FILE IMAGE: Su-24
On Tuesday, a Russian Su-24 warplane crashed during a takeoff from the Hmeyimim airfield in Syria. The two pilots died as a result of the incident.
“On October 10, when accelerating ahead of takeoff from the Hmeyimim airfield in Syria, the Su-24 aircraft veered off the runway and crashed. The crew of the plane did not eject in time and died,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry added that a technical malfunction could have caused the crash. The situation is under investigation.
An alleged photo showing the some on the crash site:
Click to see the full-size image
This was the fourth warplane lost by Russia in the conflict.
In 2016, the airwing of Russia’s heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov lost a MiG-29K multirole fighter and a Su-33 air superiority fighter.
The MiG-29K crashed into the Mediterranean while attempting to land on Admiral Kuznetsov after operating over Syria on November 14, 2016. The Su-33 The Su-33 crashed during an attempt to land on Admiral Kuznetsov on December 4, 2016.
In 2015, a Su-24M warplane was downed by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet in the province of Latakia near the Syrian-Turkish border.
RIP
Terrible. Many condolences to the pilot’s families, friends and comrades. I hope these heroes find peace in the next world. They won’t be forgotten in this one.
The work-rate of these aircrews is incredible – many sorties every day. Sustaining this intensity and availability is clearly testing their crews and aircraft to the limit.
Read that they have been running 150 flights a day for the past week , as ISIS is moving convoys in from Iraq .
Better say: as US is redeploying their irregulard armed forces (ISIS) from Iraq.
the operational tempo puts security of aircrews at the highest priority.
in case you didn’t notice, it is the first accident in tens of thousands missions.
I noticed. The USAF kills more pilots in training I think….
So, Syrians announced the shot down of two US helicopters. They (the yanks) denied it. Today (or yesterday) US admitted one CH-53 has crashed in Japan.
I’m not saying that everything must be judged by this meter, but applying some doubt, some critical reasoning to whatever the pentagon says could help shedding some light in general.
I mean, there’s tons of US mil-buffs that ALWAYS contest what the other countries military officially states, and often come up with the most screwed theories over the discussed themes. One wonders how such folks conversely believe every possible excuse their military comes up with.
RIP
I am truly sorry for the loss of what I am sure was fine men with valor. It is sad that Russians need to be in Syria to help in the first place, non the less I am grateful for the assistance that Russians are providing. If the family reads this please know that their death was not without honest purpose for good. Know that the world is better off because they choose to serve for a worthy cause of helping others and the world in general.
This is the official version. The unofficial version is that there is a tit-for-tat war going on between Russia and the US invasion and occupation forces in Syria. Last week two US helicopters were shot down over sovereign Syrian skies. Now this is the response of the US. Expect some other US aircraft to go down which it must be stressed are all illegally invading Syrian sovereign air space and land, while Russia is legally in Syria and has every right to shoot down any invasion force breaching Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
It must be comforting to live in a world where there is no such thing as random chance, and EVERYTHING can be attributed to shady nefarious agencies.
Thing is, aircraft crash. It’s simple statistics. You send X number of aircraft on Y number of missions day in, day out, something has got to give. Increase the accident rate if the airframes are old. Which is the case the SU-24, a Cold War era legacy aircraft.
In these latest months F-18Es were crashing at an astonishing rate. Later mark F-16s too.
Those aren’t old aircraft. The age of the airframe really doesn’t matter if it is maintained correctly and it passes all the tests.
Yet accidents happen, they happen in training as in every other operational scenario.
Flocks of birds are one hazard to aircraft operating from bases near the coast for example.
I totally agree. Although the US has a metric fuckton of F-18’s and F-16’s compared to the RuAF’s SU-24 inventory. More aircraft = more chance of accidents as well.
“More aircraft = more chance of accidents as well”
nope. Aircraft have to fly in order to crash.
Hence: “more flights = more chance of accidents”
The number of combat sorties performed by the Hmeynim air grouping is one order of magnitude higher than anything NATO has done in the past.
We are talking about less than 50 aircraft and crews, never employed altogether at once, that changed the course of an entire war over an entire country.
I also suspect that some shoot-downs of US aircraft may have been misreported as “accidents”. Like the two A-10s that supposedly crashed in the US. Would be embarrassing to admit that F-16 / 18 were susceptible to manpads / SAMS
It would be even more embarassing for them to admit that F-teen fighters got outfought and shot down by Sukhois.
Not seen any official reports either syrian russian or us,hell the iranians would be all over two us helicopters shot down,no,all rumour until atleast a photo and report/admition.
yes, but it happened to close to the base to believe this. Let’s wait other details before jumping to conclusions.
The equipment gets fatigued and probably the front wheel buckled or seized causing it to nose dive and they were unable to eject in time, being armed not a good prospect.
low chance. Higher chance is a blown tire while at an already high speed and with a fully loaded plane. It veered to a side of the runway, if the front gear failed it would had not.
In addition, most weight rests on the main gear, not the front one. That makes even a peeble able to cause problems to tires at high speed.
Was thinking the seals might be cracked and a pebble got in there seizing the tire and it got blown out, dragged at the speed it would.
No aircraft takes off with any seal cracked, it’s called pre-flight inspection.
I read that helicopter crash was fake news
Heroic death while serving your Motherland. Honor and Gratitude to this two worriors, true Falcons of Russia.
RIP. As I commented on another article: The obvious conclusion is that Russia needs to bring more fighter jets to Syria. The few jets already in Syria are in a state of overuse and are unable to provide effective support to all fighting fronts.
I agree , there are now two full-blown fronts in Syria .The increase in the fighting is tantamount to saying that the war is taking place in Syria only. Iraq is winding down as a front of ISIS activity. All ISIS has moved into Syria. The Iraqi AF should undertake some activity in Syria. There is also need for more Russian helicopters. The recent advances of ISIS in the rear of SAA formations on more than two occasions bear witness to that. As simple a thing as a blown tire may have been the cause of the accident though.
Unfortunately these things happen. RIP brave Russian pilots – you got to fly the jets, you died doing what you love. You are on the right side of history too.
the syrian news networks says that the pilotes are ok , who is telling the truth ?
:((( RIP