Vytautas
Junior Member
Russian Fighter Jet Crashes in Lithuania
Created: 15.09.2005 18:05 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:31 MSK
MosNews
A Russian Su-27 fighter crashed on Lithuania territory on Thursday. The pilot managed to eject safely.
The jet fighter was part of a group of Russian Air Force and Air Defense aircraft conducting a flight to the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
During the flight the pilot of the Su-27 announced that he had lost orientation, possibly because of a malfunction in his navigation equipment, Russia’s Defense Ministry information directorate was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. He expended all the excess fuel and then ejected from the aircraft.
The plane crashed some 55 kilometers north of Kaunas and the pilot is now being interviewed by the Lithuanian authorities. No casualties or damage were reported on the ground following the crash.
Lithuania Refuses to Release Pilot of Crashed Russian Fighter
Created: 16.09.2005 11:32 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:32 MSK
MosNews
Despite an apology from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov for the crash of a Russian Su-27 fighter jet on Lithuanian territory and a promise to his colleague Gediminas Kirkilas that Moscow will pay for all the damage done, Lithuania refuses to release the Russian pilot or to return the jet’s black box to Russian defense authorities, Interfax news agency reported.
After the Lithuanian Defense Ministry informed the Russian side about Thursday’s crash, the Russian embassy in Vilnius delivered a note asking the Lithunian Foreign Ministry to return the black box, but officials refused to comment on the issue until a pre-trial investigation was finished.
Lithuanian authorities are also going to question the pilot, 36-year-old Maj. Valery Troyanov as a witness. Since the crash he has been in shock and unable to tell investigators precisely what happened. The doctors who examined the pilot, who managed to eject safely from the aircraft, say he has no injuries, although Troyanov himself has complained of a pain in his back.
The Su-27 fighter bomber crashed in Lithuania about 120 miles northwest of the capital Thursday on its way from St. Petersburg to Russia’s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, home to a major Russian military base.
The pilot was detained and taken to a police station in the nearby town of Jurbarkas.
Defense Minister Gediminas Kirkilas was quoted by Associated Press as saying earlier that he considered the airspace violation to be unintentional.
“According to information we have now, it was clearly an accident, not an attempt to attack strategic targets in Lithuania,” Kirkilas said.
Two NATO F-4 fighters took off from a nearby air base after the Russian plane entered Lithuanian airspace, but they did not reach the jet before it crashed, the ministry said. The Russian plane was carrying no ammunition and posed no danger.
“We had information that a group of Russian military planes would be flying through a neutral corridor near the Lithuanian border,” said Gen. Vladas Tutkus, the commander of the Lithuanian armed forces. “Our radars, which had been surveying that group, detected that one jet separated from the others, flew into Lithuanian airspace minutes later and crashed into a field.”
It is not the first time Baltic states have reported Russian violations of their airspace. In May, Finland complained that Russian military aircraft had repeatedly violated its airspace for several months. The violations allegedly took place over the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea as the fighter jets flew to and from Kaliningrad.
Similar alleged violations by Russian planes have been reported in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In November, the Estonian government filed an official complaint with Moscow, but said none was serious enough to merit intervention by the four NATO fighters that patrol the Baltics’ airspace.
Created: 15.09.2005 18:05 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:31 MSK
MosNews
A Russian Su-27 fighter crashed on Lithuania territory on Thursday. The pilot managed to eject safely.
The jet fighter was part of a group of Russian Air Force and Air Defense aircraft conducting a flight to the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
During the flight the pilot of the Su-27 announced that he had lost orientation, possibly because of a malfunction in his navigation equipment, Russia’s Defense Ministry information directorate was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. He expended all the excess fuel and then ejected from the aircraft.
The plane crashed some 55 kilometers north of Kaunas and the pilot is now being interviewed by the Lithuanian authorities. No casualties or damage were reported on the ground following the crash.
Lithuania Refuses to Release Pilot of Crashed Russian Fighter
Created: 16.09.2005 11:32 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:32 MSK
MosNews
Despite an apology from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov for the crash of a Russian Su-27 fighter jet on Lithuanian territory and a promise to his colleague Gediminas Kirkilas that Moscow will pay for all the damage done, Lithuania refuses to release the Russian pilot or to return the jet’s black box to Russian defense authorities, Interfax news agency reported.
After the Lithuanian Defense Ministry informed the Russian side about Thursday’s crash, the Russian embassy in Vilnius delivered a note asking the Lithunian Foreign Ministry to return the black box, but officials refused to comment on the issue until a pre-trial investigation was finished.
Lithuanian authorities are also going to question the pilot, 36-year-old Maj. Valery Troyanov as a witness. Since the crash he has been in shock and unable to tell investigators precisely what happened. The doctors who examined the pilot, who managed to eject safely from the aircraft, say he has no injuries, although Troyanov himself has complained of a pain in his back.
The Su-27 fighter bomber crashed in Lithuania about 120 miles northwest of the capital Thursday on its way from St. Petersburg to Russia’s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, home to a major Russian military base.
The pilot was detained and taken to a police station in the nearby town of Jurbarkas.
Defense Minister Gediminas Kirkilas was quoted by Associated Press as saying earlier that he considered the airspace violation to be unintentional.
“According to information we have now, it was clearly an accident, not an attempt to attack strategic targets in Lithuania,” Kirkilas said.
Two NATO F-4 fighters took off from a nearby air base after the Russian plane entered Lithuanian airspace, but they did not reach the jet before it crashed, the ministry said. The Russian plane was carrying no ammunition and posed no danger.
“We had information that a group of Russian military planes would be flying through a neutral corridor near the Lithuanian border,” said Gen. Vladas Tutkus, the commander of the Lithuanian armed forces. “Our radars, which had been surveying that group, detected that one jet separated from the others, flew into Lithuanian airspace minutes later and crashed into a field.”
It is not the first time Baltic states have reported Russian violations of their airspace. In May, Finland complained that Russian military aircraft had repeatedly violated its airspace for several months. The violations allegedly took place over the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea as the fighter jets flew to and from Kaliningrad.
Similar alleged violations by Russian planes have been reported in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In November, the Estonian government filed an official complaint with Moscow, but said none was serious enough to merit intervention by the four NATO fighters that patrol the Baltics’ airspace.