S7 Airlines Has Its Second Boeing 737 Runway Overrun in Six Weeks

On August 8, 2026, an S7 Airlines Boeing 737-800 freighter overran the runway while landing at Norilsk Alykel Airport in Siberia. The aircraft was arriving on a cargo flight from Moscow Domodedovo with two crew members on board. No one was hurt, and the damage is described as minor.

It is the Boeing 737-800‘s second runway excursion for the Russian carrier in less than six weeks, following a June 30 overrun at Mirny Airport that put a passenger jet into the mud short of the runway edge.

What Happened at Norilsk

The freighter went off the end of the runway after touchdown at around 3 p.m. local time, according to FlightGlobal, which first reported the incident. The Novosibirsk Transport Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the overrun and opened an inquiry into whether the airline met flight safety requirements.

Neither the exact cause nor the runway and weather conditions at the time have been disclosed. Investigators have not said whether excess landing speed, a long touchdown, or a mechanical factor was involved.

The Second Overrun in Six Weeks

On June 30, an S7 Boeing 737-800 carrying 173 passengers and six crew overran runway 25 at Mirny Airport in Russia’s Sakha Republic, coming to rest on muddy ground beyond the pavement. All aboard evacuated safely.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, classified that overrun as a serious aviation incident. A preliminary finding pointed toward a possible technical malfunction, though no cause has been confirmed.

A month earlier, on June 1, S7 had restricted most of its first officers from performing landings through October 1. The carrier introduced the measure, first reported by Simple Flying, after a rise in hard landings that exceeded structural inspection limits, a threshold that forces a maintenance check of the airframe.

The rule exempted major bases such as Domodedovo, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, and Vladivostok, along with training flights.

Why a Hard-Landing Rule and Sanctions Both Matter Here

A hard landing exceeding inspection limits does not ground an aircraft for good, but it does trigger a structural check that can take a jet out of service for days. Industry analysts linked S7’s landing restriction to the wider strain on Russian carriers’ maintenance capacity.

Western sanctions have complicated Russian airlines’ access to spare parts and maintenance support, making unplanned downtime more costly to absorb than it would be elsewhere.

Runway overruns themselves are usually traced to some mix of excess approach speed, a long touchdown past the normal landing zone, a delayed decision to go around, or a runway shortened by standing water, snow, or ice.

Manufacturers have started building technology aimed squarely at that failure mode. Embraer’s runway overrun alert system for its E2 jets, certified by EASA earlier this year, warns pilots in real time if the aircraft will not stop before the runway ends.

S7 has not issued a public statement on the Norilsk overrun. The carrier began flying the 737-800BCF converted freighter in 2021, becoming the first operator of that variant in Russia.