compromise?
According to Oleg Panteleev, Executive director of the Aviport agency, the installation of video surveillance systems is not a fundamental problem if the possibility of their installation is initially provided by the aircraft developer. For aircraft already in operation, where there are no such solutions, equipment development, testing and obtaining permits are required.
Andrey Patrakov, the founder of the RunAvia flight safety service, added that the system must simultaneously meet the requirements of transport safety and receive approval for changing the aircraft design according to FAP-21. This involves not only installing cameras, but also checking equipment, as well as creating an infrastructure for storing and uploading recordings.
Both experts considered the deadline of September 1, 2027 unrealistic. According to Andrey Patrakov, the full cycle of equipment development and approval will take at least two years, and the fleet's equipment may last until 2029-2030. He considered the cost of the first sets for one aircraft to be 20 million rubles plausible. According to his calculations, equipping 700-900 aircraft will require 14-18 billion rubles of direct costs, excluding downtime and subsequent maintenance of systems.
According to Oleg Panteleev, wearable DVRs are not capable of replacing stationary cameras, but they can be used to record conflicts and destructive behavior of passengers. Andrey Patrakov considers such devices to be a temporary working measure, subject to the regulatory consolidation of the procedure for recording, storing and transferring materials.
As a long-term solution, Oleg Panteleev proposed to abandon the mandatory retrofitting of already operated foreign aircraft if there are no certified systems for them, while maintaining the requirement for new domestic aircraft. He also allowed government funding for equipment development and subsidizing retrofitting, although he estimated the likelihood of such support as zero. Andrey Patrakov suggested counting down the installation period from the appearance of an approved system for a specific type of aircraft, giving carriers another 24-36 months to finalize. For new Russian aircraft, both experts supported the installation of equipment directly at the factories.
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