Structural problem most likely cause – Critical part of T-2 trainer detached
The authorities are looking for the causes of the tragedy in Kalamata with the crash of the T-2 training aircraft of the Air Force in the wreckage of the plane, where Chief Epaminondas Kosteas was tragically killed.
According to the Star’s main news outlet, eyewitnesses saw a piece of the fatal plane fly away shortly before it went down, followed by an explosion. According to exclusive information of the Star journalist, Kostas Symeonidis, the leadership of the Air Force has in their hands photos from the airport of Kalamata, which show a piece of the fatal T-2 aircraft with a length of one to one and a half meters, lying in the airport runway.
This part is not burned. This is a wing part of the training aircraft, probably from the vertical fixed, located at the rear and includes the steering rudders. The rest of the aircraft has crashed far away, about 500 meters outside the airport. The ill-fated Ensign was carrying out a mock attack on Kalamata airfield together with a second T-2. He did the dive and the attack, then he unhooked, as the aviators say, and leveled off, but somewhere in there, at about 2,000 feet, that part of the aircraft must have come off.
The fact is, T-2s are old aircraft. Greece received 40 such planes in 1976, almost 50 years ago. It is also a common secret that T-2s have very low availability due to lack of spare parts. It is worth noting, however, that no aircraft takes off if it is not fully fit to fly. It is a tragic irony that this was the last flight of the 40-year-old experienced Admiral with a T-2 aircraft, as he had been transferred to the more modern T-6 training aircraft, again in the 120th Air Training Wing of Kalamata.
