SHARP DIFFERENCE IN TEMPERATURE CAUSED MALFUNCTION OF TU-154








SURGUT /Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District/, March 13, 2001. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Oksana Shuba/. Preliminary investigation of yesterday's accident which took place in Surgut, north of West Siberia, says the emergency landing was caused by sharp difference in temperature, says Vassili Lebedinski, first deputy director general of the Tyumenaviatrans company.


	Yesterday on the way from Surgut to Moscow a TU-154 passenger aircraft, run by the Tyumenaviatrans Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing in the Surgut airport, Siberia.


	The reason was thought a technical malfunction. After a failure to remove three landing gears during the take-off the crew decided to make an emergency landing in Surgut. With 150 passengers and 10 member crew on-board the plane spent over two hours in the air burning out the kerosene to successfully land in the airport.


	All the passengers headed for Moscow in another aircraft.


	Such accidents are frequent in spring and autumn which are usually characterised by quickly changing temperatures. Yesterday the temperature was extremely flexible in Surgut, from 0 to minus 20 Celsius.