LVIV,
Ukraine, July 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Ukrainian air
force faced accusations of gross negligence Sunday, July 28, after at
least 84 people died in the world's worst air show disaster, with
Defence Minister Volodymyr Shydchenko offering his resignation, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) said.
"The
president is studying the request. No decision has yet been
taken," said Sergui Vasiliev, a spokesman for President Leonid
Kuchma's administration.
Shydchenko
had been in office less than a year, appointed last November after his
predecessor resigned to assume responsibility for the explosion of a
passenger jet over the Black Sea that was accidentally downed by a
Ukrainian missile.
On
Saturday, July 27, a low-flying Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 jet appeared
to lose control before hitting the ground and exploding in flames,
crashing into a crowd of terrified onlookers at the air show in
Sknyliv, near Lviv.
The
two pilots were able to eject to safety at the last minute, AFP
reported.
Kuchma
immediately held the military responsible for the tragedy, sacking the
country's air force chief, Viktor Strelnikov, and Sergei Oniszhenko,
commander of the 14th air force division which took part in the air
show.
The
head of a government inquiry set up to probe the crash, national
security chief Yevgeny Marchuk, said negligence by air force
commanders or a technical fault were considered the two most likely
causes.
"The
commission is examining several possible versions. These include
negligence by the command of the Ukrainian air force and of the 14th
air division or a technical malfunction," Marchuk said in remarks
broadcast on Russia's RTR television.
But
he cautioned that it was premature to make any final conclusions
despite a number of witnesses pointing to possible engine failure.
"No
one can say when we will know the real cause of the tragedy, but we
will be able to give the broad picture in approximately a week,"
said Marchuk, adding that investigators were to examine the jet's
"black box" flight recorder.
Workers
at morgues in the western city of Lviv have so far identified 45 of
the victims.
"The
morgue workers are continuing to identify the victims but it is a very
difficult process because some of them have been torn apart,"
said regional emergencies ministry official Grigory Myroniak.
Ukraine
has declared Monday a national day of mourning.
The
emergencies ministry said Sunday that 84 people were killed, including
19 children, and that 116 people had been taken to five hospitals in
Lviv. Many were suffering from burns, fractures and head injuries.
Of
those, 66 were still in hospital Sunday, including 23 in serious
condition, said Sergei Partalian, a ministry official in the Ukrainian
capital Kiev.
He,
however, said an accurate death toll was not yet possible because of
the difficulty in identifying bodies.
Kuchma,
who broke off his vacation in Crimea to fly to the crash site,
announced a ban on military air shows in Ukraine and vowed to pursue
those responsible.
"The
culprits should be punished, there is no doubt," he said.
Experts
unanimously blamed the organizers of the air show for the disaster.
Former
Ukrainian air force general Vadim Grechaninov told Interfax that the
pilots of the Sukhoi jet were unable to avoid ploughing into the
onlookers because of improper safety measures on the ground, and
because the plane was flying "too low."
Another
Ukrainian expert, former fighter pilot Colonel Alexei Melnik, agreed,
saying that the air force flouted rules stipulating that demonstration
flights must be performed at an altitude not lower than 400 metres
(1,300 feet), AFP said.
It
was the deadliest such accident yet, overtaking a 1988 tragedy when 70
people were killed at an air show on a U.S. military base in Ramstein,
then West Germany, after three planes collided.
The
disaster cast a new spotlight on the crumbling state of Ukraine's
military, which has been plagued by a series of deadly mishaps.
Last
October, all 78 passengers and crew aboard a Russian airliner flying
to Israel died when a Ukrainian S-200 missile hit the plane over the
Black Sea.
Ukraine
admitted responsibility for the disaster after issuing several denials
that one of its missiles had been involved
