Plane crash in Brovary: SBI has referred case to court. 5 SES officials are charged
The SBI sent an indictment to the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv against five officials of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. They violated flight safety rules for a helicopter carrying the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and other employees.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by the press service of the State Bureau of Investigation.
The pre-trial investigation was completed by a joint interagency group of the Main Investigation Departments of the SBI and the SSU in November 2023.
Currently, the Prosecutor General's Office has submitted to the court an indictment drawn up by the State Bureau of Investigation against:
- Head of the Aviation and Air Search and Rescue Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine;
- acting commander of a special aviation detachment;
- deputy commander for flight training;
- Commander of an aviation squadron;
- Head of the Flight Safety Service of the Special Aviation Detachment of the Civil Protection Operational and Rescue Service of the SES of Ukraine from Nizhyn, Chernihiv Oblast.
The investigation found that the officials had committed blatant violations of air traffic safety and operation rules, which led to the deaths of people.
Foreign experts were involved in the investigation, including representatives of the French helicopter manufacturer.
"Despite the warnings of internal instructions and legal requirements, SES officials used a helicopter that was on duty to respond to potential emergencies in Kyiv and the region to transport the delegation. The aircraft had no permits for other types of flights.
During the preparation for the flight, the crew commander was not informed of the meteorological data along the entire route of the planned movement, in particular, of the extremely unfavourable weather conditions over the city of Brovary. The crew itself did not have the appropriate permits to fly in difficult weather conditions and the necessary certificates. However, none of the officials responsible for flight safety cancelled the flight or postponed it until favourable weather conditions improved.
Due to the difficult weather conditions, the helicopter was forced to fly at an extremely low altitude, even lower than the height of the buildings on the route. The crew commander saw an obstacle - a multi-storey building - and began to perform a circling manoeuvre, but he abruptly climbed, lost his orientation in space and, at the end of the manoeuvre, due to the lack of necessary skills, collided with the ground," the SBI said.
When the helicopter crashed, it damaged a kindergarten, neighbouring buildings and parked cars.
Officials of the Aviation Department of the SESU and the SES of Ukraine were served a notice of suspicion of violating flight safety rules (air traffic safety), which caused the death of people and large-scale material damage, i.e. committing a criminal offence under Article 276(3) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The head of the flight safety service of the same unit was served a notice of suspicion under Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (official negligence).
The sanction of the articles provides for a sentence of up to 10 years' imprisonment.
As a remineder, on 18 January 2023, an aircraft crashed into a social infrastructure facility in Brovary. Later it became known that the helicopter had crashed near a kindergarten and a residential building.
Later, it became known that the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was killed in the crash. According to updated information, after identification, 14 dead people were found at the crash site, including 1 child and 9 people on board. Twenty-five people were injured.
