site.btaDefence Minister: Personnel Decisions to Be Made After All Information Becomes Clear

Caretaker Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov said personnel decisions would be made once all the information about an L-39ZA trainer aircraft crash in September becomes clear. He addressed a news conference on the findings of the probes into the crash.

"Rest assured that those who do not obey the rules and cannot deal with the burden of service [in the Air Force] will be dismissed from these responsible positions," Zapryanov said, adding that this will happen once the details have been clarified by the inspection.

On September 13, while preparing for a demonstration flight at the 3rd Air Base near Graf Ignatievo, an L-39ZA training and combat aircraft crashed. The two pilots from the 12th Air Base in Dolna Mitropolia, Petko Dimitrov and Ventsislav Dunkin, perished and were promoted posthumously .

Earlier in October, the Defence Ministry announced that the data from the black box of the aircraft had been successfully retrieved and provided to the investigating team from the Military Prosecution Office.