New footage leaked to social media shows a very embarrassing event for the Russian military – though not one that has never happened to other powers. We used ChatGPT to analyze the recorded event.
First, let's be clear: this is an incident that occurred back in 2016, so this is not news information. Most of the details of the incident have been known for years – but now, for the first time, comes a photograph showing the moments after the incident.
In the incident in question, an upgraded Sukhoi Su-33 fighter jet attempted to land on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov off the coast of Russia, apparently at the end of a sortie by Russia against the rebels against President Bashar al-Assad. But the stop cable—a steel cable with a hydraulic system that is supposed to slow the plane down to allow it to brake on the short runway on board—ruptured before it could slow the plane down to a speed that would allow it to brake. On the other hand, when the pilot realized that he could not brake, he no longer had enough runway length left to take off again. The result: the plane slid off the end of the ship and fell into the sea.
The pilot managed to get out of the plane in time, and was rescued by the carrier's rescue helicopter. However, the new footage, taken by some kind of mobile device of a crew member, reveals some more details about the incident: First, it shows the plane floating on the water, almost as if it were swimming on its back. Second, the pilot, using the ejector parachute, appeared to be tangled in his wires while the helicopter pulled him up.
Russian Su-33 fighter jet chilling in the waters of Mediterranean Sea back in 2016.
The Sukhoi Su-33 (NATO reporting name Flanker-D) crashed after trying to land on Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov operating off the coast of Syria.
The pilot was saved. pic.twitter.com/YLNcp7ceR6
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 2, 2023
Beyond a painful reminder of the unnecessary incident, which probably could have been avoided with better maintenance of the stop cable, this documentation is reminiscent of the difficulty that militaries and other organizations around the world have in preventing records of ordinary information from leaking out through soldiers/employees' mobile devices.
This incident was not the only time that the stop cables aboard the Kuznetsov failed in their duties. This probably played a role in the fact that in 2017 the aircraft carrier was returned to its home port, Severomorsk, for an overhaul that has not yet been completed. Only next year, at the earliest, is she expected to return to roaming the sea.
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