willedoo

Could be, Nev. Had another look at it on full screen a couple of times. You can see the drogue come out followed by the brake chute and a dark looking piece at the ends of the shrouds. All too quick for a manual jettison; maybe they have AOA sensors that automatically release it if it deploys outside normal landing parameters. The whole thing seems to pop out before the chutes get any air at all. It happened last Saturday; I think it was part of the Aviadarts competition.

This Su-30 was doing a demo flight in Sevastopol recently when the brake chute accidentally deployed. It appears to have separated from the aircraft straight away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulhxy9Pi9ZU

Looks like Aeroflot's not having much luck with the Superjet. This one copped a bit of damage a few days ago when they forgot to unhook a ground cable before departing Moscow. They flew 1200klm to Izhevsk with the cable punching a few holes in the fuselage and elevator. From what I can figure out, the cable was caught up in the landing gear on take off and didn't do the damage until the gear was lowered for landing, letting the cable swing free.

Have been reading about the investigation's progress. It seems that the hard landing drove the main gear into the fuel tanks.

As far as I know, Pan Pan was called but no Mayday.

I read the transcripts of the emergency services rescue chatter and it seemed a bit unprofessional. The passengers took off everywhere and they had trouble getting numbers as to how many were still inside. A report by one of the last passengers off said one of the firies offered a bottle of vodka to the passengers. Makes you wonder what sort of professional fire and rescue crew drives around with a bottle of vodka in the truck.

According to one of the stewardesses, they were 10 minutes out when they hit heavy hail and heard a loud bang and were hit by lightning. The pilots announced a turnback and also had some communications problems after that. They had one attempt at landing and crashed on the second. According to the pilot, he had no choice but to land with a full fuel load. He's also said that his airspeed on the second approach was good, and there was no fire onboard before landing.

Also the same old problem of people ignoring the directions of the cabin crew. A lot of those who escaped had their luggage from overhead lockers in hand. A lot of the 41 people who perished might have survived otherwise.

Here's some various footage of the Moscow Superjet crash. Page opens with one video playing; click the X at top right of the Twitter page to access the other videos. It does quite a bounce before hitting the runway. [MEDIA=twitter]1125122587598651393[/MEDIA]

24 Red, one of 2 Tu-95's that finished their upgrade last month with new flight, navigation and weapons delivery systems.

Some photos of the new heavy drone, Sukhoi Su-70 Okhotnik , recently put into operation.

I like the way they design a lot of gear to handle their rough conditions.

Tornado on Saturday in Turkey:

Not sure what happened to the live video link. It worked for a while then stopped. Still on youtube though. It looks like the tail struck just before the main gear. It's one of the older, non upgraded ones - some airframe fatigue in the mix possibly. According to wiki, they are 58 tonnes empty weight, 112 loaded and it landed hard.

This video has emerged of a Tupolev Tu-22M3 that crash landed in the Murmansk region on January 22nd..

Another Bear & Phantom intercept pic. Didn't know they took selfies in those days.

As an update, I did some reading on the pilot. He was Major Alexander Fomenko, a combat veteran from the civil war in the east in 2014, and after returning from that region, was based at Ozerne. At the time of the accident he was a Pilot 1st. Class, with 482 hours total flying time and proficient in all weather navigation as an instructor. He was chief of air fire and tactical combat training for the tactical aviation brigade. It's makes it likely he was on a combat training mission at the time of the crash. It's the second Su-27 Ukraine lost within two months of each other. The previous one was during a joint exercise with NATO, with two Colonels killed, one a Ukrainian regiment commander and the other an American Colonel from the air national guard.

Litespeed, it crashed 800k's west of where the fighting has been in the Donbass. Too far to fly with a tail shot up like that. It crashed coming in to land at Ozerne Air Base, west of Kiev. The military press release said it was on a scheduled training flight. Apparently the pilot died, so they don't really know the cause, probably not till after the investigation. How the pilot died is anyone's guess. The cockpit area doesn't look very burnt, but the way it's crumpled up with what looks like the seat bent forward, it might have been crush injuries. He might have been busy trying to save the plane and ran out of time to pull the handle.

Nev, that sounds the most likely scenario. Perhaps a casing failure in the nozzle/jet pipe section burning through to the rudder while still airborne.

Having said that, the Ukraine Air Force does have some problems calibrating their attitude and slip and turn indicators.

I lightened the photo and enlarged it a bit. I guess it's fire damage. Makes you wonder why that section would burn out though. It would take a fair bit of heat to do that. Duralumin and possibly hydraulic oil in that area would be all that's there. If the plane caught fire due to fuel burning, you would think a lot more of it would be destroyed before the rudder section melted. It would have to be those pesky Russians for sure. No doubt on direct orders from that crazy, mad Putin chap.

Good spotting Litespeed, I didn't notice that. It doesn't seem consistent with a too low on approach belly flop. Looks like a big shark bite.

Thought I'd share these photos received in an email today. It's Ukrainian Su-27, 55 Blue of the 831st. Guards Tactical Aviation Brigade that crashed on approach to Ozerne Airfield just before Christmas. It came to rest in a field between the approach beacons.

20 minute video by a German journalist embedded on the An-225 flight from Prague to Perth: