SOCHI, Russia — The main black box of the Syria-bound Russian military plane that crashed into the Black Sea with 92 people onboard has been found in a massive ongoing search operation, authorities said Tuesday.
“The main black box was found at 5:42 a.m. Moscow time (0242 GMT) 1,600 meters from the shore at a depth of 17 meters,” the defense ministry said in a statement, adding that the device would be sent to the Moscow region to be deciphered by experts.
The Tu-154 jet, whose passengers included more than 60 members of the internationally renowned Red Army Choir, was heading to Russia’s military airbase in Syria when it went down off the coast of the resort city of Sochi shortly after takeoff on Sunday.
Investigators have yet to confirm the cause of the crash, but officials have said that an act of terror was not being considered as a possible explanation.
The finding of the black box comes as searchers are scrambling to recover bodies and remaining debris from the aircraft in an operation involving 192 divers, 45 vessels, 12 planes, five helicopters and 15 deep-water machines.
The defense ministry said that five plane fragments were found overnight 30 meters under water at around 1,700 meters from the shore.
