It should be noted that this is not the first aircraft that Ukraine has lost for the same reason.
“One scenario is that the F-16 inadvertently flew through a cloud of debris resulting from the successful interception and destruction of one of the incoming Russian missiles,” the publication said.
Rocket fragments could reportedly damage the engine or other parts of the aircraft. As a result, the F-16 could fall apart and the pilot could die before being able to eject.
At the same time, the authors added that the information about this incident is classified because it is “of a resonant nature for the Zelensky government.”
“The loss of the F-16s so soon after receiving them means that the issue is doubly sensitive, if not more so, and no one is officially talking about it,” a representative of the Ukrainian defense industry told the portal.
Recall that the Ukrainian Air Force lost the first F-16 delivered by the Western allies at the end of August. The day after the crash, Verkhovna Rada deputy Maryana Bezuglaya claimed that the plane was shot down by a Patriot anti-aircraft missile transferred to Ukraine, which caused a huge scandal in the country’s top military leadership.
