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Parts of a torn access door got caught in the engine causing the crash of the plane Be-103 near the city of Khabarovsk on July 27, prosecutors said. Two pilots and a passenger catapulted from the aircraft and suffered minor injuries which can be considered a major luck if compared to two pilots of a Navy Su-24 jet who were killed Sunday when the jet crashed on its way to participate in a Navy parade.

Media reports have already called July a black month for Russia’s aviation. In Sunday’s crash of Su-24 the aircraft is reported to have slammed into the ground after taking off from the Chernyakhovsk Air Base near Kaliningrad. Both two pilots were killed. The probe into the case was ordered by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov who arrived in the Kaliningrad region to watch the Navy parade.

In another deadly incident on Sunday near St. Petersburg a small plane Yak-52 crashed killing a pilot and seriously injuring another, emergency officials said. The plane was owned by a local air club. The cause of the crash is being investigated.

In this spotlight, July 27 can be called a lucky day for Russian pilots. Two crashes occurred – one near Khabarovsk and one near Perm – but in both cases the pilots managed to throw themselves out of cabins and survived. Be-103 plane which crashed near Khabarovsk belonged to Komsomolsk-on-Amur aviation plant and had been recently certified. Experts are currently engaged in deciphering the plane’s recorder boxes to determine whether technical malfunction or human error is to blame for the incident. Two pilots and a passenger are hospitalized with injuries.

Mig-29 which crashed near Perm on the same day belonged to Strizhi Air Company. In translation into English strizh is a martin and in a strange coincidence a bird caused the plane’s crash in this case. A bird reportedly got lodged into the plane’s engine when the jet was taking off. The pilots catapulted and survived.

But the gravest of all July days came on July 10 when four passenger planes suffered various problems. The worst tragedy occurred in Irkutsk when passenger airbus A-310 with more than 200 people on board skidded off the runway, hit local garages and burst into flames. Over 120 people died and more than 70 were injured.

It is unclear whether strange coincidence, fatal bad luck or technical malfunction should be blamed for black-skied July but the month has finally come to its end which personally I hope will bring an end to drastic air tragedies.