MOSCOW, Jan 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Two Russian bomber crew members died and
two pilots were injured when their plane crashed on a training flight
Tuesday, Moscow’s defense ministry said, days after a deadly collision
between two jets.
“A Tu-22M3 plane made a hard landing after a training flight, due to going
into a snow flurry,” falling apart on impact, TASS agency quoted the defense
ministry as saying.
“Two pilots have been sent to a medical facility… two crew members have
died,” it said. The plane was not carrying munitions, it said.
The incident occurred in Russia’s northern Murmansk region. Sources told
Russian agencies that emergencies services are trying to put out a fire at
the 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
strikes against Islamic State jihadists widely publicised on Russian
television.
A crew of four operates the plane.
The accident comes less than a week after two Su-34 bombers collided in
the Russian 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 the
fourth person has not been found.
The two recovered bodies are to be buried on Wednesday in their Siberian
hometown Barnaul, local media said.