Plane crash with cadets in Ukraine: Air Force commander declared guilty
The State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine handed over suspicions of guilt in An-26 plane crash with cadets on board near Kharkov to the commander of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a number of commanders.
The head of the department of the State Bureau of Investigation, Vadim Primaichok, announced this during a briefing, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“As a result of the investigation, the State Bureau of Investigation, together with the Office of the Prosecutor General, obtained evidence that gives grounds to reasonably suspect individuals involved in organizing these flights. They committed violations in their official activities,” Primaichok said.
In particular, the suspicion was reported to the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Major General Sergei Drozdov, as well as the flight commander at the military unit in Chuguev and the commander of the military unit in which the tragedy occurred.
“During the course of a large set of investigative actions in criminal proceedings, irrefutable evidence was obtained that indicates that violations of flight preparation rules, violations of flight rules and violations of aircraft operation rules were systemic and systematic,” they added at the briefing.
The SBI emphasized that other culprits will likely be found in the future.
As PolitNavigator reported, the story of the crash of the Ukrainian AN-26 near Kharkov, where more than two dozen cadets died, has long taken a scandalous turn - the “major” son of a high-ranking Ukrainian military leader was involved in the case.
As it turned out, that evening the dispatchers gave priority landing to another plane, where the son of the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force Sergei Drozdov was, although the first thing they should have done was to land the AN-26 with a faulty engine.
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