Opinions & Interviews

Military pilots who died in plane crash in Baranovichi hailed as heroes

MINSK, 20 May (BelTA) – Before hosting a meeting to discuss social, economic and political situation in Minsk, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko commented on the military aircraft crash that took place in Baranovichi on 19 May, BelTA has learned.

The head of state and the meeting participants observed a moment of silence to commemorate the pilots that were killed in the plane crash.

“Before moving on to the main topic of our today’s discussion, I want to talk about yesterday’s tragedy that happened in Baranovichi. Our two pilots were killed. After we received preliminary findings of the decoding of the flight recorders, it became  clear that what these people did was a feat,” the president said.

He noted that during that training flight various levels of the Yak-130 jet control system almost instantly failed one after another. Nevertheless, the pilots were able to take the jet away from residential areas and to direct it into a single empty piece of land between residential buildings. “The pilots did not eject. As the flight recorders suggest, they fought to the end. It was just that one of them was thrown away by an ejector when the jet hit the ground. They fought to the end, knowing that the time was not on their side. They realized that had the aircraft fallen on residential areas, it would have been a disaster. Two heroic people died,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

He thanked people, citizens of Belarus, who expressed their condolences to the pilot’s families. “I just once again asked the state secretary [State Secretary of the Security Council Aleksandr Volfovich] to get in touch with the families, and offer all kinds of support to them, especially the family of one of the pilots, the major, who had three kids. Therefore, I would ask Natalya Kochanova to make sure that their families are taken good care of. It is necessary to support them, especially the children,” the Belarusian leader said.

“Unfortunately, as you have noticed, there are also ill-wishers. You cannot call them other than scoundrels. Yesterday, our media outlets named some of them; they wrote posts in their social networks. I would ask the KGB chief to get involved and to identify as many of these scoundrels as possible and report back. You should understand, if God forbid, something bad happens in the country, these people will collaborate with the enemy, like during the Great Patriotic War, and will burn and kill, sparing no one. We should know who they are. I am saying this because I want our society to understand that these are scoundrels,” the president said.

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