Pilot of crashed aircraft in intensive care with multiple trauma on ejection

Squadron leader Andrei Criste, the pilot of a MIG 21 LanceR plane that crashed on Tuesday in Mures County who was flown to the Dr Carol Davila Hospital in Bucharest, has been examined by a team of doctors specialising in emergency medicine, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, anesthesia and intensive care, and general surgery for a diagnosis and surgical and therapeutic treatment. "After specialist examinations and the clinical and para-clinical examinations performed, squadron leader Andrei Criste was admitted to the special care unit with an initial diagnosis of multiple trauma sustained while he ejected himself from the crashing aircraft. The pilot is conscious, cooperative, has a good temporal and spatial orientation, hemodynamically and respiratory stable. The Ministry of National Defence and the medical team are in permanent contact with the family," reads a press statement released by the Defence Ministry (MApN). On Tuesday, a MiG 21 LanceR aircraft from the 71st Cimpia Turzii Air Base piloted by squadron leader Andrei Criste, crashed near Dedrad, Mures County. The aircraft that crashed had taken off at around 14:00hrs from the air base at Cimpia Turzii for a training flight jointly with two other aircraft of the same type. During the performance of the mission, the pilot reported an emergency and ejected himself as the aircraft came crashing down in the area of Dedrad, Mures County, outside the inhabited areas. The other two aircraft returned to base safely around 15:00hrs, according to MApN. Initially, the pilot was admitted at the Targu Mures County Emergency Clinical Hospital, where he was examined by a medical team who found that his life was not in danger and authorised the transfer of the patient to the Dr Carol Davila Hospital in Bucharest, for specialist treatment and recovery. AGERPRES (RO - author: Andreea Rotaru, editor: Mirela Barbulescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)