Iranian state media recently used the term “hard landing” to describe the crash of the Iranian President’s helicopter. This phrase is often employed by Russian authorities when aircraft crash, especially by the Russian Defence Ministry when reporting military aircraft incidents.
For instance, in June 2022, an Il-76 military cargo plane crashed in Russia’s Ryazan region, resulting in the deaths of five service personnel. Despite the aircraft being almost completely destroyed on impact, the Russian military initially referred to the incident as a hard landing.
Analysts suggest that Russian officials avoid the word “crash” to prevent causing panic or distress, a practice known as newspeak. Similar euphemisms include referring to an explosion as a “bang” and a soldier’s death as “an unidentified absence from a military unit.”
