This is the extraordinary moment a wing fell off a Russian Su-25 during a frontline mission.
War footage captured the second the £15 million attack jet crashed after flying in a pair over Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
The pilot miraculously cheated death by ejecting before his aircraft fell to the ground.
His doomed warplane is seen banking sharply before falling out of the sky and crash diving into a field.
At first it appeared the Su-25 had been shot down – possibly by ‘friendly fire’, an unguided missile, from its partner plane, a claim made by the Ukrainian media.
The footage shows heat trap flares and possible missiles from the Su-25s.
Ukraine’s Military media outlet ruled out both friendly fire and an exploding missile on the distressed aircraft.
Yet experts on both sides now believe the aircraft’s downing near Soledar could be related to Vladimir Putin’s use of ageing war planes, with some Russian jets 40 years old or more.
While flames and white smoke are seen rising from the aircraft, there is no giant explosion, which would be expected if there was a direct missile hit.
The right wing is seen falling from the stricken aircraft – and the pilot’s parachute is visible after ejecting.
The pilot was reportedly rescued by Russian ground forces while under fire from Ukrainian drones.
He was then evacuated from the crash site by a Mi-8 helicopter.
‘The pilot is in the hospital with a broken arm,’ reported Russian Telegram channel Fighterbomber.
‘A commission will investigate what went wrong and determine who is to blame.’
The same source said that ‘destruction of the wing’ was the cause.
Ukraine has neither officially claimed to have shot down the plane, nor taunted Russia over another friendly fire incident.
The visible ‘missiles’ may be unignited heat trap flares designed to distract heat-seeking missiles away from the aircraft’s engines, according to some sources.
‘The third possible reason is a defect in the aircraft’s power structure that arose due to prolonged intensive use of the aircraft in combat operations or a manufacturing defect,’ said the channel.
‘This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the wing broke off at the moment of the turn, when it is subjected to the greatest loads.
‘Another indirect confirmation may be that the operation of Russian attack aircraft, whose average age reaches 40 years, is associated with a significant number of emergency situations.’
The theory was backed by Ukrainian war analyst Yury Butusov, who said: ‘At first it seems that it was shot down by its own pilot, the pilot of another aircraft.
‘However, when viewed in slow motion, one can conclude that the Su-25’s wing failed due to excessive overload and exhaustion of the attack aircraft’s resources.’
The Su-25 is a Soviet-designed close-air support aircraft developed by Sukhoi in the late 1970s.
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