AFP – At least 78 people were killed and 115 injured Saturday when a Ukrainian airforce Sukhoi Su-27 jet smashed into crowds watching the finale of an airshow.
The tragedy occurred in the town of Sknyliv, near Lviv in western Ukraine, when the low-flying Russian-made jet appeared to lose control before hitting the ground and exploding into flames, sending debris flying into terrified onlookers.
Both pilots ejected just moments before the plane hit the ground, and were being treated for fractured vertebrae.
Emergencies ministry official Ivan Gayduk said seven children were among the dead and that 115 people were injured, 70 of them seriously. Many were suffering from burns, fractures and head injuries.
The unarmed twin-seater, twin-engined plane was performing an aerobatic manoeuvre involving a low pass, a defence ministry spokesman said.
“During a turn, the machine dipped its nose and started to lose altitude,” a witness told AFP. “Two or three seconds later it landed on the grass and exploded only a fews yards (metres) from spectators who were hit by fragments.”
The crash occurred at 12:45 pm (0945 GMT).
Bodies, the injured and shattered bits of aircraft lay scattered around the airfield as blood-covered visitors stumbled from the scene in a state of shock.
“We started to run when we saw the plane falling,” said one spectator as he clutched his nine-year-old daughter who was still mute with terror. “If we hadn’t we’d be among the dead now.”
No information had been made public officially on the causes of the accident, although officials said the jet’s “black box” flight recorder had been recovered.
“The decryption of the box will begin shortly,” defence ministry spokesman Sergei Babakov said, without giving any further details.
A number of witnesses pointed to a possible engine failure.
ITAR-TASS quoted a former fighter pilot and witness, Yaroslav Yantchak, as saying the plane appeared to stall while flying low: “All the spectators noticed the sudden silence,” he said.
Other witnesses said the plane appeared to clip a tree during the manoeuvre, which was to have been the climax of the airshow.
“The pilots were two very experienced colonels,” who had already performed for Ukraine at an international air show in Le Bourget, outside Paris, a Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman added.
Medical officials said the two, identified as Volodimir Toponar and Yuri Yegorov, had been hospitalised and that their condition was “more or less serious”.
“They have fractured vertebrae, but they have not been paralysed because the nerves have not been injured,” military hospital chief Ruslan Snejanski told reporters.
The government set up an enquiry body and announced that a distress fund of 10 million hryvnias, some 1.9 million euro ($A3.54 million), would be made available to support families afflicted by the tragedy.
©AAP 2002
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July 27, 2002 at 11:41 pm