Tri-Service

92 Believed Dead After Russian Military Plane Crash In Black Sea

A Russian military plane has crashed into the Black Sea, with all 92 people on board believed to have died.

Investigators are now looking into all possible reasons for the crash including the option of a terror attack, Moscow's transport minister said.

Earlier, a Russian official had downplayed any suggestion of a terror attack.

But on Sunday afternoon, after being asked if investigators are looking into a possible terror attack, minister Maxim Sokolov said an "entire spectrum" of possible reasons is being considered.

He added it was premature to speculate about the cause of Sunday's crash.

Rescuers have so far recovered 10 bodies.

The Tu-154 plane belonging to the Defence Ministry crashed into the Black Sea two minutes after take-off on Sunday morning from the Russian city of Sochi.

Sochi seen from the Black Sea

The plane was heading to Syria, carrying members of the world-famous Russian Army choir to a New Year concert at the Russian military base in the country.

The Alexandrov Ensemble was to perform in a holiday concert at the Hemeimeem air base, in Syria's coastal province of Latakia.

Ships, helicopters and drones are searching the area for more bodies.

A total of 84 passengers and eight crew members were on the plane when it disappeared from radars two minutes after taking off in good weather.

Emergency crews found fragments less than one mile from shore. There was no immediate word on the cause.

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defence affairs committee at the upper house of the Russian parliament, said the crash could have been caused by a technical malfunction or a crew error, but he believes it could not have been terrorism because the plane was operated by the military.

"I totally exclude" the idea of an attack bringing down the plane, he said in remarks carried by state RIA Novosti news agency.

The passenger list released by the Defence Ministry included 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, among them its leader, Valery Khalilov. The ensemble is the official choir of the Russian military and also includes a band and a dance company.

Nine Russian journalists, including a TV crew from Channel One, were also among the passengers.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was personally co-ordinating the rescue efforts, and President Vladimir Putin has received official reports.

The Tu-154 is a Soviet-built three-engine airliner designed in the late 1960s. More than 1,000 have been built, and they have been used extensively by carriers in Russia and worldwide.

In recent years, Russian airlines have replaced their Tu-154s with more modern planes, but the military and some other government agencies in Russia have continued to use them.

While noisy and fuel-guzzling by modern standards, the plane has been popular with crews that appreciate its manoeuvrability and ruggedness. Veteran pilot Oleg Smirnov said in televised remarks:

"It's an excellent plane, which has proven its reliability during decades of service."

The plane that crashed was built in 1983, and underwent repairs in 2014, according to the Defence Ministry.

In April 2010, a Tu-154 carrying Polish president Lech Kaczynski and 95 others crashed while trying to land in bad weather at a sporadically-used military airport in Smolensk in western Russia, killing everyone on board.

Investigations by both Polish and Russian experts blamed pilot error in bad weather conditions, but Polish authorities have launched a new probe.