Russia rules out terrorism in plane crash

Russian has ruled out terrorism as the cause of a military plane crash into the Black Sea that killed all 92 people aboard, the country’s transportation minister said Monday.

“As far as we know, an attack is not one of the main possibilities for the catastrophe,” Maxim Sokolov said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “We’re looking into either the technical condition [of the plane] or a pilot error.”

On Sunday, the Tu-154 passenger jet went down in the sea near the city of Sochi, with all 84 passengers and eight crew members believed to be dead. Among the passengers were more than 60 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, Russia’s world-famous official army choir that was flying to Syria to entertain Russian troops.

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Sokolov previously said that investigators were looking into all possible causes of the crash, including terrorism. 

On Monday, Sokolov said aviation experts and Russia’s main investigative body would continue to probe the causes, according to the Journal. He also reported Monday the first findings to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin has assigned to oversee the commission investigating the crash.

Recovery operations were also still ongoing Monday. Eleven bodies and 154 plane fragments were recovered in the first 24 hours of the search, said Pavel Popov, a Russian deputy defense minister, according to the Journal.

The Interfax news agency quoted a chief commander of Russian Aerospace forces as saying the so-called “black box” was in the tail of the plane and was likely intact since it appeared the plane hit the water with the bottom of its fuselage

Viktor Bondarev, the chief commander, also said he thinks Monday will be the day the recovery operations will be able to locate the plane at the bottom of the Black Sea.