„I don't want to get involved in versions, since this is the job of the investigation - to reveal the objective truth and present the facts to the Bulgarian society. At least he owes it to the people who serve in the Air Force. For the last 20 years, the Air Force has been operating with a total shortage of spare parts, uncompleted repairs and unplanned modernizations. We rely on Soviet technology. The Soviet Union is long gone. In these 20 years, almost nothing has changed. Very little of the equipment has been replaced with western equipment. You know that we purchased 12 Cougar helicopters, two of them are flying. Because no repairs have been made, nor spare parts“.
This was stated in the show “120 minutes” on BTV the military expert and one of the few aviation journalists in Bulgaria, Dimitar Stavrev, in connection with the tragic accident with a plane in “Graf Ignatievo“, in which two pilots died.
He confirmed that the L-39ZA combat trainer that crashed had been repaired in time.
„Unfortunately, we have to say that in three years we have had three accidents with three deaths and three lost planes. In the first two crashes – Major Terziev at the Shabla training ground and the ejection from the SU-25 at the “Bezmer“ air base. – Bulgarian society did not receive clear answers. Who is to blame and what exactly happened? We did not receive such answers”, added the expert.
In his words, it is completely true that the Bulgarian aviation relies on very outdated equipment and insufficient flight hours.
„Board 207, with which the crash happened, and board 213 in June were accepted after repairs in the Czech Republic by the aircraft manufacturer, which is very good. But I don't think it's a technical problem here. Because on the audio recording of the last flight it is heard that the engine was working until the last moment – there is absolutely no problem with the engine“
Stavrev admitted that there might have been a problem with the thrusters, but this could be confirmed by the investigation.