The Venezuelan general who died in the Sukhoi accident distrusted those Russian planes but was "afraid to speak"

[Inkriql]

The fall of the second Sukhoi aircraft of the 24 that Venezuela acquired from Russia caused the death of General Raúl Virgilio Márquez Morillo and Captain Nesmar José Salazar Núñez on Wednesday, October 16. We consulted a general of Aviation, witness of the process of acquisition of those airplanes. The first thing he did was regret what happened to the general. “When we flew together, we talked a lot about the lack of maintenance of the Sukhoi and badly executed contracts. MG MG Gregorio Pérez Escalona, former Aviation General Commander and the others who seconded him, are responsible for that ”.

In the afternoon hours of Wednesday Wednesday the Sukhoi was leaving the Air Base Cap. Manuel Ríos, to go to the Air Base in Barcelona, Anzoátegui state, when the unfortunate accident occurred. “It was a ferry flight because the Russians are in Barcelona and going there for maintenance. After the take-off with a transfer flight plan to Barcelona, he turned sharply to the right that forced the crew to activate the ejection, at low altitude with the unfortunate incident, ”describes a military report.

The officer we interviewed indicates that “the chairs are designed to guarantee ejection at 0 feet 0 knots, that is, standing. What it seems is that flight controls failed, it is the same issue of polyurethane tanks. It may be that the loss of height abruptly generated negative seriousness and affected the exit of the chair, because the problem is the lack of maintenance ”.

He adds that “many times we talk about it (with Márquez Morillo) about the expired materials of the ejection cartridges, the cad pad, and about those delicate flights with the planes that had red diagonals, that is partially available”.

The military explained that the business of the Russians when selling the 24 airplanes to Venezuela was approximately 3,600 million euros (about USD 4,000 million), with accessories and ground support equipment. In other words, each one cost about 150 million euros (USD 166 M). He points out that “the Sukhoi 30 aircraft, a platform acquired from Russia and which entered service for 2006, had mishaps from the beginning. Assembled for Venezuela by the Sukhoi Company, it did not comply with the appropriate quality controls and did not have the operational training given by Russian military pilots, but by test pilots. ”

He revealed that “they presented early and unprecedented failures of expiration of the foam rubber of the fuel or polyurethane tanks. It is not surprising the expiration in the ejection cartridges, delays in the calendar maintenance and failures in the flight control systems for hours of operation ”. This sophisticated strategic system requires the highest quality controls, “which were not insured by the Military Aviation authorities and the Armed Forces Strategic Operational Command (Ceofanb). Capital inspections are extremely expensive by the Russians, who even set scenarios for 2026, in their proposals for maintenance. ”

He says that “the truth is that the Russians were more interested in selling new planes to Venezuela than in repairing the Sukhoi. And do the employment shows of the System to follow Traces of exploration planes flying out of the national airspace. To this is added the incidence of casualties, the lack of resources and the absence of a serious general commander who refused to accept that situation. They are important factors that claimed the lives of these experienced pilots. ”

He criticizes with emphasis that “a strategic aircraft like the Sukhoi is used to follow Targets of Interest or BDI, which are illicit of drug trafficking. It is an exhibitionist hoax since they are not aircraft designed for this type of missions. In addition to the fuel mafias in Venezuela and those who control the shutdown for radar maintenance, the possible cause of origin to fight from the ground with that scourge. ”

"This accident, like the one in 2015 in Apure, demonstrates the inability of the Armed Forces, the Government, and Aviation in particular to ensure sovereignty, the lives of pilots and the investment of large sums of money from Venezuelans" .

The pilots who were killed on September 17, 2015 in Apure were not ejected and had been led by the Comprehensive Aerospace Defense Command (CODAI) risking their lives. That is, the JYL1 or JY11B were intercepted by the aircraft interception radars. "Using a strategic plane to look for a tare or plane is asymmetric and counterproductive, adding that doing it at night is otherwise risky, dangerous and irresponsible."

The officer explains that “the plane that falls in Apure in 2015 when it was hunting a drug plane, flew over the area where it was taken by the CODAI, during the early morning. Apparently on an unprepared, clandestine track, they lit an improvised beacon that apparently disoriented the pilot who went down a lot and crashed. ” In that accident the captains Ronald Enrique Ramírez Sánchez and Jackson Adrián García Betancourt died.

We ask what the Sukhoi really should be used for. “They are for raiders, for external threats such as an F15 Eagle or an F16 or anti-ship as happened in Las Malvinas. They are for operations called against air forces, against strategic aircraft, aircraft, interdiction, interception, strategic bombing, among others of defense ”.

With General Virgilio Márquez Morillo “we talked at all times, but he was afraid to speak more openly about the persecution and the number of reporters, but we knew the amount of logistical problems of that system. To begin with, that was not what they had to acquire. ”

He concludes by saying that “the Sukhoi project was a disaster from the beginning. These Russian projects with the hand of Veximca (Venezuelan Export and Import, C.A.) always had Cuban lobbyists, with large commissions. Russian weapons systems do not have reliability, guarantees, quality controls, because they are very handmade and very messy even when they work. ”