A video that shows in first person the low-altitude ejection of a Russian pilot, seconds before his fighter plane — a Sukhoi Su-25, apparently — crashed, has sparked a new wave of discussion on social media. The material is truly impressive, and specialists consider it to be the first of its kind to come to light publicly. In addition, it shows the protagonist’s quick reflexes to escape from the airship just before it turns into a ball of fire. But it has also generated a heated debate about its origin and veracity.
The clip, which lasts just under two minutes, went viral on the Telegram channel fighter bomberbut it was not long in coming to other platforms. Information regarding the context of the incident has been scant from the beginning, but some of the most shared posts indicated that it was a Russian aircraft. shot down by a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile.
The sequence is chilling. In the first seconds of the video you can see the ejection of the Russian pilot just an instant after his plane seemed to be hit. As the incident occurred while he was flying at low altitude, his quick exit from the cabin allowed him to escape with his parachute and see the moment in which the aircraft crashed in a field. The rest of the clip, which seems to have been captured with a GoPro-type camera secured to the protagonist’s helmet, shows the rest of the landscape from the pilot’s point of view, while he has a conversation over the radio.
The debate over the video of the ejection of the Russian pilot
Minutes after the material hit Twitter, dozens of screenshots and frame-by-frame analysis flooded the social network. Specialists and opinion experts alike decided to intervene in the conversation. Thus it was possible to determine – or reach a general consensus, at least – that the aircraft in question would be a Sukhoi Su-25. Regarding the damage suffered, in a brief moment the fire in the engines and the destruction of both the vertical and horizontal stabilizers can be seen. As for the ejection, the instruments in the video would show that the Russian pilot would have been thrown just about 200 meters from the ground. Although it is argued that it could have been at an even lower height.
As we already mentioned, the video went viral not only because of the spectacular ejection sequence of the Russian pilot, something never before seen in the first person, but also because of the general conviction that the plane had been shot down by Ukraine. However, with the passing of the hours, the hypothesis also began to circulate that the material would not portray a war action, but a possible accident.
Last June, it became known that a fighter plane, coincidentally a Sukhoi Su-25, crashed in Belgorod; region bordering on the west with Ukrainian lands. At that time, it was mentioned that the aircraft fell to the ground after hitting a high-voltage power line, during exercises at low altitude. A video shared from the scene of the incident showed a landscape very similar to that of the clip of the ejection that went viral this weekend.
In fact, that same month, videos of Sukhoi Su-25 flying a few meters above a road crossed by electrical cables were released.
After the viralization of the video of the ejection of the Russian pilot, more analyzes have appeared that would show that, in reality, it would correspond to the incident with the high-voltage power line. Even geolocation data has been published that, apparently, would ratify it.
However, the discussion about the origin and veracity of each material that is shared on Twitter has turned the responses to all related tweets into a pitched battle. Something that is not new, but that has climbed to another level since the Ukrainian war began.
In the eight months that have passed since the Russian invasion, the publication of photos and videos allegedly related to the conflict has multiplied. And while much of the material is legitimate, there have also been many cases on record where it is not.
The lack of context is, as always, the huge problem with viral posts.. And the case of the video of the ejection of the Russian pilot seems to be no exception.