MADRID, Oct 22 (AFP) - The Spanish government on Friday announced a major overhaul of the Spanish joint chiefs of staff following a military air crash in Turkey which killed 62 Spanish peacekeepers and 13 Ukrainian crew members last year.
But the state added it would suspend proposed disciplinary proceedings against two military officials previously accused of hiring a faulty plane.
The passengers and crew were killed while returning from a mission in Afghanistan. Their NATO-chartered Ukrainian-operated Yak-42 plane crashed into a mountain in fog near Trabzon on the Black Sea on May 26, 2003.
The Socialist government said it would not go ahead with sanctions proposed on Thursday by Defence Minister Jose Bono against two army officers in charge.
The government, which came to power in March, has sharply criticised the defence ministry, which at the time of the crash was under conservative Federico Trillo, for chartering the Yakovlev-42 plane.
"The government considers that there was political negligence," spokeswoman for the council of ministers Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told reporters in Madrid.
The Ukrainian plane had well publicised structural faults and the pilot had been working non-stop for almost 24 hours.
Instead of bringing the two military officers to book, the government said it had ordered the "re-organisation" of military personnel to be completed by January 1 next year.
10/22/2004 15:54 GMT - AFP