By Daily Mail (World News) | Created at 2025-04-03 09:55:16 | Updated at 2025-04-04 05:27:24
19 hours ago
A Russian nuclear bomber has crashed and exploded close to a Siberian village.
The £53million warplane plummeted to the ground in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.
The crash, close to the tiny village of Buret, caused a power outage in the area with the fire and smoke from the wreck visible from other nearby villages.
Footage taken from before the crash appears to shows the Tu-22M3 strategic missile carrier cruising above the skies of Siberia at a low altitude.
A second clip reportedly shows the aftermath of the incident with a large blaze burning in the distance.
According to local media, the four man crew on board the plane ejected but one pilot has died.
Footage, shared widely in Russia, allegedly shows one of the survivors on a nearby road still wearing his helmet.
Irkutsk region governor Igor Kobzev said the pilot had steered the plane away from a residential area before it crashed.
A Tu-22M3 strategic missile carrier similar to the one which plunged from the sky and crashed clsoe to a Siberian village earlier this week
A video take after the disaster reportedly shows the aftermath of the incident with a large blaze burning in the distance
According to local media, the four man crew on board the plane ejected but one pilot has died. Footage, shared widely in Russia, allegedly shows one of the survivors on a nearby road still wearing his helmet
'According to preliminary data, the pilots steered the Tu-22M3 away from residential buildings during the fall,' he said.
'A deep bow to the high-class professionals and words of condolence to the relatives and friends of the deceased pilot.
'The family will certainly be provided assistance.'
Pictures showed the crash site this morning.
The incident was thousands of miles from the war zone in Ukraine and initial assessments blamed a technical issue for the crash.
The same type of plane crashed in the Irkutsk region last August, killing one of the crew members.
There was no suggestion the warplane invovled in the most recent aviation incident was carrying nuclear missiles when it crashed 54 miles north-west of Irkutsk city - one of the largest cities in Siberia.
Kobzev added: 'There is no destruction of residential structures and no civilian casualties.
Before the crash, the £53million warplane was seen cruising through the sky at a low altitude
'The aircraft crew of four people ejected.
'As a result of the landing, according to the report of the crew commander, one pilot died.
'The search and rescue team that arrived on the scene evacuated the crew to the place of deployment.
'The Emergency Situations Ministry services are working on the site.
'The cause of the crash is a technical malfunction.'
This week's air disaster is the latest in a long list of Russia jets which have fallen from the sky.
In March last year, a Il-76 cargo plane crashed shortly after take off with 15 people onboard.
Meanwhile in February last year, a passerby caught on camera the dramatic moment Russian warplane plunged to the ground in a fireball after 'being hit with a Ukrainian missile.'
The video, understood to have been taken in the Ukrainian village of Dyakove in the Luhansk region, showed a Russian Su-34 fighter jet plummeting to the ground in a red-hot ball of fire.
A plume of smoke can then be seen rising from the ground after it crashed.
The Tu-22M3 is a supersonic, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber originally developed in the Soviet era, which is designed to carry Kh-22 and Kh-32 long-range cruise missiles.
Both can be equipped with nuclear warheads.
