Russian Il-76 catches fire while taking off from military airfield in Tajikistan

This was reported by the Russian Baza Telegram channel.

During acceleration, a wheel exploded on a Russian military transport aircraft IL-76. As a result, a fire broke out. The plane rolled off the runway and completely burned down.

According to sources, there were 8 people on board. The crew was allegedly not injured.

Aviation expert Vitaliy Trubnikov voiced a slightly different version of the events:

"There are few details yet, but allegedly, the engine caught fire during takeoff and lacked thrust to take off. As a result, the plane rolled off the runway and caught fire."

He added that the crew managed to escape, but the plane will not fly anywhere:

"This Il-76 may not have been directly involved in the fighting, but anything that harms Russian logistics is to our advantage."

Trubnikov also made an assumption about what kind of cargo was on board:

"There are no details about the cargo either, but apparently, some kind of sanctioned defense goods that cannot be directly imported into Russia."

According to Baza, the preliminary cause of the fire in the Russian plane was the destruction of the wheel pneumatics during acceleration, followed by the ingress of elements into the engine. That is why the fire started in the engine.