Fighter Jet Crashes in Karelia

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: June 28, 2012 (Issue # 1715)

Creative Commons An Su-27, like the one pictured here, crashed in Karelia Thursday morning.

A Su-27 fighter jet crashed near a village in the northern republic of Karelia on Thursday morning.

Both pilots managed to safely eject from the plane, which went down at 9:50 a.m. three kilometers outside of Besovets, RIA-Novosti reported.

The pilots were found by a search team shortly after the incident and were given a clean bill of health after a medical evaluation in Petrozavodsk, 14 kilometers from Besovets.

Interfax reported that the fighter was most likely part of the 159th Guards Regiment and flew out of Air Base 6169 in Besovets.

The Defense Ministry confirmed the crash, whose cause was not immediately apparent, and said the plane was unarmed.

A source in the Western Military District said there was reason to believe that a bird got jammed inside an engine, disabling it.

Investigators are also considering the possibility that an onboard flight system may have failed.

Both of the flight recorders have been found and will be sent to the Defense Ministry to be decoded.

The last crash of a Su-27 took place in April 2011, when a fighter crashed while attempting to land near Vladivostok.

The cause of that crash was the failure of its control system.