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CatastropheRussian Federation

Russian warplane crashes into building in Siberia

October 23, 2022

Two pilots were killed when their jet hit a residential building in Irkutsk and sparked a fire, officials said. It comes less than a week after another Russian plane crashed into an apartment block in Yeysk.

https://p.dw.com/p/4IZNj
Fire fighters at the scene of a plane crash
Authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the crashImage: Emercom/TASS/IMAGO

A Russian military plane crashed into a two-story residential building in the eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday, killing both crewmembers, regional officials said.

The local branch of Russia's Emergencies Ministry said the Su-30 fighter jet came down during a training flight and sparked a fire. There were no immediate reports of other casualties on the ground.

Videos posted on social media showed several buildings on fire and black smoke rising into the sky. Another video from a surveillance camera posted online appeared to show the fighter jet coming down in a nearly vertical dive.

The incident comes less than a week after another Russian warplane crashed into an apartment building in southern port city of Yeysk, near Ukraine. At least 15 people were killed and 19 others were injured.

Emergency officials stand behind a cordone at a property in Irkutsk
Emergency services were deployed to the scene to put out a fire at the propertyImage: Svetlana Latynina/TASS/IMAGO

Irkutsk, an industrial center of around 600,000 people, is home to an aircraft factory that manufactures Su-30 fighter planes.

It was not immediately clear what caused the plane to crash. A state-controlled conglomerate of Russian aircraft-making plants said in a statement that the plane had not yet been delivered to the air force and was not carrying any weapons. 

Russia's state Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it had launched a criminal investigation into violations of air safety rules.

nm/ar (AFP, Reuters)