The death of one of the only two survivors has raised the death toll from the crash of an Air Force plane in eastern Ukraine to 26 this Saturday, the Ukrainian national emergency service reported this Saturday.
The plane, an An-26 military transport, crashed in Jarkiv province on Friday with 27 people on board – 20 military cadets and seven crew members – during a training flight. Only two people survived who managed to jump from the plane, although they were hospitalized in serious condition.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelesnki has explained on Twitter that one of the two survivors died from serious burns suffered in the incident. The president, who trusts in the recovery of the only person alive, has declared this Saturday as a day of national mourning.
Zelenski has also demanded in a statement that the causes of the incident be investigated in an “objective” and “impartial” manner. In this sense, he regretted that the deceased had “their whole lives ahead of them.”
The first signs point to a possible failure in one of the engines, although the authorities are also considering other hypotheses, including the failure of the crew or flight controllers, as well as inadequate maintenance of the aircraft, according to a statement from the State Bureau of Investigation collected by the Russian agency Sputnik
