A Su-24M bomber crashed near a settlement in Khmelnytskyi Oblast on 16 June at approximately 7:00 pm, killing both crew members, Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.
The crash comes as Ukraine's Air Force operates aging Soviet-era aircraft under combat conditions, with flight crews drawn in part from test pilots and other specialists who volunteered or were mobilized after Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
The crew
Bohdan Babenko, 23, held the rank of senior lieutenant and served as a navigator with the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade named after Petro Franko of the Ukrainian Air Force. He was from Bohodukhiv in Kharkiv Oblast. "He chose the path of a warrior not by circumstance, but by calling," Bohodukhiv city mayor Volodymyr Bielyi wrote on Facebook. Babenko had graduated from the Kharkiv National University of Air Force named after Ivan Kozhedub and was his parents' only son, Bielyi said.
Bohdan Zahoruiko, 55, held the rank of major and was a test pilot known, among other things, for performing aerobatic maneuvers on the military transport aircraft An-32RE. He was mobilized on 24 February 2022 among the first volunteers. "After the start of the full-scale war, Bohdan Hryhorovych was one of the few pilots who did not leave for Germany, but was mobilized into the Air Force and, having mastered the Su-24M, defended our country with the controls in his hands," aviation technician Anatolii Uvarenko wrote on social media.
Investigation
The flight was being conducted in accordance with a combat order, according to the investigation. An investigative response team has been dispatched to the site. The aircraft's flight data recorder has been recovered for expert examination. Investigators are also seizing the aircraft's logbook, the crew medical examination log, the airfield flight director's log, and other operational and authorization documentation.
The preliminary legal classification is violation of flight rules or flight preparation resulting in a crash or other grave consequences, under Part 2, Article 416 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, DBR said.
