Ukraine's Defense Ministry has confirmed that an Aero L-39 Albatros combat jet trainer crashed in Chuhuyiv, a town in Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast, on Sept. 22, killing the cadet who piloted it.
“It is true that an air crash has taken place, and a third-year cadet from Kharkiv Air Force University was killed,” the ministry press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
The service said the cadet had carried out 71 flights before.
According to the ministry, the cause of the crash was unclear. The ministry appointed a commission to investigate the incident.
Ukraine grounded all its L-39 jets pending the inquiry, the ministry press service said.
L-39, which was developed in communist-era Czechoslovakia, has been used as a trainer in member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States for many years. There is a Ukrainian modification of the plane, L-39M1.
Interfax-Ukraine first learned the news of Saturday’s crash from a source in Ukraine’s General Staff.
