4 weeks ago
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This is the moment a burning £32million Russian fighter jet spirals out of control over Crimea before slamming into the sea in a fireball explosion.
Footage shows the aircraft, half of which is on fire, tumbling to the ground. Within 15 seconds, it crashes into the sea off annexed Crimean city Sevastopol.
Once the fighter jet hit the water, it exploded into a fireball and caused massive clouds of black smoke to billow into the sky.
The pilot of the Russian aircraft - believed to be a Sukhoi Su-27 jet - has ejected and since been rescued about 650 feet away, according to reports.
'A military plane has fallen into the sea,' Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of the city of Sevastopol, said in a post on Telegram, without giving the cause. He added that no civilian objects had been damaged.
Footage shows the aircraft, half of which is on fire, tumbling to the ground. Within 15 seconds, it crashes into the sea off annexed Crimean city Sevastopol
The jet exploded into a massive fireball as soon as it hit the surface of the water
Once the fighter jet hit the water, it exploded into a fireball and caused massive clouds of black smoke to billow into the sky
'The pilot ejected. He was picked up by rescuers from the Sevastopol Rescue Service at a distance of 200 metres from the shore. His life is not in danger,' Razvozhayev added.
Videos on social media appeared to show the pilot drifting down in a parachute after ejecting.
Sevastopol, the historic headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet, sits on the southern tip of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The region has come under frequent Ukrainian attack during the two-year conflict.
According to reports on various Telegram channel, the plane is believed to have been 'shot down by air defence fire during an air raid alarm' or experienced a 'technical malfunction of the engine'.
No official cause for the crash of the £32million fighter jet has been revealed yet.
Two Russian Su-27 fighter jets were pictured on a handout photo by the British Ministry of Defence, made available on July 4, 2023. The jets cost £32million each
This comes after Putin hailed the 'return' to Russia of annexed Ukrainian territories at a concert in Red Square earlier this month after winning the Russian presidential election.
The annexation of the Black Sea peninsula Crimea in 2014 was a precursor to Moscow's seizure of four other Ukraine regions in 2022 that it has declared parts of Russia, in actions condemned as illegal by most countries at the United Nations.
Putin told the large, flag-waving crowd in Moscow on March 18 that the 'return' of those other regions to Russia had turned out to be 'much more grave and tragic' than Crimea's, but it had been accomplished.
Two years after Putin launched what he calls his 'special military operation', Russia has not fully captured the four regions in Ukraine.
Nevertheless, voting in Russia's three-day presidential election that ended on Sunday, March 17, was held in the parts of Ukraine and annexed Crimea that its forces control.
