The flight hours of the Bulgarian military pilots are way below NATO’s minimum standards, the Commander of the Bulgarian Air Forces Major General Tsanko Stoykov said at Krumovo Air Base. The Bulgarian pilots should fly ten times more to cover the NATO standards, General Stoykov went on to say. On Monday evening a military helicopter MI-17 crashed at this air base. Two pilots died in the accident. The pilots who lost their lives during the accident had 17 and respectively 18 flight hours since the beginning of 2018. According to the NATO standards, each military pilot has to fly 180 hours a year, of which 40 hours may be spent in a flight simulator. The Bulgarian military pilots cannot cover these standards due to the lack of enough resourcing, Major General Stoykov pointed out.