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Air Force commander refuses to be ‘solely liable’ for An‑26 crash

Police and military operatives guard the Antonov An-26 aircraft crash site near the airfield of Chuhuiv in Kharkiv Oblast late on Sept. 25, 2020.
Photo by AFP

VINNYTSIA — The military aviation’s top commander, Colonel General Serhiy Drozdov, 58, accidentally found what he believes was a bug concealed under his desk, as he was starting his workday on Jan. 16.

Police and State Security Service officers arrived immediately.

It’s unknown whether this was someone snooping around or something else entirely.

But Drozdov’s nerves are frayed enough without having to deal with any spy games.

The Air Force’s main headquarters has been under fire for weeks as the four-star general has been scrutinized by Ukraine’s special services. He’s the highest-ranking military suspect in a criminal case surrounding the Sept. 25 crash of an Antonov An‑26 aircraft.

To deliver justice for the tragedy that claimed 26 lives, law enforcement went so far as to charge the Air Force’s top leader with systemic flaws and negligence.

In an interview with Kyiv Post, General Drozdov denied the charges against him.

Even though violations were committed on the ill-fated flight, the general believes that he can’t be held personally liable for every bad call made by personnel in everyday missions.

“(The prosecution) is trying to hold me fully accountable for everything,” the general said.

“Yes, I am in charge of the Air Force. But I am responsible for the strategic level… not for the training of every crew for every aircraft, or any ground-to-air missile unit, or every car driver, flight mission, and so on.”

“Yes, I do possess broad powers and responsibilities,” the general said. “But this is not a direct indication of my sole liability.”

In this situation, he only sees the desire to get a high-profile criminal case “to demonstrate that a high level official can be held liable.”

Instead of looking for someone to pin all the blame on, the general suggested spending more to modernize the nation’s decaying air fleet — which gets barely any funding amid the proxy war with Russia.

Ukraine’s Air Force top commander Colonel General Serhiy Drozdov delivers a speech during a graduation ceremony at the National Air Force University in Kharkiv on June 26, 2020. (UNIAN)

Grave violations

The Sept. 25 air incident shook the nation. An Antonov An‑26Sh, tail number 76, suddenly hit the ground and burst into flame near the military airfield of Chuhuiv close to Kharkiv, some 440 kilometers east of Kyiv.

The aftermath was terrible: 26 dead, including 20 young Kharkiv Air Force Institute cadets who were just taking another set of Friday night training flights.

A 20-year-old navigation cadet, Vyacheslav Zolochevsky, was the only one to survive the inferno.

An official inquiry found that the aircraft had a sudden malfunction with its left AI‑24BT engine. The crew failed to equalize the thrust balance and take a correct landing course.

This led to the aircraft rapidly losing velocity, stalling out, and crashing at 8:45 p. m. near a local highway, 1.5 kilometers away from the landing strip.

Gone In The Sky: What happened and why in Antonov An-26 crash

The investigation reported an avalanche of “systemic violations of flight safety rules,” as well as flight management and control issues by the Kharkiv flight school and the Chuhuiv 203rd Training Aviation Brigade.

In particular, the commission said the flight school encouraged touch-and-go landings, where an aircraft takes off for a new flight immediately after touching the runway. The school used touch-and-go landings multiple times in a row to save time.

According to the report, amid the rush of six touch-and-go landings, the An‑26 crew was unable to detect an upcoming engine malfunction. The crew also lacked experience with emergency response and night flights, which led to their failure to prevent a non-critical malfunction from escalating.

Ukrainian Air Force commander suspected in deadly An-26 crash

 

Eventually, on Dec. 18, the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR), issued a note of suspicion for the top Air Force commander. The prosecution charged General Drozdov of negligence for approving service regulations that made the Sept. 25 crash possible.

Law enforcement also charged the 203rd Brigade commanding officer Vyacheslav Hlazunov and flight control officer Oleksandr Zhuk who had authorized touch-and-go landings for the Sept. 25 mission.

Ever since, General Drozdov waged a fierce legal battle against state prosecutors as he faces a very real chance of imprisonment.

Facing the axe

The top commander admits that certain serious violations did take place.

From his perspective, the aircraft crashed due to an engine malfunction after being jeopardized by crew errors and poor flight management. The incident proved that the training brigade and the Kharkiv flight school overlooked many mistakes and instruction violations.

While the practice of touch-and-go landing has been common for the An‑26 family of aircraft for decades, it was not supposed to be used in the Sept. 25 sortie.

“Not a single touch-and-go maneuver was envisaged in the flight mission program,” the general said. “But they were being performed. This is what those in direct control of the flight should have noticed.”

The Air Force has practiced many successful training programs with the An‑26 family of aircraft, but the incident showed that pilot, navigator, flight control and logistics specialist qualifications still need a lot of work, Drozdov said.

“We must now make everyone perform their duties conscientiously,” he said. “So there could be fewer risks and tragedies in service.”

He denied personal responsibility for the wrong decisions and violations committed by personnel that, from his perspective, were beyond his control.

The general admitted he could face possible removal from his position due to the charges, but he pointed out that no one from the Kharkiv university, or even from the Air Force command, has been indicted or suspected.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, as the nation’s supreme commander-in-chief, has yet to voice his ultimate decision.

Ukraine’s Air Forces seek full renovation by 2035

No rearming

The deadly crash was another wake-up call about the dire state of Ukraine’s military air fleet, which consists entirely of aging Soviet aircraft.

The youngest aircraft in service is now at least 30 years old. The destroyed An‑26 has been in service for 43 years.

Since Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991, its Air Force hasn’t been given a single new aircraft.

Only in late 2020, after strong public pressure following the crash, the Defense Ministry signed a $105 million contract to procure three new Antonov An‑178 transport planes for the military.

While age is not necessarily a problem, as General Drozdov noted, the Ukrainian Air Force desperately needs new, safer machines. The country’s fleet is quickly reaching the limits of possible modernization, according to the general.

“Unfortunately, we have no more time to wait,” he said.

“We need to introduce radical changes right here and now. Our operational capabilities will be exhausted by 2035.”

UN helicopters and aircraft, pictured in the dusk at an airfield in the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Dec. 5, 2019. (Volodymyr Petrov)

The Air Force proposed a gradual replacement of old Soviet workhorses like the Mikoyan MiG‑29 or Sukhoi Su‑27 jets with Western-made multirole fighters. This would let Ukraine retire old Soviet attack and close support aircraft.

The Air Force hopes the United States will provide Ukraine with its used McDonnell Douglas F‑15EX, or General Dynamics F‑16V Block 70/72 in the future.

Far less likely is the procurement of Swedish-made Saab JAS39 Gripen fighters. Touching the sky with the most advanced Northrop Grumman F‑35s (currently procured by neighboring Poland) is regarded as a golden dream.

Yet, apart from the three An‑178 light transports, Ukraine is nowhere close to a comprehensive program to modernize its aging Air Force.

“I can’t say that we are ready to pay or that someone in the market is ready to provide us with any aircraft,” he said. “We are ready to cooperate, but there are no specific proposals yet… I do hope our Defense Ministry will take more vigorous steps in this regard.”

The Air Force budget is declining. In 2020, it had nearly Hr 1.63 billion ($53 million). In 2021, it was assigned just Hr 1.35 billion ($48 million).

This means the Air Force can barely hold on to the technology it already has, let alone modernize.

“I can barely say that we are surviving, and it is impossible to say that we are striving forward,” General Drozdov said.

“There needs to be much more attention to the Air Force. Because it is the greatest defender in warfare where the success of maritime and ground forces depends on air support.”

Ukrainian peacekeepers get aboard at the Lviv Airport bound for the Democratic Republic of the Congo late on Dec. 3, 2019. (Volodymyr Petrov)