A Su-30SM Flanker has crashed into the Med Sea shortly after taking off from Hmeymim airfield.
On May 3, 2018, at 06:45 GMT, a Russian Su-30SM belonging to the contingent deployed to Latakia, in northwestern Syria, crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Hmeymim airfield. Both aboard the Flanker-derivative 4++ Gen aircraft were killed in the accident.
The Russian MoD said “a bird strike may have caused the crash”. According to journalist Babak Taghvaee, local witnesses said the aircraft was one of 43rd OMShAP examples (hence belonging to the Russian Naval Aviation) recently deployed to Syria to protect Russia Navy assets in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
A Syrian journalist also snapped some shots of the aircraft impacting the sea:
fall of a #Russian plane in the sea off the port city of #Jabla in #Syria pic.twitter.com/M9b2loCTMA
— MOHAMMED GHORAB (@MGhorab3) May 3, 2018
Previously, on Mar. 6, 2018 a Russian Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name “Curl”) crashed near Hmeymim Air Base in Syria; 33 people died in the accident.
Image credit: Alan Wilson/Wiki and Mohammed Ghorab
