Ministry of Defense confirms 9 CASA flight crew members died
On the afternoon of June 24, the Ministry of National Defense informed the press about the search for the Su 30MK2 and CASA 212 aircraft.
Chairing a press conference at 4 p.m. at the Ministry of National Defense, Senior Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, said that the Ministry of National Defense has now had sufficient evidence to determine that two aircraft, Su 30MK2 8585 and CASA 8983, crashed. Of which, the CASA patrol plane crashed about 5 km from the demarcation line of the Gulf of Tonkin.
Of the 11 people on the two planes that crashed, only pilot Nguyen Huu Cuong flying the Su 30MK2 was rescued, pilot Tran Quang Khai and 9 crew members on the CASA 212 were killed. Currently, many bodies of the CASA crew have been recovered along with important related items.
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Pieces of the plane, engine and propeller were salvaged onto a navy ship. Photo:QPVN |
The Ministry of National Defense continues to preside over the search for the remaining parts of the two aircraft, including the black boxes, and combines other factors to investigate the cause of the accidents. Initially, according to pilot Nguyen Huu Cuong, the Su 30 had a problem in the cockpit, so the pilot had to parachute to escape.
Regarding the CASA, Mr. Tuan said that the weather conditions at the time of the crash were not good and the plane was flying at low altitude. "Those are the reasons that could have combined to cause the accident," Mr. Tuan said.
At 11:00 a.m. this morning, at the search scene, under the direct command of Vice Admiral Pham Ngoc Minh, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army, search and rescue forces on ship HQ 926 salvaged the engine, propeller, tail and part of the fuselage of the CASA 212 aircraft, registration number 8983. At the same time, during the salvage process, the rescue forces found several more bodies of crew members and handed them over to authorities for identification.
By this morning, four bodies had been found, one of whom had an identification card with the name Major Nguyen Van Chinh, Political Commissar of the 918 Brigade's Level 3 Pilot Squadron.
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On June 23, in the waters of Nghe An, the search force for the Su-30 MK2 aircraft found some debris of the fighter at 18 degrees 57 minutes to 19 degrees 00 North latitude and 106 degrees 03 minutes to 106 degrees 04 minutes East longitude. Through initial verification, the debris was from the Su-30 MK2 aircraft.
The events of the two plane crashes - On the morning of June 14, Su-30MK2 fighter jet numbered 8585 crashed while Major Nguyen Huu Cuong and Lieutenant Colonel Tran Quang Khai were on a training mission at sea. The crash site was in the eastern sea of Nghe An, near Hon Mat Island. A day later, Major Cuong was rescued by a fishing boat. - On June 16, CASA 212 aircraft numbered 8983 lost contact over the Bach Long Vi sea while on a mission to search for the pilot of the Su-30MK2 flight. There were 9 soldiers on board. - On June 17, the body of pilot Tran Quang Khai was found. - June 16-17: 42 ships of Vietnamese forces and hundreds of fishing boats participated in the search for the CASA plane. The Ministry of National Defense mobilized the most modern equipment. - June 20: Detected an object measuring 13x4 m in the search area for the CASA plane, at a depth of 60 m. - June 21: Airbus Group, Spain offered to cooperate and help decode the black box of the CASA plane, to find the cause of the accident. - June 22: 15 Chinese ships joined the search with Vietnam in the eastern part of the Gulf of Tonkin demarcation line. - June 23: Found debris of Su 30MK2 aircraft and CASA aircraft engine number 8983 along with some bodies of crew members. |
According to VNE
