Sknyliv (Ukraine) airshow disaster

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On 27 July 2002, 84 people were killed and over 100 injured at an airshow in Sknyliv (Скнилів) airport near Lviv, Ukraine. A Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 aircraft crashed during an aerobatics presentation. It is the world's worst airshow disaster to date. [1]

The aircraft, flown by two experienced pilots, entered a rolling manouevre with a downward trajectory at low altitude; having rolled upright once more the aircraft was still descending rapidly and the left wing dropped shortly before the aircraft hit the ground, at which point the crew initiated ejection. The aircraft flattened out initially, skidding over the ground towards stationary aircraft, striking a glancing blow against the nose of an Il-76 transport aircraft before beginning to explode and cartwheel into the crowd of spectators. Both pilots survived with minor injuries from the ejection and landed just feet away from the transport aircraft.

Initial reports of the cause of the crash varied, including impact with birds and engine failure. The Flanker's engines can be heard suddenly going silent immediately before the sudden dive towards the ground, but are audible again just before the impact with the tarmac. [2] Pilot Volodymyr Toponar insists the crash was due to mechanical failure. [3]

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma publicly blamed the military for the disaster and dismissed the head of the air force, Volodymyr Strel'nykov. The defense minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko sent in his resignation, but it was rejected by Kuchma.

Experts have proposed the following as possible causes of the crash and subsequent loss of life:

pilot error
engine failure
violation of flight safety rules by crew or ground co-ordinator
improper flight plan: particularly, mistaken correlation between the display and and spectators' zones
overfueling the plane, causing the Su-27 to become heavier and less agile than the pilots were used to when performing displays

On June 24, 2005, a military court sentenced Toponar and co-pilot Yuriy Yegorov to fourteen and eight years in prison, respectively. The court found the two pilots and three other military officials guilty of failing to follow orders, negligence and violating flight rules. Two of the three officials were sentenced to up to six years in prison, and the last official received up to four years. In addition, Toponar was ordered to pay 7.2 million hryvnia ($1.42 million; €1.18 million) in compensation to the families, and Yegorov another 2.5 million hryvnia. After the verdict was announced, Toponar said he planned to appeal.

While the pilots were assigned the majority of the blame, which included accusations of attempting manouevres that they were not experienced with, one pilot had requested additional training at the airfield where the display was to be performed; this request was denied. [4]

A Russian Sukhoi Su-30 prototype fighter jet (a thrust vectoring derivative of the Su-27) had previously crashed under surprisingly similar conditions during the Paris Airshow. That accident happened due to flight plan error, but did not result in any fatalities, due in no small part to the far tighter safety rules at European airshows which placed the display much further away from the crowd.

Although the pilots have been convicted and imprisoned, since Toponar is still in the process of appealing his conviction, it still remains to be conclusively seen whether the pilots could have avoided the accident given the combined possibilities of engine failure, orders to fly without sufficient training, and a flawed flight plan.