Following the public allegation of Major Dmytro Antonov a few days ago,
where he accused the Antonov Company of not doing enough to protect the An-225,
employees of the company have hit back in an open letter published in eight languages.
The message in the letter is clear – Major Antonov’s accusations are unfair,
and reflect poorly on a company that is going through an unprecedently difficult time.
On March 18th, An-225 pilot Dmytro Antonov took to his popular YouTube channel to discuss the AN-225.
The pilot accused the Antonov Company of ignoring warnings about the coming invasion,
saying that top management left for Leipzig in Germany
long before war broke out, leaving the staff and, the An-225 to face things alone.
The Antonov company is defending itself in an open letter. Part of this letter reads:
As a result of Russia's hostile actions, the airfield complex in Gostomel was destroyed, the
An-26 and An-74 aircraft were destroyed, and the flagship of the world aviation fleet, the An-225
"Dream"[Mryia], was destroyed. Now each of us asks himself: what can I do for my home business?
The letter indicates that, on the eve of the war, Antonov Company staff worked through the
night frantically to install the sixth engine on the Mriya, with a plan to fly it out on the
morning of February 24th, to Leipzig. At 23:51 on the 23rd, the fifth An-124
of the firm left the airfield. Sadly, that was to be the last flight to leave the airfield.
By the morning of the 24th, Russia had invaded and airspace was closed.
The letter even insinuates that some employees of the Company were killed
that day. Then, the appeal turns its attention to Major Antonov…
Discussing the pilot, the company states: And now it turns out that Dmitry Antonov - the
one who all this busy time sitting at home, not a word or deed finger on the finger without
hitting on the survival of the company, rides on a white horse to people and with a face of
anger says that there are enemies around… We return to the first question: "what did
YOU do to prevent such a situation"? Although, as the first deputy airline of the air service,
in fact the second person in the leadership, could make every effort and,
if he considered the extreme level of danger, to organize the departure of the An-225
at least a day earlier. But let Dmitry Antonov answer this question for himself and the people.
The appeal accuses the pilot of slandering the whole team and profiteering on the internet from
the despair of the Antonov team. It refutes the accusation that management has been in Leipzig
since mid-February, and says that, since war broke out, director general of the Antonov Company,
Sergey Bychkov, and his deputies have been working around the clock at the company.
The appeal is signed “Flight staff and employees of ATP SE "ANTONOV".
On the surface, the open letter appeal attempts to disparage everything Major Antonov has discussed.
Defending his allegations, the pilot says that the appeal was first posted on Facebook,
although he said it was unclear to whom the appeal was made.
The pilot further states that the letter was written by management, with support from the staff
only given under threat of job losses. He said, “It feels like it was written by a first grader.
Zero intelligence, zero logic, the content of the information provided nobody checked.
I have some more reliable information, and a lot more information from third parties.”
Understandably, the Antonov Company is not presently available to give a right to reply
on this situation. As such, we will refrain from taking either side in the dispute, and
leave our viewers to draw their own conclusions. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.