The catastrophe at Yeisk was only possible because of a terrible set of circumstances. The fact that the pilots ejected does not mean that they are completely guilty, but they will have to answer serious questions today in their hospital bed. Earlier, Fontanka asked a specialist in aviation safety and psychology, retired Major General Vladimir Popov, former Head of the Federal Office of Aerospace Search and Rescue and distinguished military pilot of Russia, to explain what could have led to such a tragedy.

Kommersant FM asked Roman Voronin, Advocate, Managing Partner of RI-Consulting, to comment on whether there are really such instructions for military pilots (or for civilian pilots, too) or this is just an established practice.

"During the investigation of aircraft accidents, the main source for obtaining evidence is the so-called black box, which is a device that makes audio records of all information sources in the aircraft. Once the black box has been found and opened, and it is usually very heavily protected (fireproof, water-resistant), special experts are involved. Given that the plane is military and not civilian, the case is investigated by the military and dealt with by their experts. They're checking the pilot's actions against a huge number of regulations. This is a military plane, and those instructions are mostly secret and unavailable,"- the advocate said.