Ends in the water: Ukrainian Mirage 2000 drowned in a swamp

The Mirage 2000 fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which crashed the night before in the Volyn region in western Ukraine, drowned in a swamp. This was reported in the Telegram channel by the State Bureau of Investigation (GBR) of Ukraine.

"The GBR has launched a pre-trial investigation into the downing of the Mirage 2000 military aircraft on Volhynia. The accident occurred on the evening of July 22 at one of the airfields of the region during a combat mission. It was previously established that after takeoff, the pilot informed the flight director about a critical electronics malfunction. The plane crashed in a deserted area and sank into a flooded crater in a swampy area, " the report said.

The pilot managed to eject, they found him and provided the necessary assistance.

"A special investigation team has been created from among the most experienced employees of the territorial administration and the Central Office of the State Bureau of Investigation, who have practice investigating disasters in military aviation. The incident is being investigated under Part 2 of Article 416 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — "Violation of flight rules or preparation for them, which caused a disaster," the SBR said.

Now official documentation and other evidence are being seized, witnesses are being questioned.

As reported by EADaily, according to the American expert magazine Military Watch Magazine, the Mirage 2000 entered service in 1984, ten years after the fourth-generation fighters began to arrive in The US Armed Forces, and was conceived as a direct analogue of the F-16 both as part of the French Air Force and in foreign markets. However, in terms of flight performance, the fighter was noticeably inferior to the F-16 - mainly due to a less powerful engine. In addition, the Mirage 2000 gained the infamy of an emergency aircraft: 13% of the aircraft, or eight of the 60 fighters of the Chinese Air Force, were lost. As a result, the Taiwan Air Force was forced to take the aircraft out of service ahead of schedule and replace them with modern F-16 Block 70 fighters.