Venezuela: Soldier dies when Russian-made fighter plane falls during practice for parade

A soldier died this Sunday when a Russian-made fighter plane crashed in a mountainous area in the north of Venezuela during practices prior to the parade to commemorate the country’s declaration of independence, confirmed the president Nicolas Maduro.

“I regret to inform you that during the practice maneuvers for the commemorative acts of our independence, an aircraft of our Bolivarian Military Aviation crashed to the ground, causing the physical loss of the distinguished pilot Col. Paulino Jose Millan Sabino”, wrote the president on Twitter.

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The Armed Forces indicated that the plane was “fell to earth” around 09:45 hours (13:45 GMT) of this July 2 in the municipality of Guaicaipuroin the state mirandaabout 31 kilometers from Caracas“while making airfare in the practice of the commemorative parade to July 5”.

On the plane, a Sukhoi-30Two crew members were traveling. Both managed to eject, however Sabino “died when he fell to the ground”, reported the Armed Forces in a statement.

“I heard the passing of the planes. One was failing, it was not a normal noise. Then I saw it flipping over, the pilots bailed out, and then the plane went down and blew up.”, a witness told AFP near the scene of the accident.

In the last week military planes have flown over Caracas and other cities in practice maneuvers to commemorate July 5, 1811, the date on which the signing of the act declaring independence from the Spanish crown was completed.

Venezuela and Russiaone of his main allies together with Iran, China and Türkiyehave signed cooperation agreements in the military field since the government of the late former president Hugo Chavez (1999-2013).

Among the purchases of military equipment, Venezuela acquired 24 Sukhoi Su-30MK2 aircraft in 2006 to replace the French ones. Dassault Mirage.

In September 2015, the two crew members of a Sukhoi-30 died when they fell to the ground while trying to intercept a “illegal aircraft” in the state rush (southeast), on the border with Colombia.

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Two other military pilots died in October 2019 when another Sukhoi-30 crashed.

One of the accidents with the most victims in the Venezuelan military aviation occurred on May 3, 2009, when a mi-35 helicopter of Russian manufacture rushed to earth leaving 18 dead, 17 of them military.

On that occasion, Chávez accused the US intelligence agency, the INCto weavespeculations” on the operation of aircraft purchased from Russia.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.