site.btaUPDATED PM, President Comment on Air Force Plane Crash

The black box of the crashed military L-39 ZA aircraft will be deciphered on Tuesday or Wednesday, caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said on Monday. He reiterated his condolences to the relatives of the two pilots who perished during the accident.

A Bulgarian Air Force L-39 ZA combat trainer crashed near the Graf Ignatievo Air Base (South Central Bulgaria) on Friday afternoon, killing the two pilots on board.

In connection with the tragic accident, Glavchev said he could not say whether there should be changes in the command of the Air Force or not, as an investigation was underway. He added that when the results come out, he would take the necessary measures.

"We should wait for the conclusions of the competent commission and then speculate," President Rumen Radev told journalists about the crash.

There are many hypotheses, but what can be seen from a video cannot lead to any real credible conclusions about what happened, he said, stressing that many factors should be analyzed.

The head of State once again expressed his condolences to the families, relatives and colleagues of the deceased pilots.

Radev explained that the decision on the open flying day was submitted to the Council of Ministers by the Defence Ministry with Minister Todor Tagarev and Chief of Defence Admiral Emil Eftimov in February this year. "I was a guest because I received an invitation from the US Air Force and the American side to perform a flight of the F-16," the President stated. 

According to the President, the country has the necessary capacity for such an open flying day. Bulgaria has very good pilots. Bulgarian taxpayers want to see where their money is going, what the Bulgarian army and aviation is doing. Such open flying days are held regularly and not only in Bulgaria, Radev said.

He also commented on the statements made by one of Movement for Rights and Freedoms' (MRF) two chairpersons Delyan Peevski and Rosen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria (2012-2017), as they asked for the resignations of Bulgarian Air Force Commander Dimitar Petrov and Graf Ignatievo Air Base Commander Nikolay Rusev. "When Peevski and Plevneliev risk their lives as much for Bulgaria as General Petrov and General Rusev, let them ask for their resignations," Radev said.

"I've done a lot of successive national security advisory boards where I've raised the issue of the dangerously short flight time of our pilots. Not only that, but in general about the development prospects of the Bulgarian Land Forces, the Air Force, which are big consumers of [State] budget, but where promises are made and then forgotten. Politicians and managers, people who take decisions about the budget, only think about such things when an election is approaching or an accident happens," the President said.

"I have been long calling for emergency measures to attract and retain people of quality in the military. For their professional training, realization and motivation, for creating the necessary working conditions, for raising the prestige of the military profession. Especially in the Air Force, because this is a high-risk job, it requires extremely capable people with the necessary qualities," Radev explained.