Russian bomber crashes on takeoff
MOSCOW – A Russian military aircraft crashed Monday while taking off on a nighttime training flight and both pilots were killed, the Defense Ministry said.
It was the fifth accident involving a Russian military aircraft in the past month, but the first with fatalities.
The Su-24 bomber crashed while taking off from an airfield in the Khabarovsk region in Russia’s Far East at 9:35 p.m. local time, the ministry said in a statement. Shortly after leaving the runway, the plane banked sharply to the left and struck the ground, the ministry said.
The military said it has grounded its fleet of Su-24s until the cause of the crash could be determined.
On Friday, a MiG-29 fighter jet went down in southern Russia, but the pilot ejected safely. Another MiG-29 crashed in southern Russia on June 4.
Associated Press
