Yesterday, two of our most experienced pilots died at the "Graf Ignatievo" airbase. Their plane crashed during a rehearsal for the air show that was supposed to take place today.
Today is a day of mourning for our Air Force. Military district prosecutor's office and military police should conduct a second inspection of the accident site.
For exactly 13 minutes, the flight of the dead pilots Major Petko Dimitrov and Senior Lieutenant Ventsislav Dunkin continued with the L-39ZA combat training aircraft.
They took off at 12:17 p.m., and at 12:30 p.m. the plane was flying headlong down in a straight line.
The incident also happened in front of the eyes of the international guests.
The flight that took place yesterday was a dress rehearsal before the international air show planned for today on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of our acceptance into NATO.
The plane was last renovated in June last year – in the Czech Republic. It was fully fitted, technically correct, checked before the actual flight.
Witnesses say that the aircraft was flying with two other planes in formation.
Suddenly the aircraft was observed to go straight down without any attempt to eject and crash on the runway.
All those present say that they literally froze at that moment. There was an initial shock and then everyone ran for the fire police and ambulances.