 According to Ani Nemova, there were attacks on her father Todor Yanakiev, the co-pilot originally assigned to that flight.She states that there were a total of three IL-18 planes that were sabotaged as a scare tactic to prevent Yanakiev from speaking to Todor Zhivkov about smuggling operations on freighters to Russia - one in Zürich, one in Beli Iskar, and one in Sofia.On all three occasions Todor Yanakiev was taken off the plane at the last minute.