site.btaBulgarian Defence Minister Comments on Air Force Plane Crash

In an interview on bTV Friday morning, Bulgaria's caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov commented on a crash of a Bulgarian Air Force L-39ZA combat trainer at the Graf Ignatievo Air Base on September 13 in which the pilots, Petko Dimitrov and Ventsislav Dunkin, were killed.

Within ten days or so, the plane's flight recorder is to be sent to Czechia where it will be read at the manufacturer's plant in Czechia, Zapryanov said.

"Bulgarian experts, too, will go to Czechia. It is very important that our experts and those of the plant should read the recorder. If there is a technical reason, damages are recoverable from the plant were the plane was repaired," the Defence Minister said.

"What happened should not be judged by what was visible only," he commented. "To be able to see the full picture, we must wait for the recorder to be read and for the commission to come up with its findings," Zapryanov said, adding that the plane was repaired and was within warranty.

The two pilots had performed the routine 24 times. "Everybody claim that the pilots tried to get the aircraft under control," the Minister said further.

He argued that politicizing the incident without objective information is harmful. "It will be far better to have a political discussion when it is clear what happened," Zapryanov said.

"We cannot possibly apportion blame or simulate resignations and dismissals for which we are unable to cite reasons," the Defence Minister said, approached about the demands for resignation of Major General Dimitar Petrov as Commander of the Air Force and of Brigadier General Nikolay Rusev as Commander of the Graf Ignatievo Air Base. "Reserve judgment," Zapryanov appealed.

"Over the last ten or fifteen years, we have had a chronic shortage of airworthy aviation materiel, which does not allow us to double or treble pilots' flight time. The pilots assigned to aerial standby are those with the most flight time and who are licensed," the Defence Minister explained.

He pointed out that the military are staying out of the investigation conducted by the prosecution service so as not to stir any suspicions about the objectivity of the probe.

"We have two L-39ZA aircraft that are repaired. The switch to the F-16 fighters requires a new combat trainer. Discussions are under way at the Bulgarian Air Force about the type of combat trainer that should be chosen," Zapryanov said on bTV.