site.btaProsecution Office Urges Defence Ministry Not to Disseminate Information about L-39 ZA Crash without Prosecutor’s Permission

The disclosure of information on the causes of the crash of the L-39 ZA trainer aircraft at the Graf Ignatievo airbase, in which two servicemen died, as well as data directly related to the subject of the investigation, constitutes an investigative secret and their disclosure by any other authorities than the supervising prosecutor is essentially a violation of the Criminal Procedure Code, said in a press release the Prosecutor's Office following Tuesday’s briefing of the Defence Ministry.

The statements in no way engage the investigation, which is currently continuing with the collection of evidence and verification of all versions, the prosecution service said. "It is unacceptable and incorrect that before the entire volume of material and voice evidence has been collected and the appointed experts have been prepared, officials outside the investigative bodies should launch conclusions in the public domain about whose responsibility the tragic incident was, and attribute blame to the deceased. By law, this can only be done by the final act of the prosecutor overseeing the case," the release reads.

The Prosecutor’s Office calls for an end to any hasty statements that could hinder the discovery of the objective truth and raise suspicions of one-sidedness and predetermination of the investigation.

Only a comprehensive and all-encompassing investigation could establish what actions were committed, whether there were any violations, including by officials involved in the planning and implementation of the training flight, maintenance of the flight and ground equipment, as well as by other representatives, including senior Air Force command staff, the statement said.

“The main cause of the crash of the L-39ZA combat trainer was taking an unjustifiably high risk when performing complex aerial aerobatics,” said Colonel Petko Vassilev, state expert at the Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation Unit of the Military Police Department at a press conference on Tuesday.