Major Serhii Bondar, a MiG-29 fighter pilot, died during a landing approach after completing a combat mission on the night of 23 August, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.

“During the landing approach, MiG-29 fighter pilot Major Bondar Serhii Viktorovych, born in 1979, died,” the Air Force reported. The causes and circumstances of the crash are currently being investigated.

Bondar served as deputy squadron commander with the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade “Ghost of Kyiv,” according to the Air Command “Center.” The pilot was born in 1979 in Kropyvnytskyi, where he lived with his family: wife, son, and daughter.

The pilot graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2000.

“He dedicated his entire life to aviation, although he had a break in military service. He worked as a lecturer at the National Aviation University,” the 40th Brigade reported on Facebook.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Bondar returned to military service without hesitation, joining the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade and restoring his flight skills on L-39 and MiG-29 aircraft.

“It was on MiG-29 fighters that he carried out daily combat work to protect Ukraine’s airspace: successfully destroying enemy air targets and conducting missile and bomb strikes on occupier positions, their headquarters and equipment concentrations on various front directions,” his colleagues said.

They described Bondar as a balanced and professional pilot, “a person with a big heart and boundless life optimism, humor, sincerity and mutual support for those close to him.”