“Ukraine has lost twenty-six sons in a terrible tragedy, the crash of an An-26 plane near Chuhuiv. Twenty-five of them died on the spot, another later succumbed to burns at the hospital. The second wounded man is still hospitalized, we pray for his speedy recovery, “said the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenský.
The only survivor is a third-year student at the Kharkov University of the Ukrainian Air Force. According to the director of the hospital where the cadet is being treated, the wounded person’s condition has stabilized and he could be released from the clinic next week.
Cause
According to the Ukrainian secret service, quoted by the letter Ukrainian True, the pilot reported a failure of the left engine. According to Unian, Defense Minister Andrij Taran said of the cause of the accident that, according to a preliminary investigation, the engine sensor had failed, and therefore the plane hit the ground during landing and took off. Taran was at the scene of the accident, talking to reporters there. “According to a preliminary investigation, it was not the engine that failed, but the sensor. The engine was to fly 5,000 hours before the next inspection, “he said. The exact cause will be determined after decoding the flight recorders. According to the Minister, the aircraft itself was 43 years old and was to be in operation for another three years.
Zelensky ordered the An-26 aircraft to be stopped before the cause was investigated, and he also ordered an inspection of all military equipment. The Deputy Minister of Defense said that the families of the dead would receive 1.5 million hryvnia (1.3 million crowns).
The An-26 is a military transport aircraft developed by the Soviet design office Antonov. There is also a modification for the An-26-100 passenger with a capacity of up to 43 people.
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