site.btaAn Air Force MiG-29 Aircraft Disappears from Radars during Shabla 2021 Field Firing Tactical Exercise

ofia, June 9 (BTA) - A MiG-29 aircraft of the Bulgarian Air
Force lost radio communication and disappeared from radar at
00:45 hrs. local time on June 9, while carrying out a training
task over Bulgarian territorial waters in the Black Sea during a
 field firing tactical exercise, Ministry of Defence said in a
press release.

A search and rescue operation was launched immediately and is
ongoing. It involves teams and equipment from the Navy, the
Joint Special Operations Command, the Border Police and the Air
Force.

Caretaker Prime Minister Stegan Yanev, Defence Minister Georgi
Panayotov and the Chief of the Defence, Admiral Emil Eftimov,
went to the incident site.

The exercise, entitled Shabla 2021, was terminated.

Panayotov told BTA that the area in the Black Sea where the jet
fighter fell has been localized but he exact location of the
aircraft is yet to be established. He said the causes of the
accident are yet unclear. A search is ongoing for the jet's
flight recorder. In Panayotov's words, the pilot was an
experienced pilot.

The Defence Minister said that the pilot did not attempt radio
connection with the base around the time when the accident took
place. No ejection of the pilot has been detected, nor alerts
from the ejection device, and it is assumed that no ejection was
 attempted. "Whatever happened, happened very fast," Panayotov
said.

In Sofia President Rumen Radev, who is a former commander of the
 Air Force, urged for caution, and against speculations about
the accident. The head of State said that all available forces
and means have been mobilized in the search and rescue
operation. He said that what happened will become known after
the jet's flight recorder has been found.

Radev said that the most important thing at the moment is the
fate of the pilot. He said he knows the pilot, and described him
 as a very nice person and a very good professional.

Meanwhile, the regular Wednesday weekly meeting of the
government was re-scheduled to be held in the morning on
Thursday. NV/DT, ZH