The Russian supersonic bomber was attempting landing in bad weather. Here’s the footage.
As already reported, a Russian Air Force Tu-22M3 crashed at Olenegorsk airbase, in the Murmansk region, on Jan. 22, 2019.
The heavy bomber, unarmed according to the Russian MoD statements, was attempting to recover at its homebase in bad weather after a training sortie when it performed a hard landing and crashed, killing three of the four crew members.
A video of the incident has eventually emerged. The scary footage shows the Backfire bomber coming in fast. Then the bomber hit the runway hard, bounced and then started collapsing. The clip ends with the forward section coming to a halt just before the rear section crashes into the ground generating a huge fireball.
This was the third Tu-22 Backfire lost in the last 3 years: on Jun. 16, 2016, a Tu-22M3 was heavily damaged in a runway overrun incident at Ostrov; a similar incident occurred on Sept. 15, 2017 when a Tu-22 involved in Zapad 2017 exercise rolled off the runway at Shaikavka.
The Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 is an updated variant of the Cold War-era Tu-22 Binder, a twin-engine supersonic bomber with variable geometry swept wings. The Tu-22M3 and M3M variants are in wide service in Russia, with over 80 reported in flying with the Russian Air Force and more than 40 in use with Russian Naval Aviation as long-range maritime patrol, surveillance and attack aircraft. Indeed, the aircraft was primarily developed as an anti-ship missile carrier for the Soviet/Russian supersonic Kh-22/32 anti-ship missiles with range of up to 1,000 km (621 miles) as well as for smaller Kh-15 missiles with range of up to 300 km (160 miles).
