VILNIUS, September 17 (RIA Novosti, Vladimir Vodo) - The Russian Su-27 fighter that crashed in Lithuania Thursday was carrying four air-to-air missiles, the Lithuanian national radio quoted a Russian high-ranking officer as saying Saturday.
Major-General Sergei Bainetov, the head of the Russian Air Force safety service, said that the missiles had not exploded during the crash and could be found amid the wreckage.
Vitalijus Vaiksnoras, the head of the Lithuanian commission investigating the Su-27 crash, has neither confirmed nor denied this information.
Bainetov said that the crashed fighter had only one navigation system and pilot Valery Troyanov veered off course after its failure.
He said that Troyanov was an experienced pilot who had never had accidents. He added that the pilot did not speak English and could not understand what NATO air services had been telling him.
The Su-27 fighter flying from St. Petersburg to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad crashed in Lithuania Thursday, apparently after navigation equipment failed. The pilot, Major Valery Troyanov, managed to eject to safety and no one was hurt in the incident.
