Russian bomber crash in Siberia raises safety concerns
Russian aviation has lost a Tu-22M3 bomber. The aircraft was not destroyed in combat but crashed in Siberia during a training flight. According to Russian sources, the crash did not cause any ground casualties, and the crew managed to eject safely.
The crash occurred on 15 August in the Irkutsk region, where - according to official Russian sources - the aircraft was supposed to have fallen in an uninhabited area. Unofficial sources, publishing recordings of the crash on Telegram, claim that the plane fell near buildings.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the Tu-22M3 was conducting a scheduled training flight when an as-yet-unspecified failure occurred. The aircraft hit the ground, but the entire four-person crew managed to eject.
The Russians report that three people have already been located, and rescuers have also made contact with the fourth crew member, who broke a leg. According to unconfirmed sources, the direct cause of the failure was a fire in the left engine.
This is yet another loss of a bomber of this type. As a result of combat, the Russians have lost at least four Tu-22M3s, most recently in April 2024. The latest non-combat loss may be a result of the increasingly severe and deepening wear and tear of Russian aircraft.
Tu-22M3 bomber aircraft
The Tu-22M3 is a medium-range bomber (often incorrectly called a strategic bomber) with variable-sweep wings. It was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of the "K22M aerial missile complex".
It included a detection and guidance system, the Raduga Kh-22 missile, and the Tu-22M aircraft serving as the missile carrier. The initial purpose of this complex was to combat the American fleet – primarily aircraft carriers.
Over time, the aircraft was adapted to the bomber role and the current – modernised to the Tu-22M3 variant – version is used, among other things, during the war in Ukraine. One of these aircraft made a grim mark with a tragic attack carried out in 2022 on a crowded shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk.
