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Hi Joseph, do you know what happened?

Airshow. Red Knights. There is a video somewhere. High alpha pass with flares.

Those are flares? That's cool I've never seen them launched by a fighter but I do know that they are used to defend aginsed misses

Sukhoi 30MKI crashing at the 1999 Paris Air Show.

MAKS 2017 Airshow about a month ago.

OMG, stunning image.

After starting two forrestefires some 15 years ago at an airshow in Finland two days in a row, they where banned from returning!

Neat flares, but if the incoming are radar guided, it will likely still be a bad day.

Yeah and if the incoming are IR and had any doubt about where the target was, this would pretty well pinpoint it LOL.

Not sure about Russian birds, but I though flares came out of the bottom.
And it looks like he's ready to eject, as it appears the canopy is gone.
Also, flares don't create that much fire that close to the AC.

Chris, I'd say this is just an airshow trick. The flares ( and they are definitely flares) would have been fired at high alpha and momentary low airspeed for the visual effect. It's not clear in the image but I dont see any evidence of the canopy having being ejected. It's hard to see the canopy but that's not to say it's missing. It is transparent after all :).

I took that picture at Kubinka Army Day this August. Nothing untoward with the jet...it's just that the Russians seem to be more at ease with flares being fired while the jet is almost hanging up there in the air than us Westerners. To me it's scary but makes for some nice pics.

Awesome, dramatic shot, Joseph. 5*