A Russian fighter plane has crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, the second incident this week in which a combat jet has careered into an urban area.
Irkutsk governor Igor Kobzev said no residents were hurt but both crew were killed in the blast on Sunday.
The Su-30 fighter jet smashed down during a training flight onto a two-storey wooden building, sparking a fire, the local branch of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said.
Surveillance camera footage circulating on Russian social networks showed the supersonic fighter hurtling down in an almost vertical dive.
Other videos showed firefighters battling to extinguish the blaze that had engulfed the building.
The incident comes less than a week after another Russian warplane crashed near an apartment building in the Sea of Azov port of Yeysk and exploded in a giant fireball, killing 15 and injuring another 19.
Military experts say the number of crashes have gone up as the the number of Russian military flights increased sharply during the fighting, with Sunday’s incident marking the eleventh reported plane crash outside of combat since Moscow invaded Ukraine again in February.
Irkutsk, a major industrial centre of more than 600,000 in eastern Siberia, is home to an aircraft factory producing the Su-30 fighter planes.
The Su-30 is a supersonic twin-engine, two-seat fighter that has been a key component of the Russian air force and also has been used by India and other countries.
