Tu-22M3 crash

A Russian Tu-22M3 has crashed outside Olenegorsk airbase in the Murmansk region. Reports are that they were attempting to recover at their base after a training flight. The weather was bad and the aircraft performed a hard landing. Two crew members were transported to a local hospital, and two were killed. Speculation is that there was a microburst as they landed.

theaviationist.com...

www.tribdem.com...

www.rt.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Your posts are always a welcome respite from the typical political crap offered up here.
Thanks!

Did a bit of research and as we have discussed before, quality control seems to continue to be an issue for the Russians.
en.m.wikipedia.org...

The Tu-22M suffered from widespread maintenance issues during its service with the Soviet forces. These stemmed from poor manufacturing quality. The engines and airframes in particular had low service lives.[27] The Air Force at one point sought to prosecute Tupolev for allegedly rushing the inadequate designs of the Tu-22M and the Tu-160 into service.[28] This was compounded by the government bureaucracy, which hampered the provision of spare parts to allow the servicing of the Tu-22M. With some aircraft grounded for up to six months, the mission-capable rate of the aircraft in August 1991 was around 30–40%.[27][29]

In this case however, it may have been either weather related or pilot error. Makes me wonder how, with Russia's continued population decline, they can adequately staff their armed forces.

a reply to: TonyS

Third crew member died:

www.ruaviation.com...

All TU-22s are grounded

www.ruaviation.com...

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: TonyS

Third crew member died:

www.ruaviation.com...

All TU-22s are grounded

www.ruaviation.com...

Hmm doesn’t seem to be solely weather related if they’re grounding all TU-22s.
ETA- Reading comprehension failure they’re grounding until they determine the cause.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

Yep. It's pretty common for them to after an accident until they're sure about cause.

The aircraft touched down about 163 knots. It's believed they landed long, and the aircraft broke apart. The two pilots, both majors, were killed in the crash. The navigator died enroute to the hospital.

Came across some photos of the crash site just now

a reply to: BigDave-AR

Media here will probably hear about a "criminal investigation" soon and play that up, but it's pretty standard there after an incident as well.

Video of the crash.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Holy smokes! That sink rate! Broke the keel!

a reply to: RadioRobert

You could hear them in the last couple of seconds realizing that it was far too high. They came up hard on power, but it was far too late.

With visibility as poor as that, they wouldn't know where the ground was until they were virtually in it.

Thats bad..Real bad..

Did they ever fix the dip in the middle of that runway?

a reply to: Zaphod58

holy shbt.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yikes.

a reply to: Pilgrum

That's what the altimeter is for...

I saw some FB post showing the crash footage and suggestion the Russian AF is attributing it to pilot error. They also noted he made an over max weight landing. I am wondering if he had a much bigger problem with the aircraft because who the hell lands in a blizzard when you are (presumably) overweight from fuel? Poor bastard was probably overloaded in the cockpit and lost his situational awareness, not to mention his horizon line.

Do they have ILS?

a reply to: Blackfinger

And if they do, is it actually working?