January 20, 2020, about 500 people gathered at the Berkovetsky cemetery, including relatives of the dead pilots, their colleagues, and friends. The correspondent of "112 Ukraine" reports.
Here, crew commander of the Ukrainian plane, Volodymyr Gaponenko, is buried. He was from the town o Boyarka; he had a wife and two daughters. Next to him, pilot-instructor Oleksiy Naumkin was buried. According to his colleagues, he has instructed dozens of UIA commanders and co-pilots.
Berkovets cemetery is the place where pilots are often buried. During the farewell ceremony, an airplane flew over the graves - this is the tradition of pilots who maneuver as if flapping their wings. They also do this in order to catch the souls that are leaving. It is believed that the pilots do not die, they just go to heaven.
As we reported, January 20, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami arrived in Kyiv. He was delivering a message from President of Iran Hassan Rouhani to the President of Ukraine on the crash of a UIA plane.