60 killed in Lviv accident!!!

[Hannia]

Ukrainian Plane Kills 60 Spectators

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:21 a.m. ET

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- A Su-27 fighter plane crashed into a huge crowd of spectators at an air show Saturday, killing at least 60 people and injuring 70 others in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, emergency officials said.
The two crewmen ejected and survived, but the aircraft crashed into the crowd watching the show at the Skniliv Airport, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
Thousands of people were at the air field watching the show under clear skies. The plane was in the sky for about two minutes, but it appeared to go silent and started heading toward the ground -- clipping trees and touching another plane on the ground before it crashed.
``I could only grab children hold on. We were thrown away and hands and legs were flying all around us,'' said one spectator, Zinovy, who did not give his last name. Both he and his child were injured.
The plane was conducting complicated aerial maneuvers at the show, marking the 60th anniversary of a local air force unit.
The pilots appeared to eject from the plane at a very low altitude. Parents frantically searched for missing children and were asking that officials use the public address system to call out their names.
About 20 ambulances were used to help the victims, according to the Interfax news agency.
A huge ball of fire engulfed the airfield as the plane hit the ground and a giant plume of smoke soared into the sky. Russia's NTV television showed pictures of people with bleeding head wounds, apparently having been hit by parts of the plane. People were screaming in panic.
President Leonid Kuchma cut short his vacation and immediately flew to Lviv, NTV reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Kuchma, Putin spokesman Alexei Gromov told Interfax news agency.
The Su-27 has been in service since 1981. Its speed and maneuverability made it one of the key planes in the former Soviet air force, and it resembles the U.S. F-15 Eagle fighter with two rear stabilizers and twin engines.
Kuchma also ordered the secretary of the Defense and Security Council, Yevhen Marchuk, to head for Lviv and lead the government commission to investigate the case.
The program at the air show, which featured Su-27 and Mig-29 warplanes, also included flights of gliders, propeller-driven planes and parachute jumping, Interfax said.
Ukrainian officials are especially sensitive about air accidents after last October when an errant missile fired from a Ukrainian military base shot down a Russian plane, killing all 78 people on board, most of them immigrants to Israel.


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[Irinka]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020727/5/nvuj.html

[johncullen]

a report was on tv today. what horror

[Irinka]

The death toll has rizen to 83 people... and 116 severely injured. Gosh I hope they ban such air shows...

[caesar]

I saw the news on CNN in Kenya. Terrible tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Ukraine today.

[smf2002]

I would like to express my sympathy for the victims of the airshow disaster, and their families. It must have been a nightmare. Susan Farb

[zhuk]

Just about a year ago, I have seen the TV news on the military parade of the Ukr. army in Kiev on Indepedence day.

In the beginning, the former ukrainian marshal and minister of defence gave a formal report to the Presodent.
Then he tried to give honour to the president by rising his hand to the elbow in the standard military greeting.
But !!! President has interrupted the formal greeting and start to kiss with the marshal as it was usually in Brezhnew times, they were like close friends or more likely even relatives.
Is it suitable to forget about formal military greetin during the annual military parade?