'Body' of crashed Russian military jet found in search for black box

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Investigators have located more wreckage in the search for the black boxes of the Russian military jet which crashed in the Black Sea on Sunday, killing all 92 people on board.

The Tu-154 airliner left the resort city of Sochi bound for Syria on Sunday morning, but disappeared from radar just two minutes after take-off.

Authorities had suggested they might struggle to locate the plane’s black box recorders, which had no beacon device to assist rescuers, and with the crash site spanning a large sea area.

At midday on Monday there were conflicting reports on the extent of what had been found. The AFP news agency cited a member of the emergency ministry’s Sochi-based search and rescue team saying “divers ... have found the fuselage of the plane that crashed yesterday in the Black Sea”.

The Associated Press also reported the “fuselage” had been found, before a statement from the ministry said “fragments” of debris had been found and the divers were going back into the water to search for more.

Earlier, Russia’s FSB intelligence agency said it saw no signs of a possible terror plot in Sunday’s plane crash.

The agency said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies that it was focusing the probe on possibilities including pilot error, low quality of fuel, external objects getting in the engine or an unspecified technical fault.

The passengers on board included dozens of singers in Russia’s world-famous military choir, nine Russian journalists and a Russian doctor known for her charity work in war zones.

The loss of so many talented colleagues is devastating to members of the Russian Defence Ministry choir who did not get on the plane that crashed into the Black Sea.

The choir was on its way to perform a New Year’s concert at a Russian air base in Syria when their plane crashed Sunday right after takeoff from Sochi. All 92 people aboard are presumed dead.

Vadim Ananyev, a soloist for the Alexandrov Ensemble, had gotten permission to skip the concert to help his wife as they just had a new baby.

Ananyev tells The Associated Press “I have lost my friends and colleagues, all killed, all five soloists — I feel in complete disarray.”

He says: ”It is such a shame. I have known these people for 30 years. I know their wives and children. I feel terrible for the children and for all that I have lost.”

Ananyev says he has received condolences from all over Russia and from abroad.