The aircraft, flown by two experienced pilots, was reported to have lost power before clipping trees, at which point the crew ejected. The plane hit a stationary aircraft and burst into flames, then slid into the crowd of spectators. Both pilots survived lightly injured.
Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma publicly blamed the military for the disaster and sacked the head of the air force, Volodymyr Strel'nykov. The defense minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko sent in his resignation, but it was rejected by President.
Experts supposed the following causes of the accident (listed in the order of importance):
violation of the flight plan by crew or ground coordinator;
wrong flight plan, particularly, mistaken correlation between the flight' and spectators' zones;
pilotage error;
technical failure.
In December 2004, The latest military court hearing in the crash case was held in Lviv. No one of 5 accused (among them pilots and ground coordinator) have so far admitted his guilt.
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