Former owner of the plane that violated Bulgaria’s airspace: There were three buyers, I spoke Russian with one of them
A former military pilot from Lithuania was the owner of the Piper plane that trespassed the airspace of seven countries two days ago and landed at a disused airport in the outskirts of Targovishte in Bulgaria.
The machine had been advertised for sale on a British website, and Lithuanian Bronius Zaronskis sold it last Saturday to three men. However, the names of the buyers are not known. Bulgaria’s Defence Minister, Dragomir Zakov, said on June 10 that the twin-engine plane was being tracked by a fighter aircraft in severe weather conditions at a risk for the military pilot's life.
A man from Lithuania was until recently the owner of the aircraft. He claims to have sold it on Saturday but does not know where the buyers are from.
I cannot specify. From Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria or somewhere else, said Bronius Zaronskis, a former owner of the plane.
Did you speak in Russian?
Yes, in Russian with one of them.
Bronius Zaronskis is a former military pilot in the Lithuanian Air Force, he was a squadron commander and is believed to be one of the aces of the Lithuanian Air Force. He is the president of a local sports aviation club and the 60-year-old six-seater Piper was part of the club's fleet. According to his recollection, he sold the machine to a company registered in Sofia.
- There were three buyers.
Do you remember their names?
I don't know their names. I don't know them and I didn't ask them. I made a purchase form, there were no names written, only the company. They put their signatures and we said goodbye, said Bronius Zaronskis.
The plane was technically upright and fit to fly, but with a cancelled registration because it was mortgaged. Its restoration would take about a month of administrative procedures in Lithuania. The director of Lithuania's air navigation enterprise says that no flight plans have been received for this aircraft in the last three months.
"That means it has not taken off from the controlled airports, there are four of them. Hypothetically, it could have taken off from an aeroclub airport, for example from Kiviskes or Palukinis, but we don't know that," said Saulius Batavicius, director of state-owned enterprise Oro Navigacija.
The small twin-engine aircraft flew through the airspace of several member states on June 8 without a flight plan and without responding to radio calls, but did not display hostile behaviour, and no further action was taken on Air Policing for that reason, according to a release from NATO's Allied Command. The machine entered Bulgarian airspace at night.. According to the defence minister, the radars of the Bulgarian air force had been monitoring the movement of the aircraft before and had taken control from the Romanian partners.
"The size of the aircraft does not suggest it did damage to military or civilian infrastructure. The aircraft was determined to be a potential renegade, when an aircraft is determined to be a potential renegade it is not acted upon. It is monitored. If there are actions that threaten specific infrastructure - military, civilian, civil aviation - then there is a procedure in which it is declared a renegade and then there are procedures for impact," said Dragomir Zakov, Bulgaria’s defence minister.
The plane was also tracked by the location systems of Bulgaria’s air defence, at one point it was judged that it should be escorted by a fighter jet.
"Then, when we already had the judgment that we might have to get a fighter jet in the air, we did. Very severe weather conditions. I say that - very severe weather conditions indeed. An observation was made, the aircraft returned to Graf Ignatyevo before the storm started. Extremely risky flight. The pilot who took off risked his life," said Dragomir Zakov, defence minister.
In the Bulgarian airspace, the plane was flying at an extremely low altitude to avoid problems with the storm, which was particularly dangerous in the higher layers of the atmosphere, where there were also conditions for strong turbulence. According to experts, this meant that the pilot was very experienced.
"The aircraft is prepared for complex conditions. It can be flown in complex conditions in the daytime. The pilot also has skills. Not every pilot can fly in complex conditions. In clouds. And as far as I understood it there was low cloud and there was precipitation. And he was very well prepared," said Velichko Deruzov, a former military pilot.
The pilot apparently knew the route very well, because after dark he managed to land at two airports in the country that have not been used since the early 1990s – the airports Inovo and Buhovtsi.
"He is most likely Bulgarian," said Velichko Deruzov, a former military pilot.
None of the countries through which airspace the Piper flew qualified it as dangerous. Romania had taken over surveillance of the machine and the air force of our northern neighbour judged that there was no need for an impact and handed over control to Bulgaria just before it left Romanian airspace, the Romanian defence minister said.
"We haven't spoken to our colleagues from Hungary and Bulgaria yet because it's not a fighter jet or anything like that. We will definitely do an analysis when we have more information about this incident. Each of the 3 countries acted according to the law. We are going to discuss all the information in detail and we will probably make a joint report on this incident", said Vasile Dinku, Minister of Defence of Romania.
The investigation in Bulgaria seeks answers to basic questions.
"Who were the people, whose property was it, how was it flown, why was it flown, where did it leave from, what was the purpose of the flight," said Dragomir Zakov, defence minister.
The version that the plane's flight was for reconnaissance purposes is also being checked.
