The reasons for the disaster at the air base "Graf Ignatievo“ are complex. Investigating authorities must look at things from all sides and approach objectively. It needs to be understood why this air show is allowed to be held at a level of preparation that does not match this event and why this resource is being used up.
This was said by the chairman of the Union of Reserve Officers "Atlantic” colonel Willis Tsurov in front of "Focus“.
He noted that there is a lot of video footage of the plane crash and a lot of preliminary information. "Moreover, the black box is in good condition and can provide data on the operation of the aircraft,” added Colonel Tsurov.
He pointed out that two white circles were visible on the video footage when the plane fell. "There have also been suggestions that they might have tried to eject, but that is my personal opinion,”, he added.
Among the investigated causes of the crash are pilot error, technical and control malfunctions. "But as far as I can see, the control comes down to just control from the control station. No one takes into account the organizational problems beforehand, and no one takes into account the real level of training of the pilots for such exercises”, Colonel Tsurov pointed out.
In his words, after the closing of the "Air Force Staff" specialty, the bodies that are now responsible for the organization in the Air Force are engineers. "They do their analysis and their management in a very different way and with other methods. At the time, the staff bodies, which were prepared only for this and completed together with the airmen, put the human factor first, and the human factor is the main side of the performance of any task. The engineering team, which has taken over the staff positions for some time now, is betting on piloting errors, on technical errors, on other peculiarities. What is most important – whether the pilot died before the flight, whether he did all the combat training, the pre-flight training, the preliminary training to check the technique, are dropped, since for them they are "irrelevant”, because they think from an engineering point of view”, the expert explained.< /p>
According to Colonel Willis Tsurov, the accusations against the Minister of Defense for the organization of the airshow are unfounded. "We should know that when an event is planned in the Bulgarian Army, it starts from the bottom up and is coordinated at different levels. Finally, after the Defense Council has decided, the Minister presents it to Parliament. The minister did not plan it, but simply presented it to the parliament, and the parliament gave a conclusion that it should be held in June”, he explained.
Colonel Tsurov asked why the event is called "20 years of membership in NATO and 35 years of using the MiG-29 aircraft". Another question that should be asked, according to him, is why the date coincides with an event held in the area of Panitsie. "The justification is that there was a scheduled flight with the president and an American general, but what is the connection to the event?”, he asked.