A Russian warplane crash kills 13 people in an apartment buildingin the southern Russian city on the Sea of Azov after suffering engine failure. Three persons lost their lives when they attempted to escape the major fire in the apartment building by jumping from upper floors. The structure had nine stories.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a Su-34 bomber that was on its way to a training mission when one of its engines caught fire forced the pilot to make an emergency landing near the city of Yeysk. It was said that both members of the crew successfully ejected from the aircraft before it crashed into a residential neighborhood, which resulted in a fire due to the fact that tons of fuel burst upon contact.
The officials reported that after hours of searching through the burned remains of the structure, they discovered the bodies of 13 residents, including three children. The authorities reported that 68 people were saved from the fire, and 19 people are currently being treated for injuries sustained in the crash that occurred on Monday evening.
The authorities prepared for an emergency by reserving wards at nearby hospitals and calling for medical transport. Over five hundred residents had to be relocated, and temporary housing was made available for them.
According to a report from the Russian Defense Ministry,
“„The pilots who jettisoned from the plane claimed the reason for the crash was a fire in one of the engines during take off. At the point where the Su-34 came down, in the courtyard of a residential block, the plane's fuel supply caught fire.- The Russian Defense Ministry
According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incident and has sent the ministers of health and emergency situations, in addition to the governor of the local region, to the scene of the accident. Yeysk is a city in Russia with a population of 90,000 and is home to a significant Russian air station.
A part of the warplane that crashed into the apartment building Videos captured by surveillance cameras and shared on the channels of Russian messaging apps depicted an airplane exploding into a massive flame. The explosions heard in other cameras appeared to have been caused by the warplane's weaponry exploding, and they showed a burning residential complex in the background.
The Su-34 is a vital component of the Russian air force's strike force. It is a supersonic twin-engine bomber that is equipped with advanced sensors and armament. During the conflict in Syria as well as the combat in Ukraine, aircraft were utilized rather frequently.
Since Russia began sending troops into Ukraine on February 24, there have been ten recorded non-combat crashes of Russian warplanes, the most recent of which occurred on Monday. Military experts have noticed that while the number of Russian military flights went up sharply during the conflict, so did the number of crashes.
Those who needed to be rescued from the scene of the incident included students from a secondary school that was located nearby. According to a local correspondent based in Yeysk who spoke with Russia's state-run television channel Rossiya 24, two of the residential blocks were destroyed by fire.