The Russian Aerospace Forces have lost one of their strategic missile-carrying bombers.

This afternoon on the territory of the Murmansk region, at approximately 13 hours 40 minutes, while landing at a military airfield in Olenegorsk, a Russian Tu-22M3 supersonic strategic bomber-missile carrier crashed, killing two crew members on board, at that time how two more managed to be saved - at the moment they are receiving all the necessary medical care, however, according to the source, they are in critical condition.

According to information provided by the Russian military department, "the plane made a hard touch, after which control over it was lost" and the plane crashed, after which, almost immediately, it caught fire.

Any other details of the tragedy that occurred remain unknown, but the source reports that the strategic bomber-missile carrier took part in the exercises.

According to experts, either a technical malfunction could be the culprit, in particular, the version of the chassis malfunction is being considered, or a crew error, which, by the way. taking into account the experience of the pilots, it is almost completely excluded.

It should be clarified that since the beginning of this year this has become the second incident - in the previous one, the Russian Aerospace Forces lost two Su-34 fighter-bombers, which, when performing a maneuver, collided in the air.

The Tu-22M3 is a modernized Tu-22M missile-carrying bomber developed in the USSR in the 1960s. It is designed to destroy various ground and surface targets. The maximum speed that the aircraft is capable of developing is 2300 kilometers per hour. Flight range - 6800 kilometers. Its payload, that is, the weight of rockets and bombs, is 24 tons.

Tu-22M3 was used to attack terrorist targets in Syria.