Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 bombers taxi at Ryazan Dyagilevo air base in Russia in 2015. A Tu-22M crash-landed during a training accident in eastern Siberia, with four crew members ejecting before the aircraft burst into flames, the Russian defense ministry said. (Alexander Beltyukov/Wikimedia Commons)
A long-range, nuclear-capable Russian bomber crash-landed Monday during a training accident in eastern Siberia, the country’s defense ministry said in a statement.
Video circulated on social media showed the Tu-22M rapidly descending in a nosedive before bursting into a ball of flames in a forested area in the sparsely populated Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia.
Four crew members ejected from the plane before it crashed, according to the ministry. Russian state media reported that the four were receiving treatment at a local hospital and were expected to survive.
The Russian accident occurred on the same day that a U.S. B-52 bomber crashed during a training flight in California, killing all eight people aboard, a reminder of the risks associated with operating large military aircraft even outside of combat.
The supersonic Tu-22M, known for its full wing sweep and long, pointed nose, was designed during the Cold War to strike deep behind enemy lines. More recently, it has been used to carry out airstrikes in the Russia-Ukraine war.
In June 2025, Ukrainian drone operators took aim at the Tu-22M and other warplanes during Operation Spiderweb, when swarms of drones struck air bases deep in Russian territory and damaged or destroyed more than 40 aircraft.
