The aircraft crash that occurred on January 18 in Kiev in the city of Brovary, a suburb in the Kiev region, may have been caused by pilot misjudgment. According to the preliminary investigations of the investigators, the EC-225 Super Puma helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force would have flown too low in conditions of poor visibility. Among the victims also the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Denys Monastyrsky, the leaders and some assistants of his department.

"It was foggy at Brovary, there wasn't enough visibility. The pilot didn't see the red lights on the apartment buildings. When a building loomed in front of him, he had no more room to maneuver to avoid a tragedy. Suddenly he started to spin on himself and crashed into the asylum nearby", explains the Ukrainian news site "Strana", which cites a ministerial source according to which the pilot had chosen that route for fear of missile attacks from Belarus.