Another military plane crashed in Russia, this time in the Primorsky Territory. The MiG-31 fighter jet crashed immediately after takeoff and fell in a forest near the village of Alekseevka, the Defense Ministry said .
The military say that the sortie was training and carried out without ammunition in a deserted area, and the pilots ejected. There is no destruction on the ground, and the ministry calls the cause of the accident a "technical malfunction."
In autumn, military aircraft crashes in Russia became more frequent. This is the seventh such incident in three months. Since the beginning of the war – 12. Moreover, according to the Ministry of Defense, almost all flights were training. Catastrophes occurred, including with casualties among civilians – first of all, we are talking about the crash of a Su-34 bomber in Yeysk, Krasnodar Territory, which fell near a nine-story building. As a result, 15 people died.
Western experts, such as RAND Corporation analyst Michael Bonert, began to suggest that such a number of crashes that occurred in a short period of time may speak of some fundamental reason, and this reason is sanctions. Russia has lost several types of aircraft, including those that were not widely used in the war (MiG-31, Su-30), writes Bonert, and one could assume that this is due to the lack of highly qualified personnel. But the crashes became more frequent before the announcement of mobilization, and after it the personnel were not sent to the front, and the damage from the disasters was insignificant (except for the incident in Yeysk). He considers the most likely version, taking into account the lack of materials and tools that are needed for high-quality repair and maintenance of aircraft. This, according to him, speaks volumes about the effectiveness of the sanctions.
However, retired Air Force Colonel Viktor Alksnis, who spoke to The Insider, believes that the sanctions have nothing to do with these incidents, since 99% of Russian military aircraft are aircraft in which “there is not a single imported part, no one rivet, not a single imported electronic component.” And we are talking about “flight accidents”, which happen in the same way as accidents:
“This is all a Soviet design. Only the latest aircraft, such as the Su-35, could have imported components. But in general, Soviet-made planes still fall. Therefore, I don’t see anything sensational in falls, because flight accidents have always occurred in aviation (without death of people – an accident, with death is called a catastrophe). Any accidents are possible, there are a lot of reasons, for example, the human factor: an error in the piloting technique, or the technical staff overlooked something (did not refuel or refueled with substandard fuel). This is a technique. Any mechanism can fail, any person can make a mistake. Therefore, I do not think that it is worth escalating passions especially.
Crash cases
On the morning of September 11, Baza reported the fall of a Su-34 fighter in the Crimea. The accident occurred on the border of the Raznodelnensky and Krasnoperekopsky districts, the pilots managed to eject. The reasons for the fall were not named.
On October 1, Baza spoke about another incident – at the Belbek airfield in Crimea. An unnamed military aircraft overran the runway during landing, rolled down a mountain and burst into flames. According to these data, ammunition detonated on board, an explosion occurred. The pilot ejected.
On October 9, two planes crashed in the Rostov region at once: near the farms of Sibirki and Rogalik. In the first case, the Su-24 made a hard landing in the field – it began to fall after a training flight, but the crew managed to eject. In the second, the Su-25 attack aircraft crashed , the pilot died. Local publications wrote that the sortie was combat.
On October 17, a tragedy occurred in Yeysk. Retired Aviation Colonel Viktor Alksnis, in an interview with The Insider, said that the Su-34, apparently, was performing a training flight, there were no bombs or missiles on board, and when it fell, shells began to explode.
The next disaster happened a few days later – on October 23, a Su-30SM fighter fell on a two-story house in Irkutsk. No one was there at the time of the crash, both pilots were killed. The UK put forward two versions: equipment failure and pilot error. RIA Novosti wrote that pilots could lose consciousness in flight due to improper preparation of oxygen cylinders.
In the spring and summer, five cases of downing of military aircraft were reported: on the very first day of the invasion, it was an An-26 in the Voronezh region, on April 8 – a MiG-31 in the Leningrad region, on June 17 – a Su-25 in the Belgorod region, on June 21 – a Su- 25 in the Rostov region, June 24 – IL-76 in the Ryazan region.
The technology is getting old. American B-52 strategic bombers were produced in the 50s, they have been flying for almost 70 years, and as far as I know, modernization is planned, they will fly up to 100 years of age. There are certain ratios of the number of incidents in the air, depending on the flight hours. No surprise to ring all the bells until I see.
We do not know the number of combat losses of our aviation, because this data is secret. But even if we take the figures from foreign sources as true (they say that we allegedly lost 50 aircraft in Ukraine), then it is impossible to suffer so many non-combat losses in one year, since it is very difficult to hide them. Count how many flight accidents this year. And if you believe that we lost 50 aircraft, and compare these figures, then, I repeat, there were no non-combat losses of such a number this year,” Alksnis draws attention.