Yet another iconic Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber has crashed. Is the Russian Air Force falling apart?

July 14, 2015 Aviation Safety / Air Crashes, Russia, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

It’s the second crash in less than two months.

On Jul. 14, at 09.50 Moscow Time, a Tu-95 bomber crashed in an uninhabited area 80 km from Khabarovsk.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the aircraft was conducting a training mission and it was unarmed. All the crew left the aircraft uninjured.

Newsworthy, this is the second incident in little more than one month: on Jun. 9, a Tu-95 skidded off the runway at Ukrainka airbase, in the Amur region, in an incident that resulted in the death of one crew member.

Following the incident, all the Tu-95 fleet was grounded: a flight ban lifted few days ago and “celebrated” on Jul. 4 with missions over the Pacific that caused the interception of four Bears by two F-15s and two F-22s in two different episodes.

It’s unclear if the Bears will be grounded again. Surely, the latest mishap might be the sign that some quite old Russian warplanes, used to intimidate NATO allies all around the world, are being pushed to their limits, as some reports have highlighted.

Along with the two Tu-95s, the most recent Russian crashes include a Su-24 Fencer, two Mig-29 Fulcrums and a modern Su-34 Fullback.

Image credit: Sergey Kustov / Wiki

 

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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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4 Comments

  1. 3 engines of 4 disabled, say the problem is fuel. Head of flight ordered to leave the plane, 7 members of the crew bailed out, two died at a landing.
    The plane is not old, it was the Tu-95MS, in this modification was made from 1982 to 1992, 100 aircraft (planes was constructed, and not upgraded previously released), for bomber ’23 not many.

  3. Looks like the Tu-95MS Bear H have returned to operational flying duties today. The HF Morse and Voice nets are active. Morse ground control beacon markers on 8162 Kilohertz and Voice net active on 8033 Kilohertz USB.

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