Russian Pilot Ejects From Crashing Sukhoi 25 Jet At Very Low Altitude. See His Perspective

New Delhi:

A helmet camera video of a Russian fighter pilot ejecting in low altitude from a damaged Sukhoi-25 has been shared widely on social media. Reports say it is the first helmet camera video of a pilot ejecting from a jet in a warzone. This information couldn’t be verified independently.

In the video credited to a Russian aviation Instagram account and shared by a military documentary channel on YouTube, the damaged Sukhoi-25 is seen struggling to maintain level flight over open ground.

A few seconds later the pilot is seen ejecting while the jet flies for about a kilometre and slams into the ground and explodes.

The pilot ejected from such a dangerously low altitude that he hit the ground in just 10 seconds. The helmet camera pans towards the horizon in all directions as the pilot scans it.

“There is not much information about the background of this clip but the scenes shown here are just incredible given the fact that this seems to be the first time such an event was released for the public,” the YouTube military blog WarLeaks said in the video’s description and sourced it to another blogger, Fighterbomber, a Russian aviation enthusiast.

The Sukhoi-25, also known as the Frogfoot to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO, is a dedicated ground attack aircraft used by the Russians in large numbers to hit Ukrainian armour and infrastructure. This jet has an armoured cockpit to protect the pilot since its main role is close air support, which puts it at a very high risk of taking sustained anti-aircraft fire.

Russian forces have suffered setbacks in recent times after Ukrainian forces recovered lost ground.