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Today, July 27, Ukraine commemorates the 18th anniversary of the Sknyliv air show tragedy, 112 International reports.
Ukrainians are paying tribute to the victims by bringing flowers and candles to the crash site. Throughout the day, prayer ceremonies and vigils are taking place in Lviv.
On July 27, 2002, a Ukrainian plane crashed during an aerobatics presentation at the Sknyliv airfield near Lviv, Ukraine.
The air show was staged to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Ukrainian Air Force’s Ukrainian Air Force 14th Aviation Corps. It was attended by more than 10 thousand spectators. An Su-27 plane, piloted by Volodymyr Toponar and co-piloted by Yuriy Yehorov, crashed during an aerobatics presentation.
Initially, a MiG-29 aircraft was prepared for presentation, but it could not fly to Lviv due to weather conditions. Su-27 was used instead.
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The pilots completed an aerial stunt improperly and lost control over the aircraft. The fighter plane got trapped over a tree, then its wing hit the asphalt surface of the landing strip. The aircraft ran into a Sukhoi Su-17, which stood idle on the ground, hitting a navigational flashlight of Ilyushin Il-76, and eventually, ran into a crowd of bystanders, exploding and catching fire.
77 people were killed, including 28 children, making it the deadliest air show accident in history. The number of injured vary from hundred, two hundred and even more than five hundred by some estimates.
Both pilots catapulted before the aircraft, hit the ground, and suffered only minor injuries.
Volodymyr Shkidchenko, the-then defense minister, immediately asked for resignation, however, it was not approved, and he remained in office. The air force commander and the commanding officer of the 14th Aviation Corps were fired. Another three generals were arrested by the military prosecutor’s office.
The investigation considered several reasons of the tragedy, including the aircraft’s technical malfunction, a piloting error, negligence during the planning of the flight schedule and poor organization of the air show. The latter was officially defined as one of two reasons by the prosecutor general’s office.
Both pilots were charged with negligence and lack of professionalism, along with divergence from flight conditions. Neither of them pleaded guilty, pointing out that their flight maps differed from the actual landscape where the show took place. Toponar and Yehorov also said they had to perform maneuvers that they did not practice in advance.
On June 24, 2005, they, along with the three military officials, were found guilty. of negligence, failing to follow orders and violating flight rules. Toponar was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Yehorov was sentenced to eight years. The crew’s main flight trainer was acquitted for lack of evidence. The military officials were sentenced to up to six years and up to two years in prison respectively.
