The An-30B Aircraft Crew Remembrance Day is a day celebrated annually on June 6, the day the crew of the An-30B reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in the skies over Sloviansk on June 6, 2014.
At 5 p.m., at an altitude of 4,050 meters, which is considered safe, the plane was hit by a missile fired by Russian occupation forces from a portable anti-aircraft missile system. The missile hit the right engine and a fire started.
According to the surviving crew member, photographer Serhiy Kaminsky was killed immediately by the explosion of the SAM. Commander Kostyantyn Mohylko passed all the information to the Ukrainian Air Force headquarters and ordered the crew to abandon the plane. Lieutenants Kyrylo Kramariev and Vasyl Polazhynets and navigator-instructor Lieutenant Colonel Serhiy Nikolayev were the first to leave the plane. Volodymyr Momot was the last to jump out, but he did not manage to escape: the height above the ground was half a kilometer less, and there was not enough time to open the parachute. Flight engineer Captain Pavlo Dryshlyuk and mechanic Oleksiy Potapenko, along with the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kostyantyn Mohylko, remained in the plane. Despite the mortal danger, losing precious seconds during which they could have escaped, the crew took the damaged plane away from the city to prevent civilian casualties in Sloviansk.
The plane crashed at an 80-degree angle, north of Sloviansk, near the village of Pryshyb, Sloviansk district.
Five crew members were killed in the tragedy: the pilot-in-command Kostyantyn Mohylko, flight engineer Pavlo Dryshliuk, flight mechanic Oleksiy Potapenko, photographer Serhiy Kaminsky and radio operator Volodymyr Momot. Lieutenants Kirill Kramarev and Vasily Polazhynets and navigator-instructor Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Nikolayev escaped by parachuting.
According to the Decree of the President of Ukraine of June 20, 2014, No. 543/2014 "On awarding state awards of Ukraine", the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, III class, was awarded to Major Serhii Kaminskyi (posthumously), Captain Pavlo Dryshliuk (posthumously), Warrant Officers Oleksii Potapenko (posthumously) and Volodymyr Momot (posthumously). Lieutenant Colonel Serhiy Nikolayev and Lieutenant Vasyl Polazhynets were awarded the Order "For Courage" of the III degree.
According to the Decree of the President of Ukraine of June 20, 2014, No. 545/2014 "On awarding the title of Hero of Ukraine to K. Mohylko", Lieutenant Colonel Kostiantyn Mohylko was posthumously awarded the title of "Hero of Ukraine" with the Order of the Golden Star for exceptional courage and heroism, unbreakable spirit in the struggle for an independent Ukrainian state, loyalty to the military oath.
According to the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 587/2014 of June 20, 2014 "On awarding state awards of Ukraine", Lieutenant Kyrylo Kramariev was awarded the Order "For Courage", III class, for personal courage and heroism in the defense of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Also, on August 25, 2015, Presidential Decree No. 516/2015 "On Naming the AN-Z0B Aircraft (tail number 86) of the 15th Transport Aviation Brigade of the Air Force of Ukraine after Kostiantyn Mohylko" was signed.