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Last respects paid to two pilots killed in fighter jet crash

The last respects were paid to the two pilots killed in a fighter jet crash on September 23 in an open ceremony held at the former House of Officers in Baranavichy on Sunday morning.

The MiG-29 fighter jet of the 61st Fighter Air Base in Baranavichy crashed in a forest some 25 miles southwest of Hantsavichy, Brest region. Squadron Commander Syarhey Kavalenka and Deputy Flight Commander Alyaksandr Zhyhayla were killed in the crash.

Following the ceremony in Baranavichy, the casket of Major Zhyhayla was taken to Mahilyow, where he was born. Lieutenant Colonel Kavalenka was buried in Byaroza, Brest region, where he had lived for a long time.

The pilots “died having fulfilled their military and professional duty to the end,” Vyachaslaw Ramenchyk, spokesman for the Belarusian defense ministry, told reporters in Minsk on Friday, as quoted by BelaPAN.

As Mr. Ramenchyk said, the pilots sacrificed themselves to prevent the aircraft from falling in a populated area by flying the aircraft to a “woody and marshy area,” where the plane crashed.

The military has not released any details of the crash. Independent experts say that they cannot understand why the two skilled and experienced pilots had not ejected from the plane.