SOCHI, Russia, Dec. 25 (UPI) — A Russian military plane en route to Syria crashed in the Black Sea near Sochi, with 92 passengers presumed dead, including the country’s official Army choir, Russian’s Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee at the upper house of the Russian parliament, “totally excludes” terrorism as a possible cause of the crash. He speculated it could have crashed because of a technical malfunction or pilot error.
The Defense Ministry said wreckage from the Tu-154 was found in the Black Sea one mile from Sochi, according to state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Parts of the plane and an oily spot were found 3.7 miles from the coast,” a source told state-run news agency TASS.
The Tu-154, carrying 84 passengers and a crew of eight, disappeared form radar Sunday morning after departing from Adler airport near Sochi.
The plane first took off from Moscow and headed to the Russian Hmeymim airbase in Latakia, Syria, for a concert ahead of New Year’s Eve. The Alexandrov Ensemble was “flying to congratulate Russian air force pilots in Syria with the New Year,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashekov said.
Ten bodies was brought on a rescue vessel, and one of the victims was found more than 3e miles off the Sochi shore, Konashenkov said.
Four ships and five helicopters were dispatched to search the crash site.
The plane first landed in Sochi for refueling, the Defense Ministry’s press office said via Russia’s Interfax news agency.
No major weather patterns were present when the plane disappeared, CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.
On board were 64 members of the choir, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Valery Kahlilov, the ensemble’s conductor, was a passenger.
The Alexandrov Ensemble formed in 1928 and was dubbed “Russia’s singing weapon” in world tours. They were to entertain troops at Russia’s Hmeymim air base.
“The orchestra did not fly because [the choir] was supposed to use pre-recorded music,” a singer in the choir Sergei Khlopnikov, who didn’t make the trip because his daughter was sick, told the Interfax news agency.
A few dancers were also onboard along with Elizaveta Glinka, a prominent charity activist and humanitarian worker best known by her blogger nickname “Doctor Liza.” Also on the plane were nine journalists, including three reporters with Star TV, and eight military members, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry.
The plane was built in 1983 and had 6,689 hours of flight. The last repair was on Dec. 29, 2014, and it underwent scheduled maintenance last September, the Defense Ministry said.
The pilot was identified as Roman Volkov with more than 3,000 hours of flying, the Defense Ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to lead an investigation of the crash, the Kremlin said.
He told reporters that Monday will be “a national day of mourning.”
