It is the second such incidents in a week. On Monday, a Sukhoi Su-34 plane crashed into a nine-story apartment block in the southern Russian town of Yeysk. That crash killed at least 15 people, according to a Reuters report. At the time, authorities said the cause was probably “technical failure.” The pilots in the crash managed to eject and survived.
In both incidents, authorities said the planes were on training flights. underscoring the Russian Air Force losses in its war against Ukraine.
Russian authorities did not provide information as to what could have caused the crash. The country’s Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal investigation into possible violations of transportation safety rules, and it dispatched forensic investigators to the scene.
The United Aircraft Corporation, Russian state-owned aerospace conglomerate, said Sunday in a statement that the investigation into the crash would involve experts from the aviation industry. On Sunday evening in Irkutsk, authorities declared a municipal state of emergency in the district where the incident took place, Russian media reported.
The back-to-back crashes are problematic for a Russian military struggling against a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region and public perception at home. Moscow is facing criticism from military analysts who say it’s not winning quickly enough in Ukraine, and from the Russian population, who fled en masse to avoid the military mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
Elsewhere in the region last month, a man shot and wounded an official at a military enlistment station in a small town north of Irkutsk. The gunman was apparently distraught that his close friend had been called for to fight in Ukraine despite having no prior military service.
Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.
