Air crash death toll in Russia last year accounted for more than 20 pct of total people killed in the plane crashes globally, a Russian expert said on Thursday.

Alexander Kanshin, a senior member of the Russian Public Chamber said that of the 506 people killed 2011 during air crashes, 119 were killed in Russia.

At the same time, Russia's passenger air traffic share accounted for only 1.7 pct of the global air transportation amount, he told Interfax news agency after a Chamber hearing.

Once an aviation powerhouse, Russia has been plagued by deadly plane crashes in recent years.

The year of 2011 was the safest year in civil aviation, while six out of 28 worldwide major passenger plane crashes occurred in Russia.

In June 2011, a RusAir's Tu-134 passenger plane, with 52 people aboard, crash-landed in Russia's northern republic of Karelie, killing 46 people.

Three months later, a YAK-42 passenger plane carrying 45 crashed after taking off near the central Russian city of Yaroslav, claiming 43 lives, most of which were hockey players.

After last September's tragedy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Transport Ministry and relevant departments to pay more attention to the training of civil aviation pilots.

Local analysts have attributed these tragedies to outdated planes, poor pilot training and a lack of supervision on the industry.

Russia is left far behind developed countries in the fields like flight safety, pilots' quality and aviation management, said Chairman of Russia's Helicopter Industry Association Fanis Mizayanov.

He said although the country acceded to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in 1970, its aviation department has refused to introduce advanced standards and stipulations from the ICAO.