Russian fighter crashes, pilot dead: Interfax

Moscow, June 28: A Russian Su-25 fighter today crashed on Wednesday into a forest near the city of Bryansk in Western Russia, killing the pilot, Interfax news agency said.

''The fighter, on a routine flight, fell into a forest,'' it quoted Air Force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky as saying.

Crashes are frequent in the Russian Air Force, plagued by an ageing fleet of warplanes and sometimes poor pilot training.

President Vladimir Putin has made the upgrade of the armed forces a priority.

Reuters