Ukrainian aircraft AN-225 "Mriya" was the largest, most powerful, heaviest in the world. On the third day of the war, February 27, the troops of the Russian Federation destroyed it.
“Almost half of the aircraft was completely destroyed. The part in which the pilots lived, where we lived, spent all our time, our pilot's cabin - all this was destroyed. The main power structures are most likely damaged by temperature, so the wing is no longer usable. Neither the left half-wing nor the right half-wing can no longer be used, ”explains Dmitry Antonov. On February 5, he made the last flight of the Mriya, returned from Denmark. The crew commander could not believe for a long time that the airliner was no more.
“Somewhere in the middle of March, more specific photos appeared. It became clear that the destruction is really serious. Anyway, I said that until I see it with my own eyes, I won’t believe it,” notes Dmitry Antonov.
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He visited Mriya the day after the de-occupation of Gostomel. The commander filmed how he approaches, greets the aircraft out of habit and cannot restrain his emotions from what he sees: “This is horror.” Antonov flew one and a half thousand hours on this liner, looked at the whole world. The plane was carrying animals and humanitarian aid, generators for power plants and windmill blades. Mriya has been delivering medical supplies around the world to fight the coronavirus.
“At every airport in the world, the aircraft was given a lot of attention. Many correspondents wanted to know how Mriya flies, how it was created,” he emphasizes.
Sometimes, before the landing of the Mriya, whole crowds of aircraft fans gathered: “We flew to Poland, Rzeszow. Sunrise, low cloudiness, which we practically parted with our wings into two halves. They themselves would not have noticed this if it were not for those who met, who filmed such a moment from the ground. It was such an amazing sight, ”Antonov shares his memories.
Aircraft experts say it's impossible to restore the plane
There is only a chance to create a new one, since the Antonov enterprise has an unfinished part of the “sister” of Mriya.
“The whole structure that we see, without the inside, is iron. There is iron. Need electronics and all other internal equipment. Here the costs are from 800 million to three billion. You understand, the amount is very large. And plus such a difference in assessment. This only says that no one has really evaluated it yet, ”says Dmitry Antonov.
Investments in the new Mriya are unlikely to pay off, but it is necessary to recreate it, the crew commander believes:
“If you try to evaluate only economic feasibility, it will be very, very difficult. I think that at the initial stage, Mriya will be created not as a commercial project, but as a symbol. And the symbol, probably, not only of Ukraine. And the symbol of the whole world, and precisely - victory.
