MYTISHCHI /Moscow region/, January 16. /TASS/. The funerals for 47 victims of the Tu-154 aircraft crash have been held on Monday in the Federal military memorial cemetery in Mytishchi near Moscow.
On Monday, the funerals for crew members of the Tu-154 aircraft, head of the Defense Ministry’s Culture Department Anton Gubankov, members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, an official army choir of the Russian Armed Forces, and four reporters, whose families requested they be buried in this cemetery, took place.
In late 2016, Oksana Badrutdinova, aid to Anton Gubankov, who had also died in the crash, was buried in this cemetery.
Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu, Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov, members of the cabinet, the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) and the State Duma (lower house) as well as family members, friends and colleagues of the departed attended the funerals.
The Tu-154 crash occurred on December 25, 2016. The aircraft, en route to Syria, crashed shortly after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi. There were 92 people on board the aircraft, including eight crew members and 84 passengers that lost their lives in the plane disaster. The plane was carrying nearly three dozen members of the Alexandrov Ensemble as well as charity activist Elizaveta Glinka and nine Russian reporters.