A Russian military plane caught fire and crashed into a lake in a northwestern region of Russia bordering Finland, state media said.
The military plane crashed in the Murmansk region after it caught fire, the TASS news agency said Wednesday, citing law enforcement agencies.
The MIG-31 fighter jet, which was reportedly on a training flight, “crashed in an uninhabited area,” TASS quoted the ministry as saying. The pilots ejected, the agency added, and were found “alive and safe” after the drama.
According to preliminary information, the plane crashed into a lake, TASS previously announced. The report did not provide information on the cause of the plane’s fire.
Videos have emerged online showing the jet just before the crash.
Pictured: Video purported to show the Russian jet falling from the sky with a plume of flames behind it
Against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, the jet could be seen with flames and smoke behind it before disappearing over a tree line – seconds before it crashed into the ground.
Another video shows the crash site with debris strewn across what appeared to be a frozen lake.
An eyewitness said the plane burst into flames as it took off. “The plane took off and everything was already on fire,” the witness told the Readovka news agency.
The cause of the accident remains unclear. An official investigation is underway.
The plane crashed near the village of Rizh-Guba near Lake Imandra – a huge lake with several islands.
Murmansk is a region in the Arctic Circle on Russia’s extreme northwestern Kola Peninsula. It borders Norway and Finland – both members of NATO.
Moscow has a large military presence on the peninsula, while Russian military bases there house the world’s largest concentration of nuclear weapons.
This will act as a deterrent against Moscow’s enemies, as the military presence there has recently been stepped up amid Vladimir Putin’s ongoing incursion into Ukraine.
The crash is the latest disaster to hit a Russian plane after one of Putin’s warplanes accidentally bombed the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border in a humiliating blunder last week.
Belgorod was also the scene of a plane crash in February this year when a Russian Su-25 plane crashed near the Ukrainian border. The pilot later succumbed to his injuries while jumping from the cockpit.
Pictured: The plane crashes over the Murmansk region of Russia on Wednesday
The accident also came after Russia and China signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday morning to strengthen cooperation with maritime law enforcement – in the same region where the plane crashed.
And yesterday, British and German warplanes attempted to intercept two Russian jets and a spy plane that nearly entered NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea.
The UK and Germany sent Eurofighter Typhoon jets from the Amari airbase in Estonia to identify the two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets escorting an Ilyushin Il-20 Coot-A intelligence plane, the RAF said.
The Russian fighter jets and spy plane were flying over the Baltic Sea, close to Estonian airspace, when they were intercepted yesterday in the latest tense air battle between Moscow and the West.
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Elizabeth Cabrera is an author and journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a talent for staying up-to-date on the latest news and trends, Elizabeth is dedicated to delivering informative and engaging articles that keep readers informed on the latest developments.
