Top Romanian military pilot dies in France

Military pilot Ion Staiculescu, commander of the 90th Operational Group of the 90th Otopeni Air Force Base, was found dead in his hotel room in France in the morning of June 2. His colleagues found him in the hotel room. They requested emergency medical intervention but the rescue maneuvers performed by the French medical team had no results. The doctors declared the death at around 10 am local time, according to a press release from the Romanian Ministry of Defense. The case is investigated, according to procedures, by the French judicial authorities. Ion Staiculescu was on mission in Cherbourg, France, where he was participating, as an aircraft commander, in the multinational exercise organized by the French Army for the 74th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy. He was a first-class military pilot with over 7,500 hours of flight experience on various types of aircraft. The 55-year-old officer worked for the Ministry of Defense since 1986. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com (photo source: Ministerul Apararii Nationale, Romania - www.mapn.ro on Facebook)