By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Two pilots have been killed after a Russian fighter jet crashed into a two-story residential building in the city of Irkutsk in southern Siberia.
Videos posted on social media of the crash showed the aircraft drove almost vertically before hitting the building in a fireball, sending dense black smoke into the sky.
Governor Igor Kobzev said on social media that the residents of the house for two families were not hurt as they were away as at the moment of the crash. Firefighters were seen at the scene working to extinguish the fire.
Irkutsk, an industrial centre of more than 600,000 people, is home to an aircraft factory producing the Su-30 fighters.
The crash occurred less than a week after a Sukhoi Su-34 jet crashed into a multistory residential building in the Russian town of Yeysk, killing 15 people.
The Su-34 is a supersonic twin-engine bomber equipped with sophisticated sensors and weapons. It is a key component of the Russian air force and has been widely deployed in the war in Syria and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
