Europe

Black Sea crash: Russians find main flight recorder

Defence ministry says numerous fragments of craft including engine and fuselage parts found

Divers recover parts of the TU-154 military plane which crashed into the Black Sea with 92 people on board. Video: Reuters
Tue Dec 27 2016 - 14:29

Russian search teams have found the main flight recorder belonging to a military aircraft that crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 92 on board, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, amid unconfirmed reports that authorities had grounded all aircraft of the same type.

The recorder, one of several reported to be on board, contains information that could help investigators identify the cause of Sunday's crash, which killed dozens of Red Army Choir singers and dancers en route to Syria to entertain Russian troops in the run-up to the new year.

Investigators have so far said pilot error or a technical fault, rather than terrorism, are most likely to have caused the Defence Ministry’s Tupolev-154 to crash into the sea.

Residents of Sochi lay a wreath paying tribute to the victims of Tu-154 plane crash in the Black Sea outside Sochi. Ninety two persons were on board, including 65 members of the Alexandrov Song and Dance ensemble, eight crew members, nine Russian journalists as well as Russian civil activist, Doctor Yelizaveta Glinka (Doctor Liza). No survivors have been found. Photograph: Yevgeny Reutov/EPA
Residents of Sochi lay a wreath paying tribute to the victims of Tu-154 plane crash in the Black Sea outside Sochi. Ninety two persons were on board, including 65 members of the Alexandrov Song and Dance ensemble, eight crew members, nine Russian journalists as well as Russian civil activist, Doctor Yelizaveta Glinka (Doctor Liza). No survivors have been found. Photograph: Yevgeny Reutov/EPA
A retrieved flight recorder of the crashed Russian jet on a pier just outside Sochi, Russia. Screengrab: Rossiya One TV Channel photo/AP
A retrieved flight recorder of the crashed Russian jet on a pier just outside Sochi, Russia. Screengrab: Rossiya One TV Channel photo/AP

The black box, which was found by a remote-controlled underwater vehicle at a depth of around 55ft (17 metres) and 1 mile (1,600 metres) from the resort of Sochi, has been sent to a Defence Ministry facility in Moscow for analysis.

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“The casing holding the flight recorder is in a satisfactory condition,” the ministry said in a statement.

“After it is technically cleaned in distilled water we will start transcribing it.”

Fragments found

The ministry said numerous fragments of the plane had been found, including the engine, the landing gear and pieces of the fuselage.

The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying Russia had grounded all TU-154 planes until the cause of Sunday's crash became clear. There was no official confirmation of that.

The Defence Ministry says the downed jet, a Soviet-era plane built in 1983, had last been serviced in September and underwent more major repairs in December 2014.

Russian pilots say the TU-154 is still flightworthy, though major Russian commercial airlines have long since replaced it with Western-built planes.

Experts say only two are registered with Russian passenger airlines with the rest registered to various government ministries.

Polish elite

The last big TU-154 crash was in 2010 when a Polish jet carrying then-president Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland's political elite went down in western Russia, killing everyone on board.

The Interfax news agency, citing a law enforcement source, said a second flight recorder had also been found in the wreckage of Sunday’s crash, but not yet raised to the surface.

The Defence Ministry said that search and rescue teams have so far recovered 12 bodies and 156 body fragments.

Reuters