Sukhoi company puts blame on 'illegal upgrading" for Su-27 crash

The failure of avionics might have been the cause of the crash of a Belarus Air Force Su-27 fighter during an air show in Poland, Sukhoi company told the Russian newspaper Izvestia. This version is backed by the sky talk records between the pilots and the air traffic controllers. "It is very clear on the video footage that after recovering from an aerobatics figure, the pilot is trying to switch on the afterburner", a source in the Sukhoi company told the newspaper. "For a moment, the smoke from the engines became thicker but later faded more than normal... The aircraft simply lacked the thrust and it fell down on the ground".

Sukhoi company maintains the cause of the crash is logical, because Minsk has performed illegal upgrades of its fighters counting to sell the aircraft to the third countries later, writes Izvestia. "The avionics failed and the pilots lost control over the operation of the engine, the same source at Sukhoi company told Izvestia.