Russian military plane crashes in Black Sea with 92 on board
Members of famed Alexandrov Ensemble army choir among 91 aboard plane that crashes off Sochi coast, officials say.
A Russian military plane with 91 people on board, including a famed army choir, has crashed into the Black Sea shortly after taking off, the Russian defence ministry said.
Local news agencies, citing the defence ministry, said the Tu-154 plane had departed from the southern city of Adler in southern Russia on Sunday moring.
More than 60 members of the internationally-renowned Alexandrov Ensemble, the army’s official musical group, were on board the plane, the ministry said.
A list of passengers and crew published by the ministry showed that 64 members of the choir and its conductor Valery Khalilov were travelling to Syria to celebrate the New Year with Russian troops.
There was no word on possible survivors.
A defence ministry spokesman told Russian media that a body was recovered from the Black Sea after the Syria-bound plane crashed.
“The body of a person killed as a result the crash … was found six kilometres off the coast of Sochi,” defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told agencies.
“The body was taken on board of a rescue ship.”
Rescue teams also found debris at the suspected crash site 1.5 kilometres off the coast of Sochi at a depth of 50 to 70 metres.
Other news agencies reported that parts of the plane and undercarriage, and also an oil slick were found over an area covering several kilometres in the Black Sea.
The plane, which was on its way to Latakia in Syria, was carrying 81 passengers and 10 crew members, Interfax news agency reported.
The Tu-154 is a Soviet-designed three-engine airliner.
Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Moscow, said the plane disappeared from radar only minutes after takeoff.
“Reports here in Moscow are saying that the passengers included journalists and military personnel, in addition to members of the famous Alexandrov Ensemble,” Ghoneim said.
The Russian defence ministry said that the Alexandrov Ensemble was to perform at the Khmeimim airbase, Russia’s main base of operations for its military campaign in support of the Syrian government.
Russia has been supporting its longtime ally Syria with a bombing campaign against rebel groups for more than a year.
Rescue services of aviation units of the Southern Military District in Krasnodar and neighbouring regions were engaged in the search for the plane wreckage, the defence ministry said.