A Su-34 fighter-bombers crashed into a residential apartment building in the resort town of Yeysk, southern Russia on Monday evening.
Amateur footage filmed from a building across the street from the area where the plane is thought to have gone down shows a fireball burning in front of a nine story apartment complex, with repeated explosions going off and a plume of thick black smoke rising into the sky.
In a statement Monday evening, the Russian military confirmed that one of its Su-34 jets went down within Yeysk's city limits during a training flight, with its pilots successfully ejecting. The accident is thought to have been caused by the ignition of one of the plane's engines.
"According to a report by the pilots, who ejected, the crash was caused by the ignition of one of the plane's engines during takeoff," the MoD said. The ministry confirmed that the plane's onboard jet fuel ignited at the crash site after impact.
President Putin has been informed on the crash, and heard reports on the incident from the relevant ministries and the head of Russia's Krasnodar region, according to the Kremlin. The Russian president instructed regional authorities and the heads of Russia's Emergencies Ministry and the Ministry of Health to travel to Yeysk to assist in the emergency response and help those affected by the crash.
At least 17 apartments were damaged in the crash. Russia's Emergencies Ministry said Monday night that two people died and 15 were hospitalized in the incident.
The Sukhoi Su-34 is a twin-engine, twin-seat, all-weather supersonic fighter-bomber/strike aircraft manufactured by JSC Sukhoi. Developed at the twilight of the Soviet period and first flown in 1990, the jet was introduced into service with the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2014 after more than two decades of delays stemming from post-Soviet funding cuts. Su-34s are powered by a pair of Saturn AL-31FM1 turbofan engines, a modification of the AL-31 axial flow turbofan engine design in use aboard the Su-27 since the mid-1980s. The same engine is also used by the Su-35, and Su-57 fighters, the S-70B Okhotnik-B drone concept and Chinese Shenyang J-11, Chengdu J-10 and Chengdu J-20 jets, and has been touted for its reliability and durability.
Russia has more than 140 Su-34s in its inventory. The fighter-bombers have been used extensively in the campaign against Daesh (ISIS)* in Syria, and in the ongoing "special military operation" in Ukraine.