Former air force commander detained after Ukraine disaster

UKRAINE'S prosecutor general yesterday detained a former air force commander and three other top military officials, saying errors in preparing an air show had contributed to the deaths of 83 people when a fighter jet crashed into a crowd of spectators.

President Leonid Kuchma had sacked the air force commander, Volodymyr Strelnykov, on Saturday.

Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted the prosecutor's office as saying that the former air force commander had been detained after an investigation found that there were "serious errors in organising, preparing and conducting flights, in particular organising demonstration flights in Lviv."