Tu-22M3 ulykken - The War Zone

Tu-22M3 at Shaykovka - Alex Beltyokov

Sovjet/Russland har vært kjent for innovative seter, bl.a. at setene innretter seg etter "opp" uansett i hvilken stilling flyet befinner seg når utskytningen finner sted. Setene i Tu-22M3 er åpenbart av en eldre type. Tipper de blir skiftet ut nå.

Her et utdrag fra omtalen i The War Zone:

An account from TV Zvezda, the official television station of the Russian Ministry of Defense, said that the three crew members were killed since there was insufficient height to safely deploy the parachutes after ejection.

The crew of four in the Tu-22M3 consists of two pilots seated side-by-side in front, with the navigator and weapons system officer seated behind them. All the crew members are provided with KT-1M ejection seats and the aircraft commander is also able to initiate the ejection sequence for the other crew members — according to Interfax, this was the case in today’s incident. However, these seats require a minimum speed of 80 miles per hour for safe ejection at altitudes below 200 feet. The Tu-22M3 has a typical takeoff speed of 230 miles per hour.

This would be in line with the aforementioned reports suggesting the ejections occurred after the engines had started but while the bomber was stationary. Even if the aircraft were taxiing, it would not have been moving fast enough to ensure the safe extraction of the crew. Modern combat aircraft are typically fitted with “zero-zero” ejection seats, which have no minimum speed or altitude criteria for safe use.