Court orders arrest of suspects in Brovary helicopter crash case

The Pechersk Court in Kyiv imposed restrictive measures on five State Emergency Service officials suspected in the case of the Brovary helicopter crash that killed Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky in January.

The head of the Emergency Service's Department of Aviation and Air Search and Rescue, its acting commander, the aviation squadron commander, and the deputy commander for flight training will be detained without bail.

Meanwhile, the head of the flight safety service of the Special Aviation unit from Nizhyn, Chernihiv Oblast, will be put under 24-hour house arrest.

According to the Suspilne news outlet, the pre-trial measures were imposed on all the suspects for the next two months. Department head Ivan Korobka and another Emergency Service official Oleh Ivanov told journalists they disagreed with the court's decision and would file appeals.

The officials were earlier charged with safety violations and negligence that allegedly led to the helicopter crash, which claimed the lives of 15 people.

On Jan. 18, a helicopter carrying Ukraine's Interior Ministry top officials crashed next to a kindergarten and an apartment building in Brovary, a city just east of Kyiv.

Read also: Explainer: What we know about helicopter crash that killed children, top officials

All 10 people on board were killed, including Monastyrsky, his deputy Yevhen Yenin, and the ministry's secretary Yurii Lubkovych. On the ground, four women and a child were also killed, while some 31 people, including 13 children, were wounded.

The State Bureau of Investigation discovered that Interior Ministry officials had been traveling to Kharkiv and Dnipro oblasts on a helicopter intended exclusively for emergency situations in Kyiv Oblast. The helicopter had to fly at an extremely low altitude due to adverse weather conditions and poor visibility.

The crew did not have appropriate permits to fly in such weather, and the commander was not provided with data on meteorological conditions before the flight, according to the investigation. The flight safety also failed to cancel the trip despite the dangerous weather conditions.

However, Korobka told Suspilne that all actions and decisions during the flight occurred in accordance with the "guiding documents," and the crew level allowed to transport the ministry's management team.

"I am accused of making baseless decisions on the flight, which resulted in the disaster. I do not agree with this," he said, adding that the weather was okay for flying.

Read also: How kindergarten morning in Kyiv suburb turned into tragedy

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