Ukraine officials say their military shot down a second Russian A-50 aerial command and control aircraft in less than a month but there are also reports the plane was downed by friendly fire. Whatever happened, it appears to be confirmed that the $330 million aircraft, one of eight in the Russian Air Force inventory, went down in a fireball in the Krasnodor region in occupied Ukraine more than 150 miles from the front lines. Russian authorities haven’t confirmed the loss but military bloggers have and social media is carrying video of the incident.
The A-50 is used extensively for targeting and attack coordination. The downing came just after two attacks on Odessa that killed three people. The A-50 is based on the Il-76 and is normally a highly protected asset. If the video reports on the crash are accurate, the A-50 was hit by a missile while apparently taking evasive action at only about 1,000 feet.
