Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Flight hours of Bulgarian military pilots are way below NATO’s standards

Photo: BGNES

The flight hours of the Bulgarian military pilots are way below NATO’s minimum standards, the Commander of the Bulgarian Air Forces Major General Tsanko Stoykov said at Krumovo Air Base. The Bulgarian pilots should fly ten times more to cover the NATO standards, General Stoykov went on to say. On Monday evening a military helicopter MI-17 crashed at this air base. Two pilots died in the accident. The pilots who lost their lives during the accident had 17 and respectively 18 flight hours since the beginning of 2018. According to the NATO standards, each military pilot has to fly 180 hours a year, of which 40 hours may be spent in a flight simulator. The Bulgarian military pilots cannot cover these standards due to the lack of enough resourcing, Major General Stoykov pointed out.




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Rumen Radev

Bulgaria and Vietnam should capitalise on their strategic geographic positions, says president Radev

Bulgaria and Vietnam should make the most of their strategic geographic positions – Vietnam in Southeast Asia and Bulgaria in Southeast Europe – acting as a gateway for goods and services from Asia to Europe , President Rumen Radev said on Thursday. He..

published on 10/23/25 4:03 PM

INSAIT model gives robots unprecedented 3D spatial intelligence

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) at Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’ has released SPEAR-1, an open-source AI model that gives industrial robots 3D spatial intelligence . The technology is..

published on 10/23/25 3:57 PM

Vietnam Communist Party leader To Lam on official visit to Bulgaria

To Lam, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, is on an official visit to Bulgaria. He was welcomed at a ceremony in St. Alexander Nevsky Square by President Rumen Radev and his wife, Desislava Radeva, as reported by the Bulgarian..

published on 10/23/25 2:25 PM