Detonation could have occurred inside
A video of an Il-76 plane exploding while landing in Mali in the city of Gao on September 23 appeared on the Internet. There is a version that there were “Wagnerites” on board this transport ship. The footage shows how the plane seems to have landed normally, is already taxiing along the runway, but then smoke rises, the car leaves the runway and explodes.
MK asked Oleg Smirnov, a professional, Honored Pilot of the USSR, member of the Public Council of Rostransnadzor, to comment on these shots:
— I carefully watched this video 10-15 times, studying it literally millimeter by millimeter, and I see two possible options here. Option one: the plane landed normally, already ran along the runway as expected, but in the second half of the run something happened — and smoke started coming out.
It looks like something happened to the braking system. It can be seen that at the moment when all the wheels braked — and there are already eight of them — thick smoke begins to pour out.
Perhaps the smoke started because for some reason all the brakes “grabbed tightly”. The wheels began to “take off their shoes” due to friction on the strip, and the tires caught fire. The flame was not a flame, but a lot of smoke poured out. After which the plane lost control, went off the runway, and only then did an explosion occur as a result of a collision on the ground with some obstacle or structure.
Option two: something caught fire in the rear compartment of the plane during landing. And if we assume that there were “Wagnerites” there, then they could transport anything: tanks, missiles, weapons, and explosives. As a result, the aircraft controls could fail, after which the Il-76 left the runway and, colliding with some obstacle at the airfield, exploded.