Su-24 Bomber
© RIA Novosti. Skrynnikov
Posted on 02/14/2012 4:28:02 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Russia Grounds Su-24 Bomber Fleet after Urals Crash
Russia has postponed indefinitely all flights of Su-24 Fencer tactical bombers after one of them crashed in Russia’s Urals, a source in the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Su-24 combat aircraft crashed in the woods of the Kurgan region during a routine flight on Monday. Both pilots ejected safely.
“The Air Force commander has cancelled all flights of this type of aircraft until the cause of the crash is established,” the source said but did not specify how long it could take.
Monday’s crash was the third of a Su-24 in Russia over the last four months with the two previous crashes occurring in October and December 2011.
The Su-24 is a two-seat, twin-engine fighter-bomber similar to NATO's Tornado and Mirage 2000 planes.
The plane has been in service with the Russian Air Force since the mid-1970s. However, in recent years Russia has gradually been phasing out the planes, which have a patchy safety record.
According to the Defense Ministry’s plans, the Su-24 will be gradually replaced with new Su-34 Fullback strike aircraft, which has the potential to become the top plane in its class for years to come.
Su-24 Bomber
© RIA Novosti. Skrynnikov
Monday's crash was the third of a Su-24 in Russia over the last four months...A slow month in the heyday of the USSR. :')
Didn’t know that the Russians still flew the “Fencer.” I wonder if these crashes are indicating some sort of age related problem? They must still rely pretty heavily on this aircraft to not have suspended flights after the 2nd crash. 3 planes down in 4 months? Yikes!
is this their F-111 knock-off? that has been obsolete since the 90’s..
“...gradually been phasing out the planes...:
Self-phasing, it seems...
Now, if they could only manage to crash them all directly into the scrap yards ...
The SU-24 is quite a greybeard. I recall building a model of one of these back around ‘82 or so, and they weren’t that new then.
Didn’t start out that way. The initial prototypes had 4 small “lift engines” (in addition to the 2 main engines) to enable short field take-offs. It was found to be unstable in transition (plus a waste of space & payload potential). So the Soviets adopted the variable-geometry wing instead before production commenced.
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