[Regnum] Four pilots of the crashed Tu-22MZ bomber near Irkutsk were found alive. This was reported by the Governor of the Irkutsk Region Igor Kobzev.
"At 22:18, the duty officer of the regional department of the disaster medicine center received this information. According to the Ministry of Defense, the plane was a military one, a TU-22M3. It was performing a scheduled flight. Four pilots ejected. All have already been found," he wrote on the Telegram channel.
According to the governor, emergency services have left for the crash site. Kobzev asked residents not to panic and noted that the aircraft crashed in a deserted area. There were no damages.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the Ministry of Defense previously reported that the crew managed to eject. The crash occurred during a scheduled flight. According to the preliminary version, the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction of the aircraft, the defense department specified.
Earlier, footage of a bomber crash in the Cheryomkhovsky district of the region appeared. It shows a burning aircraft falling on the horizon, after which a bright flash appears and an explosion is heard.