Su-33 Landed in the Bottom
// The aircraft will be destroyed by the underwater depth charges
Yesterday, during maneuvers of the North Fleet of the Russian Federation, in the northern Atlantic jet fighter Su-33 fell in the water during landing on aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. The pilot was able to catapult himself and survived. That was the first time when an Su-33 had an accident during a sea flight. Now the fleet has to conduct a special operation to destroy the drowned fighter.
A source in Naval Headquarters told Kommersant the details of the accident: “During planned flights on Sept. 5 at 16:27 Su-33, piloted by Sub Colonel Yuri Korneev was landing on the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov. The aircraft was not armed. The jet hooked up for the air finisher, but cable broke. The jet kept running on the deck. In the morning when the Su-33 was already falling off the deck, the flight controller on the aircraft carrier gave the pilot the command to catapult. The plane fell in the water and sunk in the depth of about 1,000 meters. Korneev landed on the water with a parachute and opened the raft from his rescue pack. The training flights were stopped on the Admiral Kuznetsov. The rescue helicopter Ka-27PS took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier and brought the pilot onboard. The pilot was in a normal condition.”
According to the source, it is possible that the pilot also made a mistake during the incident. The jet pilot, according to instructions, should have revved the engine after the cable broke and performed an emergency takeoff. However, the fault of the pilot can be determined only after analysis from the Su-33’s black box. Capt. Of First Rank Igor Dygalo, head of the press center of the Main Staff of the Navy, said that the black box as it was designed went up to the surface after the plane drowned.
In the current situation, the Main Staff of the Russian Navy, will attempt operation of finding exact location of the drowned plane.
“The Su-33 equipped with special devices that are considered state secrets, including recognition system,” the source said. “According to preliminary decision after finding the exact location of the Su-33, it will be bombed with depth charges. After that, deep submersible vehicle Tiger will go down and determine if the aircraft was damaged enough.
It is possible that yesterday’s accident will delay the move to Moscow of Adm. Mikhail Abramov, commander of the North Fleet, who was appointed on Sunday to head the Main Staff of the Russian Navy. Most likely he will be leading the operation of searching and destroying the drowned Su-33. Su-33 is the Naval jetfighter created in 1987 on the basis of Su-27. It is designed to defend ships from air attacks and provide cover for the other aerial vehicles of the Navy.
In February of last year after a four-year repair, Admiral Kuznetsov went out to sea for the first time and participated in military maneuvers, Security 2004. On Oct. 18 of last year, during maneuvers of the group of ships of the North Fleet there was a similar accident, also on Admiral Kuznetsov. In that time, the fighter bomber Su-25UTG made an emergency landing on the aircraft carrier deck and during the touch down broke off the right chassis. The plane was still dragging to the right to the aircraft carrier’s tower. The only air finisher cable that hooked Su-25 eventually stopped the plane and helped to avoid a major accident.
The current maneuvers of the North Fleet started almost a month ago. On Aug 17, during the initial phase of maneuvers in Barents Sea, four Su-33 , despite the bad weather condition flew to Admiral Kuznetsov and landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier. Later on these fighters took off and went back to the base. Russian President Vladimir Putin was present during this exercise. After that, Admiral Kuznetsov went to northern Atlantic to continue the maneuvers.
Ivan Safronov, Konstantin Lantratov
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 06, 2005
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