The downing of the Su-30 in Crimea: the Russian explained what blew up the plane, and it was not air defense
An investigative commission is working at the crash site of the Su-30SM, which will eventually make its findings public, wrote Ilya Tumanov, an aviation navigator of the Russian Armed Forces, in the Flightbomber Telegram channel. He suggested that "a million" reasons are possible, and among them is even "friendly fire". However, according to his data, the cause of the fire and the loss of the fighter was not external: it ignited during the launch of a missile at the drone.
The Flightbomber post appeared at noon on October 17, a few hours after the information about the downing of the Su-30SM. The Russian did not write that he was talking about Crimea, but instead mentioned the "Laos Islands". It is indicated that during the launch of the missile at the drone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an unusual situation probably occurred, a fire broke out, which the crew could not cope with. After that, the pilots ejected, the Russian assured.
Having written about the fire caused by the Su-30SM missile, the navigator nevertheless admitted that the final cause of the loss would be announced later. According to the data of analysts of the ORYX project, which record losses based on photos and videos, during the war, the Russians got rid of 14 Su-30SM fighters. At the same time, four of them were damaged without rising into the air.
In addition, in May 2025, GUR fighters of the Ministry of Defense showed footage of a Su-30SM being shot down by an AIM-9 missile fired from a Magura V7 naval drone. It should be noted that the information about the downing of the Su-30 in Crimea appeared on the network around 7 a. m. on October 17. The Dron Bomber channel wrote that the Russians probably lost the plane in Crimea.
Within a few hours, the information was confirmed by the spokesman of the Navy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Dmytro Pletenchuk. According to the preliminary conclusions of the command, the Russian fighter was hunting Ukrainian drones and was hit by its own air defense systems. Meanwhile, Focus wrote about cases of "friendly fire" when the Russians shot down their own equipment with their own hands. One such case occurred in the summer of 2024 in Anapa.
As a Russian blogger wrote in Telegram, the Ka-29 helicopter was chasing a Magura V5 naval drone and was hit by Russian missiles. In February 2024, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation recognized the loss of two DRLV A-50 aircraft at once: they were lost over the Sea of Azov and the Krasnodar Territory.