Why do Russians clap whenever flights land at the airports?

I took 2 domestic flights…from St Petersburg to Sochi and then Sochi to Moscow. On both the occasions, as soon as the flight landed, most of the Russians would clap. I did try to check with couple of co-passengers but they were not sure. I later learnt that one of the reasons could be that in the earlier years, the safety record of all domestic Russian airlines was poor. The planes they flew were largely Russian made. Hence, passengers would cheer by clapping as soon as flights landed safely. However, in the last decade or so, the major Russian Airlines-such as Aeroflot, Rossiya and  S7 have been flying either Boeing or Airbus made planes on domestic routes, with better training and maintenance, resulting in a highly improved safety record. But old habits die hard and the some of the passengers have continued the tradition!

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