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CNN Live Today

National Day of Mourning Marks Ukrainian Air Show Tragedy

Aired July 29, 2002 - 11:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Unfortunately, we have a story of real disaster this morning. It is a day of national mourning in Ukraine, which unfortunately happens to be the site of the world's worst air show accident. It happened this weekend.
Our Moscow bureau chief, Jill -- Jill Dougherty, rather, checks in right now with more on this disaster in the former Soviet republic.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Leon, it is a very sad day, and the scene today is the very scene where it happened a couple of days ago near Lviv, Ukraine. The field, the airfield where the air show took place in which that fighter jet, streaking down, hitting a crowd, killing 83 people and injuring 116.

Today, about 200 people returned to that scene. Many of them actually had survived it, had been there when it happened. They laid flowers and candles on the gash in the ground that was cut by that plane as it rammed into the ground, exploding into flames. There were priests on hand from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, leading people in prayers.

And as you mentioned, across Ukraine it is an official day of mourning, even as investigators try to piece together exactly why this happened. The prosecutors are blaming the military and the pilots. The prosecutor general saying it was a crime, that there was military negligence, and one thing that they're pointing out is, for example, they allowed people to stand on the ground directly in the flight path of those planes. That, they say, should not have happened. And the commander of the air force has been detained. Now, they are wondering whether or deciding whether or not he should actually be arrested -- Leon.

HARRIS: Boy. That is an incredible story. Jill, were all these planes that were there, were these all being run by the government, or any of these private planes at all involved in this air show?

DOUGHERTY: No, it was a military air show. It was to celebrate the 60th anniversary of a local unit of the air force, and many of the people there were relatives, friends of people who were serving, so it was all military.

HARRIS: That's incredible. What a tragic picture that is. Jill Dougherty, thank you very much. Take care. We'll see you soon.

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