A Russian military airplane having 92 people, including dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members, crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday, killing each member on board, Russian officials stated.
The Russian Defence Ministry stated that among its TU-154 Tupolev planes had disappeared from radar screens at 0525 MSK (9.25 p.m. ET), 2 minutes right after taking off from Sochi in southern Russia, where it had stopped to refuel from Moscow, while heading to Syria.
Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a ministry representative, informed reporters that no one survived.
“The location of the crash site has been established. No survivors have been identified,” he informed. An unnamed ministry source inforrmed Russian news agencies no life rafts had been discovered, while another source told that the airplane had not sent an SOS signal.
In telecasted remarks, President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St Petersburg, declared December 26 a national day of mourning.
The jet, a Soviet-era Tupolev airplane made in 1983, had been carrying 84 passengers and eight crew members.
A minimum of 60 were members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, better known globally as the Red Army Choir, and were being flown out to country’s Hmeymim air base in Syria to entertain soldiers in the run-up to the New Year.
9 Russian press reporters were likewise on board in addition to military servicemen.
Konashenkov stated pieces of the airplane had been discovered at a depth of about 70 meters (backyards) in the Black Sea about 1.5 km (1 mile) off the coast close to the city of Sochi.
“The search operation remains ongoing,” stated Konashenkov. “4 ships, four helicopters, and an airplane and a drone are operating in the area,” he stated, adding that a military commission had gone to Sochi to look into exactly what happened.
6 ships from Russia’s Black Sea fleet were heading to the crash site, and over 100 scuba divers were being drafted to investigate the location together with a mini-submarine.
