A Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet crashed during a training flight in annexed Crimea, the Interfax news agency reported Friday, marking the second military plane crash in the Black Sea peninsula this week.
“At approximately 11 a.m. Moscow time, a Su-30 aircraft crashed in the republic of Crimea during a scheduled training flight. The aircraft was not armed,” Interfax cited a Defense Ministry statement as saying.
The aircraft’s pilot and weapons systems officer successfully ejected and were found by a search-and-rescue team.
“There is no threat to the pilots’ lives,” the Defense Ministry statement read.
It did not disclose the cause of the plane crash.
On Tuesday, an Antonov An-26 military transport plane crashed into a cliff near the southern Crimean city of Sevastopol, killing 23 passengers and seven crew members on board.
Lieutenant General Alexander Otroshchenko, who headed the mixed aviation corps of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet, was reportedly among those killed in that crash.
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