Days of mourning in the structures of the Ministry of War. On Friday, two pilots died during training at the "Graf Ignatievo" airbase. Today is a day of mourning for both Razlog and Lom, where the two departed airmen are from. Dolna Mitropolia, where the military worked, also announced a day of mourning.
Hours after the accident, the plane's black box was discovered. However, it is not known if it can be read here or if it has to be sent to the Czech Republic, where the machines are from. According to experts, it is relatively preserved.
We are working on two versions - technical malfunction or pilot error, announced the Minister of Defense Atanas Zapryanov. However, the cause of the crash is still not officially known. The Military Prosecutor's Office in Plovdiv also admits a third version - wrongly submitted commands. However, the investigation will take time, explained its leader Major Hristo Anchev. “Whether it is pilot or technical error, or incorrectly set commands from the center, we will find out, but it will not happen quickly. If there is a mistake in the command, they are unlikely to fully cooperate with us. If there is such a moment, we will have to find out the hard way, he threatened, quoted by Nova TV.
Former Defense Minister Velizar Shalamanov demanded an investigation to determine exactly what caused the crash - malfunction, pilot error or incorrect command.
"These reasons must be found, I hope they will not be found in the easy way of a technical malfunction or flight error, but to solve the real problem of Bulgarian aviation,", he pointed out.
According to him, it is a serious question whether holding such air demonstrations is a good idea against the background of the few flight hours of the pilots and the old equipment.
"It is an open secret that our pilots do not have the necessary hours. There are three reasons - we don't have enough planes and helicopters, we don't have enough money to keep them in good condition, and we have a lot more pilots than necessary," Shalamanov believes.
According to another former military minister - Krasimir Karakachanov, the cause of the accident could be the very low flight height.
"The plane was 50 meters away, which is well below the permissible lower limit. In my opinion, this will be the cause of the crash. Even with an inadvertent small mistake, flying at nearly 500 km/h and performing a loop, everything happens in fractions of a second," he emphasized.
At minutes before 10 o'clock, aviation fans who had not realized that the show had been canceled came to the entrance of the base.