L-39 avoids crashing in village (194 words)

Published: 7/13/2001

An L-39 trainer belonging to the Ministry of Defence crashed in the Tambov region on the 11th of July killing the aircraft's crew of two. According to witnesses the L-39, that appears to have been taking off, crashed 500m from the runway and was manoeuvred away from a village close to the air base by the pilot, to crash and explode on impact. The commission investigating the crash has given the preliminary view that the cause of the reports was a technical fault on the Czech built aircraft, given the level of experience of the crew demonstrated by the fact that the aircraft was prevented from crashing into the village by flying inverted suggesting to the commission that pilot error was unlikely. The commission added that more will be known after the aircraft's flight recorders have been processed. Despite a high level of reliability of the L-39 that was delivered in large numbers between 1974 and 1990 there have been concerns about the aging. Leading to the replacement of the aircraft along with the L-29 being one of the priorities of the air force, a requirement confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister Klebanov last year.

Article ID: 2643