One of Moscow’s training aircraft has crashed in the south of Russia, according to national media and unofficial military reports.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Thursday that a Yak-130 training aircraft had crashed between the southern Kalmykia and Volgograd regions, citing emergency services.
Accounts from Russia’s influential community of military bloggers reported that a Yak-130 had crashed, although the reports disputed whether it had come down in Kalmykia or Volgograd.
State news agency Tass reported that the plane had come down in Volgograd, citing the prosecutor’s office.
The pro-Kremlin Shot Telegram channel said that the aircraft was on a training flight, traveling toward an airfield in Volgograd. Russia’s 112 Telegram channel said it had crashed around 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, from the Kalmykia regional capital of Elista.
The pilot has been hospitalized, RIA Novosti news agency reported. According to the 112 Telegram channel, he was airlifted to a medical facility in Volgograd by helicopter.
Several Russian sources listed the crash’s cause as a malfunction of the Flight Control System. Last week, a Yak-130 of Lao Peoples Air Force crashed due to the same reason.
Moscow’s aircraft away from the front lines have been beset by many non-combat losses, many of which have been attributed by the authorities and media to technical failures.
Experts previously told Newsweek that the high number of reported Russian aircraft accidents likely comes down to restricted training time, a lack of experienced pilots, the demands of combat in Ukraine and dropping safety standards.
In late July, an Su-34 crashed in the Volgograd region during what the Russian government described as a scheduled training flight.
In mid-June, another Su-34 crashed into a mountain in a “deserted area” during a training flight in North Ossetia-Alania, a small republic on the border with Georgia, Kremlin-backed media reported at the time.
The two crew members onboard were killed after a “technical malfunction,” according to RIA Novosti.
In September 2023, an Su-34 crashed during a training flight in Russia’s Voronezh region, bordering Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk district. Moscow said at the time that the two crew members onboard the jet had managed to eject before the aircraft crashed, also chalking the accident up to a “technical malfunction.”
In October 2022, Russian authorities said 15 people were killed when an Su-34 crashed into a residential building in Yeysk, a town in the southern Krasnodar region across the Sea of Azov from Russian-controlled Ukraine.
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