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Russian military plane crashes into Black Sea, killing 92 passengers and crew

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Russian officials said they cannot rule out terrorism in the Russian military passenger plane crash which plunged into the Black Sea minutes after it took off on Sunday, en route to a military base in Syria, killing all 92 people on board.

Russia's transport minister says investigators are looking into all possible reasons for the crash, including the option of a terror attack.

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92 feared dead in Russian military jet crash

A Russian military jet crashes en route to Syria carrying dozens of the Red Army Choir on Sunday. The defence ministry says there are no survivors.

Earlier, a Russian official had downplayed any suggestion of terrorism. But on Sunday afternoon, after being asked if investigators are looking into a possible terror attack, minister Maxim Sokolov said an "entire spectrum" of possible reasons is being considered.

He added it was premature to speculate about what caused the tragedy in which dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members lost their lives.

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The news site fontana.ru cited military sources as saying that Russia's Federal Security Service was still looking into the possibility that an act of terrorism brought down the jet.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, a Russian military spokesman, told reporters that no one survived after the aging Soviet-era jet, which originally set out from Moscow, crashed shortly after a refuelling stop at the airport in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

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"The area of the crash site has been established," Konashenkov said. "No survivors have been spotted."

Russian news agencies reported that the plane crashed about two minutes after taking off in good weather. It had not sent a distress signal before disappearing from the radar, and no life rafts had been found by 3,000 people engaged in the recovery. Konashenkov described the captain of the jet as an experienced "first-class pilot."

In nationally televised comments, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St Petersburg, declared December 26 a national day of mourning and said the cause of the crash would be carefully investigated.

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, said in remarks carried by the state news agency RIA Novosti that he "totally excludes" terrorism as a possible cause. He cited among his reasons the fact that the aircraft took off from a heavily guarded military aerodrome in Moscow.

Konashenkov said the jet, a Tupolev 154 passenger liner built in 1983, last underwent repairs in December 2014 and had since been fully serviced. Russia's special Investigative Committee announced that it had opened a criminal inquiry. As of late Sunday afternoon, the remains of 10 passengers had been recovered.

Among the victims was Yelizaveta Glinka, known in Russia as "Doctor Liza," who had won broad acclaim for her charity work, which included missions to the war zone in eastern Ukraine. Her foundation announced that she was accompanying a shipment of medicines for a hospital in Syria.

"War is hell on Earth, but we are convinced that good will conquer because it is stronger than any weapon," Glinka was shown saying at a recent ceremony replayed on Russian state television.

The Defense Ministry published on its website a list of passengers, who included members of the famed Alexandrov ensemble, better known internationally as the Red Army Choir, heading to Syria to entertain troops for the coming New Year holiday. Among those who were aboard the plane, according to the lists, was artistic director Valery Khalilov. Nine Russian journalists were also among the passengers.

US Ambassador John Tefft joined other diplomats and international leaders in offering condolences.

The Tu-154 is a Soviet-built, three-engine airliner designed in the late 1960s that was the workhouse of the Soviet, and later Russian, fleet of intermediate range passenger jets. In recent years, Russian airlines have replaced the jets with modern aircraft – often manufactured by Boeing or Airbus – but the military and some other government agencies in Russia have continued to use them.

Russia's minister for industry and trade said on Sunday that it was too early to make a decision about whether to take the jets out of service.

"There are a lot of aircraft in the world that are no longer being produced but are still being flown," said the official, Denis Manturov.

"First we need to finish the investigation and understand the reasons (for the crash), and then make decisions."

The Washington Post

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