Un An F-16 fighter jet recently sent to Ukraine by Q’s Western partners crashed earlier this week during a massive Russian missile attack. The pilot did not survive. According to Ukrainian civil servants briefed on the crash on Thursday afternoon, the F-16s managed to shoot down four Russian cruise missiles during the attack, but lost contact with one of the planes while approaching the next target. “It was later learned that the plane had crashed and the pilot had been killed,” a spokesman for the General Staff said in a telegram. The investigation should find out the exact causes of the accident.
“Air Force pilot Oleksiï Mes died defending our country,” the Ukrainian Air Force’s Western Command said on Monday, noting that he was killed during a Russian bombardment by missiles and drones. “On August 26, Oleksiï destroyed three cruise missiles and an attack drone while repelling a Russian airstrike,” the source added.
Before transitioning to the F-16, Ukrainian fighter pilots trained for several months in the United States and especially in Denmark. Accustomed to flying Soviet-made fighter jets, they had to familiarize themselves with an aircraft and control environment that was completely different from the MiG and Sukhoi they had used so far.
The incident comes weeks after the first devices of this type arrived in Ukraine to support the military in the face of Russian attacks. The Netherlands and Denmark are the first to provide copies of US fighter jets to the Ukrainian Air Force. The number of F-16s delivered to Ukraine so far has been kept secret but some sources speak of six to ten. Belgium, which is part of the F-16 alliance that trains Ukrainian pilots, has promised four aircraft by the end of the year and 26 more depending on the arrival of F-35s.
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