Sofia: Two individuals have been confirmed dead after a Bulgarian military training jet crashed, Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev told media.
The crash occurred at the Graf Ignatievo Air Base near Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city, during a training flight related to an airshow that was scheduled to be held there on Saturday, Glavchev said on Friday.
The L-39ZA aircraft crashed at 12:30 local time, and the two pilots have died, said Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov, adding that the two who died, born in 1973 and 1986, respectively, were instructors training pilots to fly this aircraft, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Minister declined to provide further details as an investigation was underway.
He said he would declare mourning in the armed forces on Saturday.
The airshow had been cancelled.
Earlier on Friday, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, a former Bulgarian Air Force commander, co-piloted an F-16 aircraft at the same air base.
Air Force Commander Dimitar Petrov said the two pilots were “among the best” and had repeatedly carried out the same exercises in the past.
Bulgaria’s outdated air force, most of which was bought during communism, has frequently caused tensions, with pilots lacking crucial training, according to a recent army report.
In June 2021, a Bulgarian pilot died when his MiG-29 aircraft crashed during an exercise in the Black Sea.
Situated on NATO’s eastern flank, Bulgaria has ordered 16 US fighter jets in recent years to replace its ageing Soviet MiG-29s, signing the largest army modernisation contract since the end of communism.
–IANS