Russia searches for plane crash victims

Offifficial: Terrorism unlikely in crash that killed 92.

SOCHI, RUSSI A — Ru s s i a m o u n t e d a n e x p a n s i v e search- and- recovery operation in the Black Sea on Monday for the passengers and the fuselage of a military passenger plane that crashed a day earlier, killing all 92 people on board, including dozens of members of a storied army choir.

In Moscow, famous performers and ordinary citizens, some of them in tears, d r o p p e d f l o we r s a t t h e entrance to the headquarters of the choir, the Alexandrov Ensemble. Another mountain of red carnations and candles piled up outside the Ostankino television center as a tribute to nine journalists who were accompanying the choir to the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria.

The plane was carrying 68 performers and staffff members of the ensemble, including an army choir and orchestra loved for its renditions of classical Russian songs and folk tunes.

The most likely area where the plane plunged into the water moments after taking offff from the southwestern resort city of Sochi has been identifified, said Lt. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, commander of the Russian air force.

Bondarev said that he did not expect the plane’s fifin, where the flflight recorders are situated, to be as damaged as the fuselage, raising hopes that the recorders might be intact.

Several chunks of the fuselage were located Monday on the seabed about a mile offffffffffffshore, initially by sonar and then by divers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations announced.

Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov, who is leading a commission looking into the crash, said that terrorism had not been ruled out, but that it was unlikely to be the cause of the crash of the Tupolev 154, which was flflying members of the choir and others to Syria for a New Year’s Eve concert for troops stationed at an air base near Latakia.

“In order to organize our work, we need to understand what happened,” Sokolov said. “As far as we know, the main versions do not include the terrorist act, so we base our work on the premise that technical malfunction or pilot’s error caused the catastrophe.”

S o m e a n a l y s t s h a v e pointed to the possibilit y of terrorism, citing the sudden disappearance of the airplane from radar screens and the lack of an emergency call from the pilot.

At the same time, offifficials emphasized that the airplane should have been technically sound, because it underwent repairs and resumed service in December 2014, and the pilot was experienced and had 1,900 hours of flflying time at the control of Tupolev 154s.

“The plane was technically fit,” Bondarev said. “The pilot was well prepared.”

Criminal investigators as well as a Defense Ministry committee are in charge of determining the cause of the crash.

Search efffffffffffforts involving 45 ships and 135 divers continued Monday.

The bodies of 10 victims, as well as dozens of body parts that have been recovered, were f l own to Moscow for identifification, Russian offifficials said.