A Russian military plane crashed Sunday in the Black Sea as
it made its way to Syria with 92 people onboard, including more than 60
Red Army Choir members heading to celebrate the New Year with troops.
Local news agencies, citing the defence ministry, said the
Tu-154 plane had crashed shortly after take-off at 5:40 am local time
(0240 GMT) from the southern city of Adler where it had been refuelling.
Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian
news agencies that one body had been recovered six kilometres off the
coast of the resort city of Sochi, as a frantic search operation
continued to hunt for the missing.
“Fragments of the Tu-154 plane of the Russian defence
ministry were found 1.5 kilometres from the Black Sea coast of the city
of Sochi at a depth of 50 to 70 metres,” the ministry said.
The plane had been on a routine flight to Russia’s Hmeimim
airbase in western Syria, which has been used to launch air strikes in
Moscow’s military campaign supporting its ally President Bashar al-Assad
in the country’s devastating civil war.
Among the plane’s 84 passengers were Russian servicemen as
well as 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the army’s official
musical group also known as the Red Army Choir, and its conductor Valery
Khalilov. They were headed to Syria to participate in New Year
celebrations at the airbase.
There were also eight crew members onboard, the ministry said.
Nine journalists were among the passengers, with state-run
channels Pervy Kanal, NTV and Zvezda saying they each had three staff
onboard the flight.
A list of passengers published by the defence ministry also
included Elizaveta Glinka, a doctor and charity worker who serves on the
Kremlin human rights council.
Mikhail Fedotov, who heads the council, said Glinka was
travelling to Syria to bring medication to a university hospital in the
coastal city of Latakia near the airbase, agencies reported.
– ‘Too early’ –
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies that
President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the situation and was
being kept updated on the search operation.
“It’s too early to say anything,” agencies quoted Peskov as
saying, adding that Putin was in constant contact with Defence Minister
Sergei Shoigu.
“The president is waiting for the picture to be clear.”
Konashenkov said that Deputy Defence Minister Pavel Popov
had flown to Adler along with a team tasked with clarifying the
circumstances surrounding the crash.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said a criminal probe had
been launched to determine whether violations of air transportation
safety had led to the crash.
Investigators are currently questioning the technical
personnel responsible for preparing the plane for take-off, the
committee said.
Tu-154 aircraft have been involved in a number of accidents in the past.
In April 2010 many high-ranking Polish officials, including
then president Lech Kaczynski, were killed when a Tu-154 airliner went
down in thick fog while approaching the Smolensk airport in western
Russia.
Moscow has been conducting a bombing campaign in Syria in
support of Assad since September 2015 and has taken steps to boost its
presence in the country.
In October, Putin approved a law ratifying Moscow’s deal
with Damascus to deploy its forces in the country indefinitely, firming
up Russia’s long-term presence in Syria.
Russian warplanes have flown out of the Hmeimim base to
conduct air strikes, and the base is also home to an S-400 air defence
system.
afp
