Russia has grounded all its Tu-95 strategic bombers after one Bear skidded off runway and caught fire

June 9, 2015 Aviation Safety / Air Crashes, Russia, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

Moscow has grounded its nuclear-capable bombers after a deadly incident in eastern Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has suspended all the Tu-95 Bear bomber flights after a strategic bomber suffered an incident in Russia’s Far East.

“The Tu-95 ran over the runway during acceleration. There was no ammunition onboard. According to preliminary information, engine fire was the cause behind the accident,” Russia’s MoD said according to a report posted by Interfax news agency.

Five crew members were aboard the Bear bomber that skidded off the runway and caught fire at Ukrainka airfield: one crew member was killed and another seriously injured following the incident.

As a consequence, the Russian MoD has ground the Tu-95 fleet pending investigation: this was the second incident involving a Bear bomber in two years. In 2013, a Bear was damaged after fire started behind the cockpit while the aircraft was taxing down the runway preparing for departure.

The Tu-95 is a +60-year old Russian four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. The aircraft is often intercepted by U.S. and NATO planes during routine long-range missions across the world.

 Image credit: Aktug Ates/Wikipedia

 

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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6 Comments

  1. Russian seem to have mastered the Klingon stealth tecnology… 8.000 troops and no prisoners taken (or maybe the Ukrainians take no prisoners and kill all their Russians prisoners…), no corpes recovered from the ground (maybe the Ukrainian give back the corpes to the Russians so that they can hide them…)

    BTW, the French military intelligence dismissed all this garbage talk about a Russian “invasion”

    http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/cr-cdef/14-15/c1415049.asp

  3. Lol Russia’s backyard nearly goes around the circumference of the world. You are dang right the Europeans and the U.S. wants to watch Russia. They invaded Georgia now the Ukraine. And they will won’t allow an missile wall around Europe because it takes away their first strike capability. Be smart. The United states and its allies are always their when disaster strikes in other countries. And where is Russia? i hope they do better on their 5th generation fighter than they do on providing for their people.

  4. The two sides have exchanged hundreds of prisoners. There are two wounded Russian invaders in Ukraine hospitals now- Spetznaz

  5. Sure, let’s remove NATO from Europe and why not have all European countries get rid of their militaries? Russia would not do anything and they would all hold hands around the campfire and sing songs right? How naive do you think people are? Russia has a huge history of being an evil empire bent on slaughter, conquest and starting trouble.

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