Jet Crash Kills Dozens at Ukraine Air Show
Crash Kills at Least 78 People and Injures Over a Hundred, Official Says
By Lyuba Sorokina
Reuters
KIEV (July 27) - A Ukrainian fighter jet hurtled to the ground and cartwheeled in flames into crowds at an air display Saturday, killing at least 78 people and injuring 115 in the world's deadliest air show disaster.
The Russian-built Sukhoi Su-27's wing clipped the ground as it failed to come out of a difficult rolling dive at the show outside the western city of Lviv, close to the border with Poland.
An Emergencies Ministry spokesman said seven of the 78 dead were children.
''I hope that these are the last figures but I am not sure,'' he said by telephone from Lviv.
President Leonid Kuchma cut short his holiday to rush to the scene, the worst air show disaster since 70 died and more than 400 were injured when three Italian jets collided, sending one into a crowd at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany, in 1988.
''This is a terrible tragedy. No words can describe it. It's like a bad dream,'' the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Kuchma as saying in a shaky voice.
Kuchma sent his condolences to the families of those who died, saying they would be given government help and promising a government investigation. Local media blamed the crash on engine failure, but government officials said it was too early to come to any conclusions.
PILOT EJECTED
One of the two colonels flying the plane ejected shortly before it hit the ground and was seen being helped away by emergency crews, his silk parachute wrapped around a pole. Military officials said the other crew member also escaped.
''There were fragments of people lying by the plane,'' said Roman Andreiko, a local television executive who hid with his family behind a truck when the disaster happened.
''There were clouds of smoke. People were in shock,'' he said.
The warplane clipped the tops of trees lining the airfield before scraping the ground and slicing the nose off a large transport aircraft and exploding into a huge ball of fire.
The Sknyliv airfield where the disaster happened was a scene of devastation, screaming children wandering parentless and bodies scythed down by debris scattered on the tarmac and surrounding grassland.
Blood poured from the head of a middle-aged man slumped on the ground. Another man strode by with the inert body of a young child in his arms.
Amid the mayhem, dozens of emergency workers tended to the injured, including young children, some bleeding heavily.
Small boys, their faces covered in blood and dirt, fidgeted near the organizers' podium as staff used the loudspeaker system to appeal for parents to come and claim their offspring.
A priest offered consolation to distraught onlookers as ambulances sped away with the injured, some in a critical condition.
EASY TO MANEUVER
Sukhoi aircraft are known for their maneuverability. Russian military officials said the pilot was performing a very difficult move before the accident. A Russian Sukhoi-30MK fighter crashed at the Paris air show on June 12, 1999, when it scraped the ground during a loop. Both pilots ejected safely and the wreckage was about a km (half mile) from spectators.
Ukraine's post-Soviet armed forces have been struggling with financial difficulties since the collapse of communism a decade ago.
Their reputation was blackened in October last year when a missile fired during a Ukrainian training exercise hit a Russian airliner, killing all 78 passengers aboard.
The Russian-built Su-27, whose NATO codename is Flanker, is comparable to the U.S. F-15 Eagle but has a superior performance in many respects.
Officials at Sknyliv said the local Ukrainian airforce wing had been celebrating its 60th anniversary at the show.
A Russian military export success, the Su-27 is a frontline fighter for the air forces of China and Vietnam, as well as Ukraine and some Central Asian republics. The Su-27 amazed audiences at its first appearances at Western air shows in the 1990s with aerobatic maneuvers previously unknown for a twin-engine jet aircraft its size.
Reut12:57 07-27-02
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