Yet another video of an incredibly dangerous low pass, this time in a Sukhio Su-25 Frogfoot, has surfaced out of Ukraine, suggesting that the Ukraine’s Air Force may make a habit of conducting such death defying stunts. This footage shows a pair of Su-25s coming in low over what appears to be a military airfield. While the video itself wasn’t released with much in the way of identifying information, experts at The Aviationist suggest that it may be the Melitopol airbase in southeastern Ukraine (based on the number of Il-76MD cargo aircraft shown in the background of the clip).
Of the two aircraft in the video, one pilot takes his Frogfoot so low people can be seen on the ground running to get out of its way. As is the case with any of these videos, determining exactly how far off the ground this Su-25 actually comes isn’t easy, but it’s certainly lower than most “low passes” you’ll come across on the internet. Based on what you can see around the plane, it seems to be only 10-15 feet off the deck as it blows past.
These videos coming out of Ukraine are certainly a hoot for those of us comfortably watching them from our laptops and smart phones, but the flurry of such videos to come from Ukrainian aviation assets seems a bit less like flights of fancy and a bit more like airborne irresponsibility following the October announcement that one Ukrainian and one American pilot died when their Su-27 went down during joint NATO training operations.
While details regarding that specific incident remain sparse — the steady stream of videos of pilots from that same nation’s Air Force apparently dismissing normal safety standards coupled with the loss of an American pilot aboard one of their fighters makes these videos a little harder to applaud.
Image courtesy of YouTube