Pilot error in Ukraine crash cited

LVIV, Ukraine -- Grieving Ukrainians on Monday began burying 83 people killed when a fighter jet sliced into a crowd at an air show. The nation's top prosecutor said pilot error and poor planning likely caused the tragedy.

Prosecutor general Sviatoslav Piskun said that the Su-27 had been flying too low before Saturday's crash in Lviv and that organizers shouldn't have allowed stunts to be performed directly over spectators.

The Defense Ministry on Monday banned all warplane flights except those for basic duty. Ukraine's air force commander and a top officer have been detained, the plane's two pilots -- who ejected and survived -- are under investigation, and the defense minister has submitted his resignation.

"As of now we may surely say that it was military negligence," Piskun said in Kiev. "Also there were signs of criminal actions by pilots. They used this vehicle incorrectly."

He said other possible causes were being investigated, including mechanical failure of the 15-year-old plane or terrorism.

Yevhen Marchuk, head of the government investigating commission, said the pilots have not been able to explain the accident. He suggested that birds could have been in the flight zone and that the engines would be checked for that.

The jet had been performing a risky maneuver at low altitude when it nicked the ground, sliced off the nose of a plane sitting on the tarmac and roared through a crowd of hundreds of spectators before exploding in a ball of fire.

Nick Cook, an aerospace consultant for Jane's Defense Weekly in London, said the pilots "were flying awfully low" but may have dropped because of a malfunction.

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