MOSCOW — A Russian military passenger plane carrying dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members plunged into the Black Sea minutes after it took off en route Sunday to a military base in Syria, killing all 92 people on board, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
Russian officials were ruling out terrorism as the cause of the crash, which the Defense Ministry said took place after the aging Soviet-era jet, which set out from Moscow, made refueling stop at the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a Russian military spokesman, told reporters that no one survived.
“The area of the crash site has been established. No survivors have been spotted,” he said.
Russian news agencies reported that the plane had 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. 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 Dec. 26 a national day of mourning.
The jet, carrying 84 passengers and eight crew members, was bound for the Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia.
The Defense Ministry published on its website a list of passengers, who, it said, 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.
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.
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. Nine Russian journalists, including a TV crew from Channel One, were also among the passengers.
U.S. Amabassadar 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 midrange 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.
No comments:
Write comments