Unarmed bomber goes down near St Petersburg, crew failed to eject

A Russian TU-22 long range bomber with no military payload crashed near Saltsy airfield in the Novgorod region, south of St. Petersburg, late thursday night, after controllers lost contact with it, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The Interfax news agency reported that the crew was ordered to bail out, but were not able to do so. Rescue crews found the wreckage about six miles from the airfield just after midnight, when they were also able to recover the bodies. At press time, the flight data recorders had not been found but officials were hopeful they would be shortly.

The aircraft was not carrying any weapons. As a precaution, Russian air force officials have grounded all TU-22's pending an investigation into the causes of the crash.

In recent years, the increasing age of Russian air force aircrafts and the inabiliy to provide adequate pilot training have been listed as contributing factors in an increasing number of crashes involving military aircraft. Because of fuel shortages, Russian pilots fly an average of 20 hours a year, compared to an average of 200 hours a year that Western pilots fly to maintain proficiencty.

FMI: www.airforce.ru (Russian-language site)