Commemoration of the SMURD helicopter crash in Cantemir
The General Inspectorate for Emergencies will hold a ceremony on June 2 at the Haragâș Memorial Complex in the Cantemir district. This event is organized to honor the SMURD Iași crew members who lost their lives in the line of duty due to a plane crash that occurred ten years ago.
A commemorative event will be held to honor the four crew members who lost their lives during an aero-medical mission. Officials from both sides of the Prut, along with colleagues and relatives of the deceased crew, will gather for the occasion.
The tragic accident occurred on June 2, 2016, when a SMURD helicopter took off from Iași to transport a patient from Cahul to Chișinău. The aircraft crashed near the village of Haragâș in the Cantemir district.
All crew members—Commander Doru Gavril, Captain-Commander Voicu Socae, Doctor Mihaela Dumea, and Assistant Gabriel Sandu—lost their lives in the incident.
In June 2017, the Haragâș Memorial Complex was inaugurated in memory of the crew. The memorial is designed to resemble a landing strip, featuring a commemorative plaque alongside a large metal cross.
Every year around June 2, officials from the Republic of Moldova and Romania, along with the victims' families, rescuers, doctors, and paramedics from both countries, come together to honor the memory of the crew members who fell in the line of duty.
This year's commemoration will begin at 1:00 p.m.
The SMURD project was launched in the Republic of Moldova in 2014. It utilizes rescue vehicles, mobile intensive care ambulances, and, notably, medical helicopters operated by crews from Iași and Galați to assist patients on the left bank of the Prut.
Since its inception, the project has conducted over 135 aero-medical operations.
