A MiG-31 fighter jet from the 98th Separate Mixed Aviation Regiment of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy crashed in the Murmansk region of Russia.

Militarnyi reported about this.

A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet crashed in the area of Monchegorsk, Murmansk region, during the flight. The aircraft crashed near the city.

The video taken by the eyewitnesses showed how the aircraft, in a strong fire, tried to level the course. A pilot couldn’t cope with this task, so the board fell into a steep pitch.

The second video showed how an aircraft with a complete loss of control fell in the suburbs of Monchegorsk. Eyewitnesses did not notice the moment of ejection of the pilots or their parachutes in the sky.

The Ministry of Defense of Russia has already issued an official statement, according to which the MiG-31 fighter jet crashed during a training flight. According to the ministry official, both pilots ejected and were evacuated; their lives and health were out of danger.

This is not the first time that Russian MiG-31s have caught fire during a flight. In January 2023, a Russian fighter jet suffered a fire in one of its engines due to a compressor stall during a combat sortie in Belarus. It was reported then that this was not the first such episode.

The reason for the compressor’s stall was its exhausted engine resources or the ingress of excess objects into the air duct.

MiG-31

MiG-31 is a Soviet and Russian two-seat supersonic high-altitude all-weather, long-range interceptor. It was developed in OKB-155 (now Russian Aircraft Corporation “MiG”) on the basis of MiG-25 in the 1970s. Currently, the Russian Aerospace Forces are being armed with modernized MiG-31BM aircraft.

The aircraft is the main carrier of the Russian Kh-47м2 Kinzhal hypersonic aero-ballistic missile. The maximum speed of this missile is 10М. MiG-31 is capable of carrying one missile and hitting targets at a distance of up to 2000 km.

It is also a carrier of the R-37М long-range air-to-air missile, which is considered an aviation missile with one of the largest ranges. The missile has a maximum speed of 6М and is capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 300 km.