Airshow death toll rises to 78
It's now believed at least 78 people died when a fighter jet clipped the ground and sheared through hundreds of spectators before exploding in a ball of fire as the pilot was performing aerobatic manoeuvres at an air show in Ukraine.
A further 138 people were injured in one of the world’s deadliest air show accidents. Residents in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv were to begin two days of official mourning today.
After the crash, severed body parts littered the tarmac at the air base. One woman was seen clutching the lifeless body of a child in front of a jet on display; another man was covered in blood while he examined the stump left of his right hand.
Parents frantically searched for missing children and used the public address system to call their names.
One group of children with cuts on their faces and arms sat stunned on the ground.
President Leonid Kuchma, who cut short his vacation in Crimea to rush to the crash site, implied that a technical fault could have been to blame.
Much of the country’s air force arsenal is left over from the Soviet era and in poor condition.
"We don’t know anything absolutely except that the pilots were the most experienced, of the highest class," President Kuchma said in comments shown on state television. Both crew members ejected safely.
Ukrainian officials have been particularly sensitive about military accidents since last October when an errant missile fired from a Ukrainian military base shot down a Russian plane, killing all 78 people on board, most of them immigrants to Israel.
Kuchma ordered the head of Defence and Security Council, Yevhen Marchuk, to lead a government commission investigating yesterday’s accident. Prosecutors also started an investigation.
But without waiting for results from the inquiries, the president on fired the air force commander as well as the top officer from the 14th Air Corps to which the jet belonged.
He also said the country would consider a ban on air shows because of the accident.
The Su-27 was performing manoeuvres when it went silent and banked left - its wingtip shearing trees and touching another plane on the ground.
Video of the crash showed the jet sliding along the ground on its left wingtip and nose before it began cartwheeling and then exploded, throwing off flaming debris.
The Defence Ministry’s western operational command said engine failure was the preliminary reason for the crash, but ministry headquarters in the capital Kiev declined to comment on the cause and refused to confirm an engine malfunction.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said 138 people had been treated at hospitals in Lviv, and 24 who suffered minor injuries had been released.
The number of dead could increase because many of the injured were in critical condition, the ministry said.
The two crew members suffered back injuries, medical officials told Interfax news agency, but they were seen walking away from the crash scene without assistance.
About 1,500 people were watching the free air show.
