Dobrogea Aviation Incident/DefMin Dincu: We Risked the Lives of Our Soldiers Flying these Planes

Mar. 3—Romanian soldiers risked their lives flying MiG aircraft because of the aircraft's age and the fact that funds "did not allow more than the modernisation of these aircraft," Defence Minister Vasile Dincu said on Thursday.

He told — Wednesday night when two aircraft crashes left eight soldiers dead.

Regarding the investigation in this case, the minister explained that "we can only take into account the technical condition, the weather, obviously, the management of the action. There are three dimensions on which this investigation is carried out."

"What we can do now is a correct investigation as soon as possible, in order to prevent these tragedies from happening again," Dincu said.

He also said that the MiG aircraft are old.

"Obviously, we risked the lives of our pilots, of our young people flying these planes, because these planes do not correspond practically to what is happening today, to the missions that are needed today," said Dincu, adding that "funds did not allow more than the modernisation of these aircraft and the consequences are now visible."

Asked if the plane crashes could be related to the Russia- Ukraine conflict, Dincu replied: "That is absolutely out of the question; there is no evidence and there are no circumstances leading to such conclusion. All are science fiction scenarios."

Eight soldiers were killed in two aircraft crashes on Wednesday night.

A MiG-21 LanceR of the 86th Air Base carrying out a patrol mission over Dobrogea lost its radio connection to the control tower and then fell off the radar. Search-and-rescue operations were launched as a matter of urgency.

Thus, an IAR-330 Puma helicopter took off to the area of possible impact, but lost its radio connection with the base and crashed in the area of Gura Dobrogei, Constanta County, nearly 11 km from the airfield.

The pilot of the MiG-21 LanceR aircraft died, and in the accident in which the IAR 330-Puma helicopter was involved, seven soldiers lost their lives. In addition to the five crew members initially communicated, two Romanian Navy sea rescuers were also aboard the helicopter.

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