Press Release

Published: Sunday, 19 June 2016 14:29

The Air Force of Albanian Republic clarifies that the two pilots who lost their lives in the tragic accident on April 6th, had been qualified and trained. Due to the need of replacing the helicopter crashed in France with another type, helicopter EC 145, SAR variant, it became necessary to amend the contract of Cougar helicopters. This amendment hasn’t changed any stipulation of the previous contract in terms of training.

The training of pilots and technical staff remained the same in this contract. Therefore, the training of two pilots was in accordance with contract requirements and needs. Complete training and certification has been carried out in Germany and Albania from AIRBUS company instructors, who in turn have trained 5 pilots and 1 instructor according to program standards ICOO (international rules of civil aviation) and to military as well.

Albanian Air Force possesses a full list of documents that certify everything stated above. All this documentation is available to Prosecution. Therefore, we reject categorically any kind of speculation published in some media about this issue.