Source says military Tu-154 plane crashed at 510 kilometers per hour

MOSCOW, December 27. /TASS/. The Russian Defense Ministry’s Tupolev-154 plane that crashed into the Black Sea on December 25 was trying to make a right turn seconds before the disaster. It was flying at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour with its nose high up, a source in the law enforcement has told TASS.

"The crash occurred while the pilots were retracting spoilers (when extracted the spoilers increase the plane’s airlift - TASS). For yet to be established reasons the plane’s pitch angle was too great. Apparently the plane deviated from its designated path while making a right turn. As a result it flew into the water at a speed of about 510 kilometers per hour," the source said.

A source close to the investigation has told TASS the plane’s pitch angle was too high and it was being rocked from side to side. The pitch angle is the angle between the plane’s longitudinal axis and the horizontal plane. If the angle is too high, the plane’s nose is too high and the plane may lose the airlift.

Sources do not rule out that the plane may have crashed as a result of a combination of several factors, including the crew’s error and problems with one of the engines.

The Tupolev-154 crashed early in the morning on December 25 shortly after takeoff from Adler Airport. It had 92 people on board: eight crew, military servicemen, TV camera crews, human rights activist Yelizaveta Glinka and the Russian Army’s Aleksandrov Song and Dance Company. They were on the way to Syria with New Year greetings for the Russian aerospace group at Hmeymim. One of the plane’s flight recorders has been recovered from the seabed and delivered to Moscow for retrieving data.