Monument in memory of the victims of the Yak-42 plane crash

The Parque del Oeste (Western Park), in the Moncloa-Aravaca district, is home to this monument in memory of the victims of the Yakolev 42 plane crash in Trebisonda (Turkey) on 26 May 2003, which cost the lives of 62 Spanish servicemen and 13 members of the Ukrainian and Belarus crew, returning to Spain from the ISAF and Enduring Freedom international peace missions in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The monument is located in Paseo de Camoens in the Parque del Oeste (Western Park), alongside the Villanueva Fountain. It was built in 2020 and 2021 by the Department for Culture, Tourism and Sport’s General Division for Cultural Heritage, following the project by the architect, Diego Novo Menéndez, son of one of the victims of the accident, which he donated to the City Council. It is an example of commemorative architecture, an austere and respectful space for rest and reflection.

The monument consists of a space for reflection which is accessed via a cobbled path that is flanked by two black concrete walls and serves as a transition towards the central space, creating  a feeling of anguish that symbolises the journey towards the truth in the years since the accident to the present day, moving from the silence and darkness of the tragedy to the clarity reflected in the space for reflection, geographically defined by two independent vertical walls in white concrete and a central platform with benches.

The two walls that enclose this space have a unique meaning: one of them is perforated with 62 holes (62 heroes) with different geometric shapes in accordance with the Spanish cities in which the deceased soldiers were stationed (Burgos, Madrid, Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza), and the second consists of a plaque inscribed with the name and military rank of the victims whose families have authorised their inscription.   Accompanying this, there is a brief explanation and a monolith with a plaque on which a poem written by a relative of the victims is inscribed.