Russian fighter jet crashes into lake near Finland

Forum 1 year ago

Russian fighter jet crashes into lake near Finland

A Russian military plane has burst into flames and crashed into a lake in a north-western region of Russia that borders Finland.

Daily Mail on Wednesday quoted a Russian local media, TASS news agency that the military plane crashed in the Murmansk region after catching fire, citing law enforcement agencies.

The MIG-31 bomber plane said to be on a training flight, ‘crashed in an uninhabited area,’ TASS quoted the ministry as saying.

It was reported that the pilots ejected and were found ‘alive and well’ after the drama.

According to preliminary data, the plane fell into a lake, TASS had said earlier. The report did not give details of what led to the plane bursting into flames.

Videos emerged online purportedly showing the jet moments before the crash, and an official investigation is underway according to Daily Mail.

Set against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains, the jet could be seen soaring overhead with flames and smoke streaking behind it, before disappearing out of view over a treeline – seconds before crashing into the ground.

A further video appeared to show the site of the crash, with debris scattered across the top of what appeared to be a frozen lake.

An eyewitness said the plane was already engulfed in flames as it took off. “The plane took off and everything was already on fire,” the witness said.

The plane crashed near the village of Rizh-Guba, close to Lake Imandra – a vast lake dotted with several islands.

Murmansk is a region in the arctic circle on Russia’s Kola Peninsula in its far-northwest. It borders both Norway and Finland – both members of NATO.

Moscow has a large military presence stationed on the peninsula, while Russian military bases there house the world’s largest concentration of nuclear weapons.