A Russian warplane slammed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday, killing both crewmembers, authorities said. It was the second time in less than a week that a combat jet crashed in a residential area in Russia. The Irkutsk region's governor, Igor Kobzev, said the Su-30 fighter jet came down on a private, two-story building housing two families. He said that there were no casualties on the ground as the building's five residents were out at the moment of the crash. He said the residents would be offered temporary accommodation and compensation. The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known and an official probe has started. On Oct. 17, an Su-34 bomber crashed near an apartment building in the Sea of Azov port of Yeysk and exploded in a giant fireball, killing 15 and injuring another 19. The crashes might reflect the growing strain that the fighting in Ukraine has put on the Russian air force. The United Aircraft Corporation, a state-controlled conglomerate of Russian aircraft-making plants, said in a statement that the plane in Sunday's incident came down during a training flight before its delivery to the air force. The jet carried no weapons during the flight. Surveillance camera videos posted on Russian social networks showed the fighter in a nearly vertical dive and then exploding. Other videos showed the building engulfed by flames and firefighters deployed to extinguish the blaze. Irkutsk, a major industrial center of more than 600,000 in eastern Siberia, is home to an aircraft factory producing Su-30s, a supersonic twin-engine, two-seat fighter that has been a key component of the Russian air force. China, India and many other countries also use the planes. Sunday's crash was the 11th reported noncombat crash of a Russian warplane since Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Military experts have noted that as the number of Russian military flights increased sharply during the fighting, so did the number of crashes.

A Russian court on Saturday ordered five people to remain in pre-trial detention for two months pending an investigation into a devastating blast in a coal mine in Siberia that resulted in dozens of deaths. Russian authorities reported 51 deaths after a methane explosion rocked the Listvyazhnaya mine in the Kemerovo region in southwestern Siberia on Thursday — 46 miners and five rescuers. The tragedy appears to be the deadliest in Russia since 2010. Read: Russia: Death toll in Siberian coal mine blast raised to 52 The Central District Court in the city of Kemerovo ruled to jail the director of the Listvyazhnaya mine, Sergei Makhrakov, his deputy Andrei Molostvov and section supervisor Sergei Gerasimenok. They are facing charges of violating industrial safety requirements for hazardous production facilities that resulted in multiple deaths. If convicted, they may be imprisoned for up to seven years. Two officials of the local branch of Rostekhnadzor, Russia’s state technology and ecology watchdog — Sergei Vinokurov and Vyacheslav Semykin — have also been jailed for two months on the charge of negligence that led to two or more deaths, punishable by up to seven years in prison as well. Law enforcement officials said Friday that miners had complained about the high level of methane in the mine. Russia’s top independent news site, Meduza, reported that this year authorities suspended the work of certain sections of the mine nine times and issued fines of more than 4 million rubles (roughly $53,000) for safety violations. A total of 285 miners were in the Listvyazhnaya mine Thursday morning at the time of explosion, which quickly filled the mine with toxic smoke. A total of 239 people were rescued shortly after the blast, and more than 60 sought medical assistance for an assortment of injuries. Officials on Thursday said 11 miners and three rescuers perished while searching for others in a remote section of the mine. Thirty-five miners were still trapped in the mine when rescuers were forced to halt their search several hours into it because of a buildup of methane and carbon monoxide gas. Three more rescuers went missing and had been presumed dead along with the trapped miners by Thursday might. However, on Friday morning, search teams found one rescuer in the mine who was still alive and conscious. He has suffered shock and carbon monoxide poisoning of moderate severity and is undergoing treatment at a hospital. Read:US seeks balance as fears grow Russia may invade Ukraine Officials have described his rescue as a “miracle” and said that finding any other survivors at that point was highly unlikely. Kemerovo Governor Sergei Tsivilyov on Saturday announced the resumption of the search operation, saying that “we need to lift everybody (to the surface).” He noted, however, that rescue crews must act “cautiously." “We don't have the right to lose even a single person more,” Tsivilyov wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Later Saturday, search teams recovered the bodies of five miners.

Heavy smoke from raging wildfires covered the Russian city of Yakutsk and 50 other Siberian towns and settlements Sunday, temporarily halting operations at the city’s airport. Russia has been plagued by widespread forest fires, blamed on unusually high temperatures and the neglect of fire safety rules, with the Sakha-Yakutia region in northeastern Siberia being the worst affected. Read:Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western US Local emergency officials said 187 fires raged in the region on Sunday, and the total area engulfed by blazes has grown by 100,000 hectares (about 247,000 acres) in the past 24 hours. “The situation with wildfires in our republic is very difficult. I repeat that we are experiencing the driest summer in the past 150 years in Yakutia, and the month of June was the hottest on record. This, together with the dry thunderstorms that occur nearly daily in our republic, brought about significant wildfires,” Aysen Nikolayev, Yakutia’s governor, told reporters. Smoke from the fires covered 51 towns, settlements and cities in the region, including the capital Yakutsk, forcing authorities to suspend all flights in and out of the city. Read: Western wildfires threatening American Indian tribal lands “We can’t see each other because of the smoke, our eyes are burning and overall the smoke is very dangerous for the health of us villagers,” said Vasiliy Krivoshapkin, resident of Magaras. “We see on television planes that are dropping water on the burning forest but they aren’t sending these planes to help us for some reason. Why is there no help?” Russia’s Emergency Ministry said Sunday it had deployed two amphibious aircraft to Yakutia to help tackle the fires. More than 2,200 people are involved in the firefighting effort.

The United Nation weather agency has been investigating media reports suggesting the Arctic Circle has recorded a new record high temperature of over 38 degrees Celsius amid a heat wave and prolonged wildfires in eastern Siberia.