MOSCOW (AP) — The crash of a Russian warplane into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk that killed both pilots may have resulted from a faulty oxygen supply that caused the crew to lose consciousness mid-flight, Russian news reports said Monday.
There were no casualties on the ground when the Su-30 fighter jet crashed Sunday into a wooden two-story building. Both families living there were away at the time of the crash.
Russia’s State Investigative Committee said its ongoing probe is looking into pilot error as well as equipment failure as the crash’s possible cause.
State-run RIA-Novosti news agency cited a local emergencies agency source as saying that the pilots may have passed out during the flight because of a groundcrew error in preparing the fighter’s onboard oxygen supply system.
Other reports claimed that the crew of another Su-30 flying close to the plane said the pilots looked unconscious. There has been official confirmation of those claims.
It was the second time in less than a week that a combat jet crashed in a residential area in Russia.
On Oct. 17, an Su-34 bomber crashed near an apartment building in the Sea of Azov port of Yeysk and exploded in a giant fireball, killing 15 and injuring another 19.
Investigators have said that the crash likely resulted from seagulls getting sucked into the plane’s engines on takeoff.
The crashes might reflect the growing strain that the fighting in Ukraine has put on the Russian air force.
Sunday’s crash was the 11th reported noncombat crash of a Russian warplane since Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Military experts have noted that as the number of Russian military flights increased sharply during the fighting, so did the number of crashes.
