July 29, 2002	Monday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18,1423

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LVIV (Ukraine), July 28: The Ukrainian air force faced accusations of gross negligence on Sunday after at least 84 people died in the world’s worst airshow disaster, with Defence Minister Volodymyr Shydchenko offering his resignation.

“The president is studying the request. No decision has yet been taken,” said Sergui Vasiliev, a spokesman for President Leonid Kuchma’s administration.

Mr Shydchenko had been in office less than a year, appointed last November after his predecessor resigned to assume responsibility for the explosion of a passenger jet over the Black Sea that was accidentally downed by a Ukrainian missile.

On Saturday, a low-flying Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 jet appeared to lose control before hitting the ground and exploding in flames, crashing into a crowd of terrified onlookers at the airshow in Sknyliv, near Lviv.

The two pilots were able to eject to safety at the last minute.

President Kuchma immediately held the military responsible for the tragedy, sacking the country’s air force chief, Viktor Strelnikov, and Sergei Oniszhenko, commander of the 14th air force division which took part in the airshow.

The head of a government inquiry set up to probe the crash, national security chief Yevgeny Marchuk, said negligence by air force commanders or a technical fault were considered the two most likely causes.

“The commission is examining several possible versions. These include negligence by the command of the Ukrainian air force and of the 14th air division or a technical malfunction,” Mr Marchuk said in remarks broadcast on Russia’s RTR television.

ARRESTED: :Viktor Strelnikov, former head of the Ukrainian air force, and three other officers were taken into custody, the state attorney’s office said Sunday.—AFP