Tu-154 plane’s flight data recorder recovered from water
The black box will soon be taken to Moscow for deciphering, according to the Russian Defense Ministry
MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. The flight data recorder of the Tu-154 plane of the Russian Defense Ministry that crashed in the Black Sea on Sunday has been pulled from the water, a law enforcement source told TASS. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed later that the black box had been recovered from the water.
"The parameter flight data recorder has been recovered from the water. The plane with the black box will soon depart from Sochi to Moscow where it will be deciphered by specialists of the Defense Ministry," the source said.
The main flight data recorder of the crashed Tu-154 plane will be taken to the Central Scientific and Research Institute of the Air Force in the Moscow Region in the coming hours, according to Russia's Defense Ministry:
"The main flight data recorder was found at 5.42 a.m. some 1,600 meters away from the coast at the depth of 17 meters by the Falcon search apparatus."
A Tu-154 plane from Russia’s Defense Ministry crashed in the early morning hours of December 25 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. Among those on the fatal flight was the Executive Director of the Spravedlivaya Pomoshch (Fair Aid) charity fund, Elizaveta Glinka, better known to the Russian public as Dr. Liza, as well as military servicemen and nine reporters from Russia's Channel One, Zvezda and NTV networks. The plane was also carrying nearly three dozen members of the world-renowned Alexandrov Ensemble, an official army choir of the Russian Armed Forces. The ensemble was on its way to celebrate New Year’s Eve with Russia’s Aerospace Forces at the Hmeymim air base in Syria.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that fragments from the Tu-154 disaster had been discovered some 1.5 kilometers off the coast of Sochi at depths of 50-70 meters. None of the passengers on the flight survived. According to the FSB’s latest conclusions, no evidence has been found linking the crash to terrorism.