The SC has stopped the pursuit of the pilot who shot down a fighter jet during exercises

The Main Military Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia has terminated the criminal prosecution of Major Vasily Saveliev, who shot down a fighter jet during training near Tver in 2020. This was reported by “Kommersant” with reference to lawyer Andrey Yakovlev. Saveliev was acquitted and received the right to rehabilitation. The defender refused to comment in more detail, referring to the confidentiality of the case.

The commander of the unit of the 790th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Major Saveliev, was accused of violating the rules of flights or preparing for them, which entailed serious consequences. He faced up to seven years in prison.

The investigation came to the conclusion that the actions of the major did not constitute a crime.

According to the publication’s sources, the decision was made on the basis of a flight-technical examination conducted at the initiative of the investigation. Experts, among whom were representatives of the Ministry of Defense and engineers of the Sukhoi company, came to the conclusion that Saveliev’s actions were correct, since he tried to bring the conditions of the scientists as close as possible to real air combat.

Experts also indicated that the incident occurred due to outdated instructions for the flight operation of Su family fighters. As a result, they were changed.

A Su-30 fighter of the Russian Aerospace Forces crashed in the Tver region in September 2020. The crew of two people ejected. The Ministry of Defense of Russia estimated the damage from the plane crash at more than one billion rubles.

This happened during the study, in which two more aircraft took part – one of them – the Su-35 – was piloted by Saveliev.

Saveliev’s plane, which was supposed to perform photo shooting, fired five projectiles from an air cannon at the wing of the Su-30. The damaged fighter lost control and fell. Savelev claimed that his fighter was taken off combat duty a month before the experiment, and he himself was sure that the plane’s gun had been put in a non-combat position.

In 2021, the case of Vasiliy Saveliev was considered by a military court, which returned him to the prosecutor’s office.

“Novaya Gazeta” wrote at the time that technical specialists who were preparing the plane for takeoff were also identified as suspects in the case of the crash. It is not known what status they are in now.