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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Giant Russian military plane explodes in fireball as it takes off from remote airbase with mystery cargo |
| 2023-10-21 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Footage showed the burning Russian defence ministry aircraft at Ayni airbase near capital Dushanbe in ex-Soviet republic Tajikistan. It is also known as Gissar air base. The plane's registration number was initially not disclosed, according to Telegram channel reports. But the wrecked plane is believed to be RF-86900 - used previously to supply Putin's war effort via Belarus. Details of its cargo have not been disclosed 'for wartime political reasons', according to a comment from a source. He also said the plane may have belonged to Vladimir Putin's elite Pskov airborne troops. They are reported to have lost five Il-76s in strikes by Ukraine. 'If it's Pskov regiment then it's a real disaster - we have lost five already,' he said. The enormous jet is the second Il-76 to explode on the runway in the past month. In September, another one of the Russian-made planes was filmed as it careered off a runway in Africa and exploded into a fireball amid suspicions the jet was linked to the Wagner army. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 FWIW - Gissar Air Base (where this occurred) has been jointly administered by India and Tajikistan for almost 20 years now. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2023-10-21 17:38 |