National Defence Ministry: Ceremonies in memory of Commodore Ion Staiculescu to be held Monday

Ceremonies in memory of Commodore Ion Staiculescu, who died on Saturday in France, will be held on Monday morning in all the military units countrywide, informs the National Defence Ministry (MApN).

Commodore Ion Staiculescu was a first class pilot, with a combined flight experience of 7,500 flight hours, of which approximately 3,500 on C 27J Spartan aircraft, an aicraft he flew as commanding pilot instructor.

He has carried out air transport missions in the operations theaters in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Western Balkans, as well as numerous humanitarian flights in the country and abroad.

Commodore Ion Staiculescu, commander of the 90th Operational Group of the 90th Air Transport Otopeni Base, on mission in Cherbourg, France, died on Saturday in the hotel room he was staying in, according to a MApN release.

"The officer was participating, as an aircraft commander, in the multinational exercise organized by the French Army in the May 31 - June 4 period, to mark 74 years since the allied invasion of Normandy. In this exercise Romania was participating with a detachment formed of 33 paratroopers and one C27J Spartan aircraft. On the morning of this day, the officer was found unconscious by his colleagues in the hotel room. Emergency medical intervention was requested but resuscitation maneuvers conducted by the French medical crew were without results, doctors registering the official time of death around 10:00, local time. The case is investigated, according to procedures, by French judiciary authorities," the quoted source informs.AGERPRES (RO - editor: Florin Marin; EN - author/editor: Bogdan Gabaroi)