The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) has opened a criminal case over the MiG-29 fighter plane crash in the Odesa region on August 10.
This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation.
The case was initiated on the basis of a violation of flight rules or preparation for them, as well as the rules for operating aircraft, which caused the disaster.
Investigators worked all night at the crash site: they inspected the area, removed the planeʼs wreckage, and interviewed witnesses and servicemen. The State Bureau of Investigation is currently searching for the flight recorder. Its data should help establish what happened in the last minutes of the flight and determine the causes of the accident.
According to investigators, the plane was destroying Russian drones before crashing. The fighter jet later caught fire and the pilot lost control. He managed to eject and was evacuated to the hospital.
Air Force losses
Since the start of the full-scale war with Russia, the Ukrainian Air Force has lost several fighter jets and professional pilots. In particular, in August 2023, pilot Andriy "Juice" Pilshchikov died, and two pilots also died in a plane crash in the Zhytomyr region.
In August 2024, Oleksiy "Moonfish" Mes died while repelling a Russian attack. This was the first officially confirmed loss of an F-16 fighter jet by Ukraine.
After that, several air crashes were reported: on the night of August 23, 2025, the pilot of the MiG-29 fighter Major Serhiy Bondar was killed, and on December 17, the crew of a Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter was killed. Before that, at noon on December 8, 2025, on the eastern front while performing a combat mission on a Su-27 aircraft, Ukrainian pilot Yevheniy Ivanov was killed.
On June 16, 2026, a Su-24M front-line bomber crashed in the Khmelnytskyi region, killing the pilot and navigator. On July 29, an F-16 fighter jet crashed in the Poltava region, the pilot survived.
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