On October 23, the Governor of the Irkutsk region, Igor Kobzev, said that a Russian Su-30SM fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the regional capital. Two pilots were killed.
“Both pilots were killed. None of the local residents were injured. The plane was on a test flight,” Kobzev wrote, posting a video of the house with black smoke billowing into the sky and firefighters are working at the scene.
After the plane crash, 150 homes in Irkutsk lost power, the regional government said. According to RT, before the crash, the plane flew around the city for 20 minutes.
“Another fighter jet was called to approach the plane that crashed. They found both pilots unconscious and there was nothing they could do to correct the situation,” a source said.
In a video that went viral on the internet and was replayed by RT, the Su-30 crashed into a house at a fast and almost vertical speed.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Affairs said that the plane crashed during a test flight. The accident caused a large fire in an area of about 200 square meters, but was later extinguished.
Governor Kobzev said the owners of the houses that burned in the accident will be compensated for the damage. He added that a commission had been set up to investigate the incident, which included experts from the aviation industry.
This is the second Russian military plane crash in a residential house in six days. On October 17, a Su-34 fighter jet crashed into an apartment building in the southern city of Yeysk, near Ukraine, killing at least 15 people.
The SU-30SM is a Russian 4++ generation fighter and an improved variant of the Su-30MKI fighter produced by Sukhoi. It is the trump card of the Russian air force’s long-range combat system.
As a multi-purpose fighter, in addition to maneuverability and flexible air combat, the Su-30SM can also carry out land and sea attacks, and can also carry out electronic warfare missions. The power of the aircraft is considered to be close to that of the 5th generation fighter, and is slightly inferior to the original Su-35, while having a more affordable price.
In another news reports, the Russian Air Force brought down large-scale strikes on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kherson region. These attacks were made on October 24.
Combat aircraft hit the positions of Ukrainian troops in the north-west of the Kherson region for half a day.
Against the backdrop of how the Armed Forces of Ukraine have accumulated large forces in the area of the settlement. Davydov Brod and Novaya Kamenka, preparing to launch another powerful offensive in the direction of Berislav, it became known that combat helicopters and warplanes had been unleashing powerful missile strikes on the positions of Ukrainian troops for several hours in a row.
It is known that by the current hour the Armed Forces of Ukraine have suffered extremely heavy losses and a further offensive here, if completely excluded and impossible, then at least the attack of the Ukrainian troops has been postponed for days, if not weeks.
Yesterday, from the very morning, high activity of Russian military aviation was observed over the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, however, only later it became known that this was a massive air attack.
It is noted that over the past 72 hours, Ukraine has accumulated a large amount of military equipment in the north-west of the Kherson region, but the current losses for the Armed Forces of Ukraine turned out to be very large.
At the moment, it remains unknown whether it was possible to shift the front line in this direction, but the situation for Kyiv turned out to be catastrophic, especially given the fact that Russia may well go on the offensive.