Following the outburst of Major Dmytro Antonov at the weekend where he accused the Antonov Company of not doing enough to protect the An-225, employees of the company have hit back in an open letter published in eight languages. The message in the letter is clear – Major Antonov’s accusations are unfair, and reflect poorly on a company that is going through an unprecedently difficult time.

The background

Over the weekend, An-225 pilot Dmytro Antonov took to his popular YouTube channel to discuss the fate of the world’s only ‘Mriya’. The plane had been rumored to have been destroyed in attacks on Hostomel Airport, where it was stored. Although conflicting information continued to emerge from Ukraine, the situation was finally confirmed on March 4th, when a video emerged of the remains of the aircraft.

Major Antonov (no relation to the company apart from his job) has a popular YouTube channel with 140,000 subscribers. The following is well deserved given the unique insights he has provided into the life of the pilot of the world’s only An-225. Since the start of the second week of the war, Major Antonov has uploaded daily vlogs to his channel.

At the weekend, he accused the Antonov Company of ignoring NATO warnings about the coming invasion. He accuses the top management of shipping out to Leipzig in Germany long before war broke out, leaving the staff and, crucially, the An-225 to face things alone. Today, he posted a second video, along with a link to the appeal from the Antonov Company.

The appeal

The appeal can be read in full, in all eight languages here, and while there are some nuances of the translation that perhaps didn’t create the exact expression that the prose presented in Ukrainian, the essence of the message is clear enough. After setting the scene of the challenges facing the nation of Ukraine right now, the message goes on to explain,

As a result of Russia's hostile actions, the airfield complex in Gostomel was destroyed, the An-26 and An-74 aircraft were destroyed, and the flagship of the world aviation fleet, the An-225 "Dream"[Mryia], was destroyed. Now each of us asks himself: what can I do for my home business?

The letter indicates that, on the eve of the war, the workers of the Antonov Company worked through the night frantically to install the sixth engine on the An-225. The plan was to fly Myria out on the morning of February 24th, to Leipzig in Germany for safety. At 23:51 that evening, the fifth An-124 of the firm left the airfield. Sadly, that was to be the last flight to leave Hostomel Airport.

By the morning of the 24th, Russia had invaded. Airspace was closed and all options to fly the An-225 out of the airport were blocked. The letter even insinuates that some employees of the Antonov Company were killed that day. Then, the appeal turns its attention to Major Antonov.

And now it turns out that Dmitry Antonov - the one who all this busy time sitting at home, not a word or deed finger on the finger without hitting on the survival of the company, rides on a white horse to people and with a face of anger says that there are enemies around…

We return to the first question: "what did YOU do to prevent such a situation"? Although, as the first deputy airline of the air service, in fact the second person in the leadership, could make every effort and, if he considered the extreme level of danger, to organize the departure of the An-225 at least a day earlier. But let Dmitry Antonov answer this question for himself and the people.

The appeal further goes on to accuse Dmytro of slandering the whole team, saying that he is a false knight in shining armor from the comfort of his couch at home. It accuses him of profiteering on the internet from the despair of the Antonov team. It refutes the accusation that the management team has been in Leipzig since mid-February, and says that, since war broke out, director general of the Antonov Company, Sergey Bychkov, and his deputies have been working around the clock at the company.

We, the employees of ANTONOV, appeal to the people of Ukraine, to all aviators in the world who care about the fate of our country, its technical potential and national achievements, please be vigilant against the background of our current national liberation war. Unfortunately, not all people in this difficult situation can withstand the pressure of war around and support themselves and others. But we know that this will pass, the dust will blow away the wind of history and together we will restore the power of the company "ANTONOV" against the plans of the invader.

The appeal is signed “Flight staff and employees of ATP SE "ANTONOV".

Pilot maintains a hard line

On the surface, the open letter appeal attempts to disparage everything Dmytro has said about the situation to date. That might lead to the question of why he would choose to post such content on his own YouTube channel. Nevertheless, the accompanying narrative goes some way to explaining his reasons.

Major Antonov says that the appeal was first posted on Facebook, although he said it was not clear to whom the appeal was made. The pilot further alleged that the letter was written by management, with support from the staff only given under threat of job losses. He said,

“It feels like it was written by a first grader. Zero intelligence, zero logic, the content of the information provided nobody checked. I have some more reliable information, and a lot more information from third parties.”

Understandably, the Antonov Company is not presently available to give a right to reply on this situation. As such, we will refrain from taking either side in the dispute, and leave our readers to draw their own conclusions.