During the joint exercise "Clear Sky" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Armed Forces of Ukraine) with American colleagues on October 16, 2018, a Soviet-made Su-27UB fighter aircraft crashed, the crew of which included Colonel of the Ukrainian Air Force Ivan Petrenko and Lieutenant Colonel of the National Guard Air Force USA Seth Nehring.
The American with the call sign "Jethro" served in the 144 aircraft wing at the airbase near the town of Fresno in sunny California. The officer’s terms of reference included organizing the interaction of units of the California National Guard with Major General Gley Harrison, the head of all the formations of the National Guard air force of the State of California. In other words, the deceased lieutenant colonel served as assistant general or, if you will, adjutant.
According to the press service of the US military, S. Nechring was born and raised in Fresno, in 1998 he joined the US Air Force and served all 144 years in the air wing. He mastered the F-16 Fighting Falcon, having flown 15 years on it. In 2013, he retrained on the F-15 Eagle.
There are no official statements about the cause of the tragedy at the moment either from the Ukrainian armed forces or from the US military. At the same time, among the assumptions about the causes of the incident, both the technical failure of the aircraft and the piloting error are considered as working versions. Both hypotheses have the right to exist, taking into account the deplorable state of the aviation fleet and the low level of flight training of the personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces.
