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What the Chuhuiv An-26 crash left behind
Summary
A look back at the September 2020 military training flight disaster in Kharkiv Oblast and the national mourning that followed.
What did Ukraine know on 29 September 2020, four days after one of its military training flights ended in disaster near Chuhuiv? The core facts were already clear. On 25 September 2020, an An-26Sh aircraft crashed on approach to landing in Kharkiv Oblast during a training flight.
The plane was carrying cadets from Kharkiv Air Force University. As reported at the time, more than 20 people died, and the toll was later given as 26 dead and one other person wounded. Of the 27 people on board, one survived. The aircraft was destroyed.
The aircraft and its unit
The plane, tail number 76, belonged to the 203rd Training Aviation Brigade. It was a military transport type used here for a training flight, which put cadets of the air force university on board.
A day of mourning
Ukraine declared 26 September 2020 a Day of Mourning. By 29 September, the country was therefore already several days into mourning a loss that fell largely on young people training to serve in the air force.
What it meant
The human cost defined the event: a training flight, carried out as part of preparing future military aviators, ended with the deaths of 26 people. For Ukraine's armed forces and for Kharkiv Air Force University in particular, the crash near Chuhuiv was a heavy loss of cadets.
