Black box of MiG-29 fighter jet that crashed into the Black Sea was found

The black box of the MiG-29 fighter jet that crashed into the Black Sea was found at a depth of more than 70 meters in the sea, caretaker minister of Defence, Georgi Panayotov, said at an extraordinary briefing to the media on June 24.

The data from it will be read by the end of the day, but it will not be announced to the media, but to the investigating authorities.

The black box is currently on board a ship of the Bulgarian Navy. It will be transported to the Graf Ignatievo military base so that the data can be taken from it.

"The report is that the outer shell of the box has been broken, but we have reason to believe that the inner shell of the box, which actually collects the information, is intact and gives hope that the information can be taken today within a day," the minister commented.

Information will be received from the black box about all flight parametres, engine mode, speed, altitude and trajectory of the aircraft, as well the condition of the controls.

"We will receive information about everything as long as the inner shell is not damaged," the minister assured.

He called for any speculations to be avoided. The caretaker minister said that an investigation is currently underway and based on the data contained in the black box, it will be possible to draw more precise conclusions by the investigating authorities. The facts will be established and then the public will be informed about the reasons for the incident. The investigation will be conducted for 30 working days, Panayotov added.

He thanked everyone involved in the search.

"The navy has been doing its job all along. They don't depend on the media, speeches, assumptions, hypotheses, pressure. They did their job and I'm very happy that they did a great job, because in practice these people found a needle in a haystack, " Panayotov commented.

The search operation involved a minesweeper "Tsibarr" and a motor cutter 213 of the Navy, as well as a group of specialized underwater equipment from the company "Hydroremont".

On June 9, during a training exercise, the plane crashed into the sea. The pilot, Major Valentin Terziev, died. The search was suspended due to bad weather and then resumed.

Panayotov again expressed his condolences to Major Terziev's wife and reiterated that he felt sincere sympathy for her pain.

Asked about the incident in Cheshnegirovo, Minister Panayotov reiterated that a mistake had been made, no one was injured, but there were frightened people and apologies were made, as well as declared responsibility for material damage.

During the briefing, the Minister of Defence also commented on the state of the Bulgarian army.

"The armament in the Bulgarian army is in a state that requires urgent measures for its modernization, i.e. we have to rearm. This can be done with a vision of the political elite that runs the country, because the army can make demands on its own, but decisions must be made by Bulgarian politicians," Panayotov said.