Bulgaria starts full review of its combat aviation

Sofia: Bulgaria is to begin a long-awaited review of the readiness and training of its air force, which has seen several fatalities during combat exercises and demonstration flights in recent years.

Bulgaria guards part of NATO’s eastern flank with old, hard-to-maintain MiG-29 fighter jets and Su-25 aircraft that were supplied by the USSR more than 35 years ago. Military experts have repeatedly warned that outdated military equipment is a serious obstacle to good pilot training, as the Air Force is forced to maintain aircraft resources.

“The organisation, training, discipline and whether Bulgarian military pilots have enough hours in the air will be checked,” said Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov.

The state of Bulgarian combat aviation is particularly problematic given the need to protect NATO’s eastern flank from increasing provocations from Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

On 13 September 2024, Bulgarian aviation suffered another fatal loss during a demonstration flight at the largest military airbase, Graf Ignatyevo, when an L-39 combat trainer crashed, killing pilots Petko Dimitrov and Ventsislav Dunkin.

However, the ministry has not yet announced who is to blame for the accident. “It is too early to assign responsibility,” Zapryanov said, urging the public to wait for the end of the investigation.

The investigation is still ongoing, and the black box of the crashed plane was sent for analysis to Czechia, where the trainer plane was manufactured. “The box will give information about the actions of the machine and the pilots, but a complex analysis will also be done,” the minister added.

The first major incident in Bulgarian combat aviation occurred in 2018, when a military Mi-17 helicopter crashed due to mechanical failure, killing two people.

One of Bulgaria’s best pilots, Major Valentin Terziev, died in June 2021 when a MiG-29 fighter crashed into the sea near Shabla. The prosecutor’s office closed the investigation, concluding that the cause was pilot error.

In 2023, a Su-25 attack aircraft crashed, and the pilot managed to eject, but the crash further reduced combat aviation resources.

Bulgaria has bought 16 new US F-16 fighter jets, with deliveries to begin next year.