Miracle landing caught on video:
Russian aviation officials have launched an urgent investigation after a passenger plane went berserk and began ‘dancing’ in the sky shortly after take-off.
An amateur video of the incident shows the Tupolev Tu-154 heading for what appeared to be disaster as it lurched wildly at low altitude.
The jet, owned by the Russian Air Force, was on a test flight to a repair centre after more than ten years in storage when it developed the wobbles.
Scroll down to see dramatic video
Scroll down to see dramatic video
Plane crazy: Russian aviation officials have launched an urgent investigation after this Tupolev Tu-154 passenger plane went berserk and began 'dancing' in the sky shortly after take-off
The severe loss of control happened just minutes after take-off from Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow last week, forcing the pilots to immediately return to base.
The airmen managed to land the shaking jet on their second attempt, wrestling the ageing plane to the ground despite the aircraft banking and pitching dangerously.
Observers at the airfield praised the pilots and claimed their cool heads avoided scores of casualties among military personnel and local civilians.
Danger: The Tupolev Tu-154 pitched wildly from one side to the other after take-off
Amazingly, no one was injured during the emergency landing and the three-engine medium-range aircraft escaped without a single scratch.
Military sources claimed there had been a massive failure in the plane’s control system causing it to behave erratically.
Officials in Moscow are now probing whether any flight security laws were broken during the test flight and are refusing to rule out criminal charges.
Cheer they go: The expert Russian pilots somehow managed to wrestle the plane safely to the ground and were greeted hearty applause by on-lookers
‘The military prosecutor's office has begun an investigation to establish the cause of the incident that could have led to an air crash,’ a spokesman for the Office of the Military Prosecutor said.
The Soviet designed Tupolev TU-154 has been involved in more than 100 serious incidents since entering service in the early 1970s.
Russia’s transport watchdog ordered all airlines to ground the jets after a Kolavia Airlines Tu-154 exploded in a fireball in Siberia in January, killing three people.
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