Ukrainian military publishes, then deletes info on American killed in Su-27 crash
Following the recent Su-27 crash in Western Ukraine, the country's military revealed in a Facebook post that one of the pilots was an American National Guardsman. That information was deleted minutes later.
That initial post on the Ukrainian General Staff's page read: "We regret to inform that according to the rescue team, the bodies of two pilots have been discovered: one is a serviceman of the Ukrainian Air Force, the other is a member of the US National Guard."
Minutes later, the ending was amended to simply read "the circumstances of the incident are being established."
READ MORE: American serviceman killed in Ukrainian Su-27 crash during war games with NATO
The sneaky retraction didn't go unnoticed, though: both Russian media and Western journalists saw it, and it raised some eyebrows.
Ukraine's General Staff writes on Facebook that an American pilot died in a fighter jet crash during joint exercises, then deletes post like it never happened. Come. On.
— Maria Antonova (@mashant) October 16, 2018
Hmm. So the Ukraine General Staff has removed the original post that included nationalities of pilots in Su-27 crash. https://t.co/nWSfNoY5pt
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) October 16, 2018
Ultimately a statement from the Ukrainian military prosecutor confirmed one of the pilots was an American serviceman, and the US Air Force said an American serviceman was involved in the crash. The posts by the Ukrainian General Staff and Ministry of Defense remained unaltered, however.
An eyewitness to the crash told the 20 Khvilin website that the Su-27 was spinning as it was going down.
“It began rotating when it was flying above the settlement. The pilots were drawing the plane into the field” away from the village, she said.
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