NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Vinay Shukla in Moscow
At least seventy people were killed and over 100 wounded when a Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 bomber crashed into a crowd of spectators in an airshow near Lviv city on Saturday.
The 30-tonner jet piloted by two experienced officers of the Ukrainian Air Force lost control after hitting trees in the course of aerobatics, turned into a fireball plowing through spectators, Russian ORT TV channel reported.
Both the pilots safely ejected, it said.
The plane was in the sky for about two minutes but appeared to go silent, headed towards the ground and banked left, its wingtip clipping trees and touching another plane on the ground before it crashed into a crowd of onlookers watching the show at the Skniliv aerodrome.
The fighter jet was conducting complicated aerial maneuvers at the show, marking the 60th anniversary of a local air force unit.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma cut short his vacation in Crimea and rushed to Lviv following the disaster.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a condolence message to his Ukrainian counterpart, ITAR-TASS added.
A Sukhoi Su-30 had crashed at the start of a Paris airshow in 1999. In 1988 too, 70 people were killed and at least 400 injured when Italian jets performing a complicated maneuver collided and spiralled into the crowd at a US airbase in Germany.
Tell us what you think of this report
