An An-225 pilot is speaking out about the destruction of what was the world's largest
aircraft.
Major Dmytro Antonov posted a video to YouTube on March 18th, accusing his company’s management
of ignoring warnings from NATO regarding an impending invasion.
Let's see what he has to say…
Before we begin, the pilot's surname is Antonov- the same name as the company that built and
operated the An-225 and the subject of the pilot's allegations.
As such, we will reference the An-225 pilot, Major Dmytro Antonov, as Major Antonov, or
simply as ‘the pilot’.
Picked up by Aviacionline, An-225 pilot Major Antonov took to his channel on YouTube to
discuss why the aircraft wasn't moved out of Ukraine, to safer territory, in the days
leading up to the Russian invasion.
Translated and paraphrased in English from Russian, Dmytro Antonov states:
"There was no decision to transfer the plane anywhere.
You could do Rzeszów, you could do Leipzig.
Why Leipzig?
Because on January 26th, there was an appeal to management from the [NATO Support and Procurement
Agency] via [Antonov Logistics (Germany)] for the relocation of all our aircraft.
Flight personnel, personnel, spare parts, etc [could be transported] to Leipzig in light
of a possible war.
There was no answer to this inquiry...And as I said, there was no strong-willed decision
to transfer [the aircraft] between February 15th and 23rd.”
The translation to English may be rough.
However, for those who can understand Russian, we’ll link to the original video in the
description.
The pilot's discussion of the Mriya is roughly 13 minutes into the original video.
Major.
Antonov claims that, after the warnings, Antonov's top management headed to Leipzig, Germany,
two weeks before the war (mid-February) and raided the Antonov Logistics Salis office
rather than take action with the aircraft.
The pilot alleges that this action was taken due to connections with Russia.
Aviacionline notes that Maj.
Antonov has received some threats from the company over his allegations.
"Let them threaten.
[They did] a little revenge, they blocked my phone.
As long as I still have access to the Internet, everything is fine," he states.
Simple Flying has reached out to the Antonov company with a request for comment regarding
the pilot's allegations.
Without being able to independently verify the claims,this remains an awkward and uncertain
situation.
However, given the fact that the US was warning the world about an impending invasion, it
would have made a lot of sense to relocate the Mriya to safer territory.
Indeed, during the early days of the invasion, and news of the An-225's destruction, many
online were asking why the aircraft wasn't relocated- with some others calling the aircraft's
demise 'fake news' (of course, clearer imagery has since been released to confirm the aircraft's
destruction).
Some suspect that the aircraft wasn’t able to fly due to heavy maintenance being performed
while others doubt this claim.
Ultimately, however, if the pilot's allegations are true, it would make sense at this point
for Antonov management to now remain quiet and fly under the proverbial radar.
The fact that there was a warning nearly a month in advance would indeed be a very bad
look for the company's leadership if they had chosen to ignore such advice.
What do you think of the pilot's allegations?
Let us know by leaving a comment.