Russia reveals the cause of aircraft accidents on Admiral Kuznetsov during its Syrian operation
The cause of the crashes of two deck-based fighters on the only Russian aircraft-carrying cruiser, the Admiral Kuznetsov, during the campaign in Syria in 2016 was the breakage of an arresting cable. RIA Novosti reported that there are no concerns about the aircraft, citing a source in Russia's defense industry.
"In the case of the loss of the MiG-29K, the cable broke off due to the fact that the aircraft landed on the deck below the critical angle. The landing of the Su-33 occurred properly, and in this case it is possible to provisionally talk about a poor-quality cable. But in both cases, there cannot be any complaints about the planes,” said the source.
At the same time, he stressed that a detailed analysis of the reasons for cable breakage during the two landings can only be established after studying the arresting cables.
On November 14, Russia lost the MiG-29K fighter jet. While landing three aircraft in a row, the second cut off the second arresting cable, but managed to catch on to the fourth. The broken second cable was tangled with the third one. This prevented the next plane from landing and it remained in the air. The malfunction could not be quickly eliminated, and the pilot was ejected after the plane ran out of fuel.
The Su-33 was lost on December 4 while landing on the deck of Admiral Kuznetsov. The cause was the breakage of the arresting cable of the finisher during landing. The plane rolled off the deck, but the pilot managed to eject himself.