Yeah, the Su-27 is a top notch plane....
<<Ukrainian Plane Kills 70 Spectators
By MARINA SYSOEVA
Associated Press Writer
July 27, 2002, 11:12 AM EDT
KIEV, Ukraine -- A fighter jet slammed onto the tarmac
and sliced through a huge crowd watching an air show
Saturday, killing at least 70 spectators and injuring 111
in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, emergency
officials said.
The two pilots ejected and survived, the Defense
Ministry said, just before the Su-27 crashed and
erupted into a massive ball of flame that engulfed
onlookers at Skniliv Airport.
The plane was in the sky for about two minutes, but
then it appeared to go silent and headed toward the
ground and banked left -- its wingtip clipping trees and
touching another plane on the ground before it crashed.
The Defense Ministry declined to comment on the
cause of the accident, but its western operation command said engine failure was
the preliminary cause of the crash.
The weather was good at the time.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said the death toll could still rise because
many of the injured were in critical condition. The explosion sent fragments of the
plane showering over the spectators.
"I could only grab children and hold on. We were thrown away and hands and
legs were flying all around us," said one spectator, Zinovy, who did not give his
last name. He and his child were injured.
The pilots appeared to eject from the plane at a very low altitude. Parents
frantically searched for missing children and were asking that officials use the
public address system to call out their names.
"The fire has been extinguished, but there's lots of blood," said Oleksandr
Kachkovskyi, an aide to the head of the Lviv regional administration.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma cut short his vacation and flew to Lviv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Kuchma, the
presidential press office said in Moscow.
Kuchma also ordered the secretary of the Defense and Security Council, Yevhen
Marchuk, to head for Lviv and lead the government commission investigating the
case.
The plane was conducting complicated aerial maneuvers at the show, marking
the 60th anniversary of a local air force unit.
The Su-27 has been in service since 1985. Its speed and maneuverability made it
one of the key planes in the former Soviet air force, and it resembles the U.S.
F-15 Eagle fighter with two rear stabilizers and twin engines. The Su-27's NATO
code name is "Flanker."
The program at the air show featured Su-27 and Mig-29 warplanes, as well as
gliders, light-engine planes and parachute jumping, Interfax said.
A Sukhoi Su-30 jet -- a similar twin-engine design to the Su-27 -- crashed at start
of the Paris air show in 1999, but the two pilots ejected and no one was injured.
One of the most deadly crashes at an air show was at a U.S. air base in
Germany in 1988, when Italian jets performing a complicated maneuver collided
and spiraled into the crowd, killing 70 and injuring at least 400.
Ukrainian officials are especially sensitive about air accidents after last October
when an errant missile fired from a Ukrainian military base shot down a Russian
plane, killing all 78 people on board, most of them immigrants to Israel.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press >>
link Note: This link changes daily as its a wire service
<<Ukrainian Plane Kills 70 Spectators
By MARINA SYSOEVA
Associated Press Writer
July 27, 2002, 11:12 AM EDT
KIEV, Ukraine -- A fighter jet slammed onto the tarmac
and sliced through a huge crowd watching an air show
Saturday, killing at least 70 spectators and injuring 111
in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, emergency
officials said.
The two pilots ejected and survived, the Defense
Ministry said, just before the Su-27 crashed and
erupted into a massive ball of flame that engulfed
onlookers at Skniliv Airport.
The plane was in the sky for about two minutes, but
then it appeared to go silent and headed toward the
ground and banked left -- its wingtip clipping trees and
touching another plane on the ground before it crashed.
The Defense Ministry declined to comment on the
cause of the accident, but its western operation command said engine failure was
the preliminary cause of the crash.
The weather was good at the time.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said the death toll could still rise because
many of the injured were in critical condition. The explosion sent fragments of the
plane showering over the spectators.
"I could only grab children and hold on. We were thrown away and hands and
legs were flying all around us," said one spectator, Zinovy, who did not give his
last name. He and his child were injured.
The pilots appeared to eject from the plane at a very low altitude. Parents
frantically searched for missing children and were asking that officials use the
public address system to call out their names.
"The fire has been extinguished, but there's lots of blood," said Oleksandr
Kachkovskyi, an aide to the head of the Lviv regional administration.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma cut short his vacation and flew to Lviv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Kuchma, the
presidential press office said in Moscow.
Kuchma also ordered the secretary of the Defense and Security Council, Yevhen
Marchuk, to head for Lviv and lead the government commission investigating the
case.
The plane was conducting complicated aerial maneuvers at the show, marking
the 60th anniversary of a local air force unit.
The Su-27 has been in service since 1985. Its speed and maneuverability made it
one of the key planes in the former Soviet air force, and it resembles the U.S.
F-15 Eagle fighter with two rear stabilizers and twin engines. The Su-27's NATO
code name is "Flanker."
The program at the air show featured Su-27 and Mig-29 warplanes, as well as
gliders, light-engine planes and parachute jumping, Interfax said.
A Sukhoi Su-30 jet -- a similar twin-engine design to the Su-27 -- crashed at start
of the Paris air show in 1999, but the two pilots ejected and no one was injured.
One of the most deadly crashes at an air show was at a U.S. air base in
Germany in 1988, when Italian jets performing a complicated maneuver collided
and spiraled into the crowd, killing 70 and injuring at least 400.
Ukrainian officials are especially sensitive about air accidents after last October
when an errant missile fired from a Ukrainian military base shot down a Russian
plane, killing all 78 people on board, most of them immigrants to Israel.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press >>
link Note: This link changes daily as its a wire service