As tons of of Russian missiles and drones flew over Ukraine on Monday, the Ukrainian fighter pilot often known as Moonfish was precisely the place he stated he at all times needed to be: within the cockpit of the F-16 chasing him.
“The F-16 is a Swiss Military knife,” the pilot, Lt. Col. Alexius Mess, advised reporters whereas coaching on the navy jet final fall. “It is an excellent weapon that may accomplish any mission.”
Colonel Mess helped lead Ukraine’s intense lobbying efforts to safe the F-16 fighter jetshalf a dozen of which joined the fray in opposition to Russia earlier this month. And he was amongst a dozen pilots educated to fly the subtle fighter jet in fight.
After downing three Russian cruise missiles and an assault drone in Monday’s assault, he was racing to intercept one other goal when floor management misplaced contact together with his aircraft. This was announced by representatives of the Ukrainian Air Force.
“The aircraft crashed, the pilot died,” the Ukrainian navy stated statement.
The loss of life of a well known pilot and the lack of one of many long-awaited fighter jets so quickly after their deployment solid a pall over the battlefield simply because the dizzying first days of the invasion of Russia’s Kursk area have been fading and fears have been rising of an advancing Russian offensive in jap Ukraine.
Because the nation mourned the pilot’s loss of life, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired the pinnacle of the nation’s air pressure and promised an intensive investigation into the incident, together with the chance, raised by a Western official on Friday, that it was the results of pleasant fireplace from a Patriot missile battery.
However on Saturday, two senior U.S. navy officers stated that pleasant fireplace was most likely not the reason for the downed F-16 and that U.S. and Ukrainian investigators have been taking a look at completely different prospects.
“The lack of a pilot is extremely painful to bear, particularly since he was amongst those that fought for Ukraine’s proper to have F-16s,” stated Anatoly Khrapchinsky, a pilot and former Ukrainian Air Power officer.
“Relating to the plane, you will need to perceive that it is a conflict and sadly losses are inevitable,” he stated. “We’re at conflict with a rustic that may launch over 200 weapons in opposition to Ukraine in a single strike, together with cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and fight drones.”
Ukraine has stored its F-16 program secret as a result of each the planes and the pilots are prized targets for the Russians. In early August, in an try to spice up the nation’s morale, the brand new fighter jets flew over tv cameras and have been proven maneuvering on an airport apron.
Lieutenant Normal Anatoly Krivonozhka, who was appointed appearing commander of the air pressure after the dismissal of Lieutenant Normal Mykola Oleschuk, stated in an interview earlier this month that battle-hardened pilots like Colonel Mess got precedence to coach in superior western planes.
“They have been shot at, they have been by way of battles,” he stated. “Individuals who have gone by way of these episodes, they react correctly” to emergency conditions, he stated. “This fight expertise will probably be utilized to new forms of plane.”
As family and friends gathered to bury Colonel Mess on Thursday, one in all his lecturers stated he knew what he needed to do since he was little.
“I requested him, ‘What do you need to be?'” stated instructor Nadia Mushtin. “Really, I dream of being a pilot,” she stated, he replied, including, “His dream got here true.”
A former Republican Home member, Adam Kinzinger, recalled assembly Colonel Mess when he got here to Washington to foyer for the F-16 with one other pilot, Main Andriy Pilshchikov, who died in a crash a yr in the past.
“They knew the dangers, they understood the stakes and but they by no means wavered,” he wrote in a tribute posted on Substack. “They have been younger, energetic, and but they carried a maturity past their years—a maturity solid within the fires of conflict.”
Ukrainian navy analysts stated it was too early to take a position on what precipitated the crash. However they pressured that Western air protection methods and F-16 fighter jets have by no means labored collectively in such complicated situations because the circumstances in Ukraine on Monday.
On the identical time that Colonel Mess was chasing the Russian missiles, groups working three completely different protection methods, together with Patriot missiles, in addition to cellular teams with Stinger missiles and British Starstreak missiles, have been working to intercept 127 missiles and 109 one-way assault drones. the Ukrainian Air Force announced.
“Many issues might have led to the lack of the F-16, together with the technical situation of the plane, pilot error, exterior components,” stated Mr Hrapchinsky, a former Ukrainian Air Power official.
For instance, he stated, it’s doable that fragments of a destroyed missile could have struck an important a part of the aircraft. “At this level within the investigation, all choices are being thought of, together with pleasant fireplace,” he stated.
Mr. Zelensky didn’t give a motive for his dismissal as Air Power chief, apart from to say that his administration was taking all doable steps to guard the lives of troopers and civilians.
However one pilot, who requested anonymity as a result of he was on lively obligation and was not allowed to talk on operational issues, stated “the construction of aviation administration in Ukraine is outdated.” Nonetheless, it might be unsuitable to put all of the blame on the previous commander, he stated, who had expertise in air protection and carried out his job properly.
The issues run deeper than that, he stated, and must do with a command construction mired in paperwork that too typically rewards those that do not query authority and whose pondering could also be outdated.
“Pilots have completely different duties, even on the bottom, and paperwork is the most cancers of aviation,” he stated. “I have been writing and writing all morning as we speak, following Soviet-era manuals.”
Andrew E. Kramer, Anastasia Kuznetsova, Eric Schmidt and Love Sholudko contributed reporting.
