After a sparky, gear-up emergency landing at an unidentified air base, a Russian pilot need a new aircraft and perhaps a new flight suit, as reported by The Warzone.
Fighter-bomber
The Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft, which has become synonymous with the air war thanks to numerous breathtaking videos of its high-speed, low-altitude missions flown over the frontlines by pilots from both sides, approaches low and slowly before using drogue chutes to skid to a stop on the runway in a shower of sparks. According to reports, the undated footage uploaded to the Russian “Fighterbomber” Telegram account occurred at an unidentified Russian facility.
Severely depleted
It’s unknown if the Frogfoot, marked with the Russian “Z” identification mark on its vertical stabiliser and appears in the footage during the Ukraine War, sustained battle damage or experienced a mechanical issue that forced the emergency landing. Its gear might have been prevented from expanding by anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) strike or missile shrapnel, or an old jet that had been in the conflict for almost ten months could have been damaged by the pressure of combat sorties. The latter scenario is not novel. Since the invasion started, Russia’s Su-25 fleet, which has suffered the majority of the fixed-wing aircraft in the conflict, has been severely depleted. It was suspected that these causes were to blame for another crash, this time on takeoff and potentially from the same base. You can read more about that incident here.
Аварийная посадка российского Су-25 с убранным шасси https://t.co/K8x6HYj3TF #вксрф pic.twitter.com/M5k1HebR7M
— Necro Mancer (@666_mancer) December 10, 2022
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Source: The Warzone