Originally published at: Residential tower ablaze in Russia after fighter jet crashes into it | Boing Boing
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Given the other stories about the state of Russian military training, this might have been the pilot’s first time in an airplane.
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Too bad it wasn’t the Kremlin.
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He’s probably not at the Kremlin anyway, so no need to burn down a historic building… now his Dacha where he’s probably hiding out…
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No reason to believe the Russian government on anything, but that jet carries 25,000 lbs of fuel. I think the fireball would be pretty darn massive under any circumstances.
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Somebody needs to slip an Apple AirTag in his pocket, or something similar.
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Boy, Putin can’t catch a break these days, toughsky shitsky as Mom used to say.
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There’s that diligent attention to aircraft safety and maintenance that Russia is renowned for.
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This is a good indicator that they are having issues keeping up with maintenance. Jets are awesome, but they take hours of maintenance and specialized parts to keep them flying.
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It looks like it catches fire before it hits the building. Almost like it hit power lines or something.
Edit: I take it back! That’s almost certainly the pilots ejecting.
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Yeah, it’s great that the Russian military has one less jet to slaughter Ukrainians with but it’s sad that it killed and injured civilians who likely didn’t want anything to do with the war.
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I think that’s the ejection seats firing. They ejected really close to impact, you can see a parachute in that first fireball pic.
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I wonder if the two bright flashes that you see a second or two before the impact are actually the crew ejecting. Modern ejector seats often have a rocket motor to launch the seat clear of the aircraft; that could be what we’re seeing.
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How I first read it:
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Fun fact: fighter pilots really do have specialized pants to keep them flying.
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They’ll probably need fresh ones after that ejection.
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Non in Russia, but in Florence, some 50 years ago.
I hear a deafening roar getting stronger and stronger, go at the window and look up.
I’ve never seen a fighter jet so close in my life, I swear it passed only a few meters above the roof of the building (we were in the last but one floor).
A split second later an explosion from a sport area close to us.
The papers reported that the pilot wilfully did not eject, and brought down the doomed plane, sacrificing himself, in the field to make sure the it would not hit a building.
I was in viale Manfredo Fanti, more or less below the red line (approx trajectory).
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Wow, crazy story.
Sorta puts a pin in it on how Russians value human life differently 
And IIRC, ejection seat technology is much better were you can eject even closer to the ground, allowing you to aim for some place not inhabited.
PS - I have been to Florence once, really neat city!
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In the video of the fire, I hear a series of small explosions, which makes me think it was armed and ready to fly to Ukraine or that area. They seem likely to be ammo cooking off.
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