A military plane carrying Kh-22 cruise missiles was forced to make an emergency landing in Saint Petersburg on Sunday.
The flight crew of a Tu-22M3 Backfire-C swing-wing bomber executed an emergency landing at the city’s Pulkovo international airport on 5 March.
According to airport representatives, the landing was not an emergency, as the board requested, due to adverse weather conditions.
Russian officials refused to comment on this incident and later stated that the landing was due to terrible weather. On the morning of March 6, a Tu-22M3 took off from Pulkovo, but just before, an Il-76 military transport aircraft arrived at the international airport with technicians who examined the bomber.
The Tu-22M3 Backfire works primarily as a maritime strike and bomber asset for the Russian military. Currently, the Backfires uses to strike targets in Ukraine, including civilian buildings in Dnipro, Kremengug and Mariupol.
Since the Tu-22M3 is the only aircraft in the Russian inventory that currently carries the Kh-22 or Kh-32 cruise missiles.
