A MiG-31 Foxhound fighter jet being flown in routine training exercises crashed near the Finnish border, in the Leningrad region of northwestern Russia on Friday, but the pilots were safely ejected and no injuries were reported.
The press service of the Russian Western Military District said the Cold War-era MiG-31 Foxhound fighter jet crashed in the afternoon on Friday during a training mission.
“April 8, in the Leningrad region, during a planned training flight, a MiG-31 aircraft crashed,” said in the message.
Three Mi-8 helicopters of the search and rescue service were sent to the crash site.
A video from the scene of a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet crash in the Leningrad Oblast. pic.twitter.com/WP8aUEIMc7
— Status-6 (@Archer83Able) April 8, 2022
Russia’s news agencies reported that the jet crashed due to technical problems, without providing more detail.
MiG-31 Foxhound is a long-range, two-seat supersonic interceptor aircraft. It was derived from MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor and is equipped with state-of-the-art digital avionics. More than 500 MiG-31 aircraft have been produced, out of which 370 were delivered to the Russian Air Force and 30 are in service with Kazakhstan Air Force.