MOSCOW – Two Russian bomber crew members died and two pilots were injuredwhen their plane crashed on a training flight on Tuesday, Moscow’s defenceministry said, days after a deadly collision between two jets.
“A Tu-22M3 plane made a hard landing after a training flight, due to goinginto a snow flurry,” falling apart on impact, TASS agency quoted thedefence ministry as saying.
“Two pilots have been sent to a medical facility… two crew members havedied,” it said. The plane was not carrying munitions, it said.
The incident occurred in Russia’s northern Murmansk region. Sources toldRussian agencies that emergencies services are trying to put out a fire atthe accident site.
Tu-22M3 is a strategic long-range bomber originally developed in the 1970s.Some of these planes participated in Russia’s Syria campaign, their strikesagainst Islamic State militants widely publicised on Russian television.
A crew of four operates the plane.
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The accident comes less than a week after two Su-34 bombers collided in theRussian Far East during a scheduled training exercise last Friday.
Only one of the four crew members involved, all of whom were able to eject,has been rescued alive. Bodies of two pilots were recovered, while thefourth person has not been found.
The two recovered bodies are to be buried on Wednesday in their Siberianhometown Barnaul, local media said. – APP/AFP
