A Russian Tupolev Tu-154 airliner with 92 passengers on board crashed in the Black Sea at 5:25’ a.m. local time (2:40’ GMT). The airplane took off from Adler near Sochi and it was on its way to the Russian Hmeymim airbase in Latakia, Syria, carrying the famous Alexandrov Ensamble (a.k.a. Red Army Choir) for a concert ahead of New Year’s Eve.
The Tu-154 was built in 1983 and it had gone through scheduled maintenance last September. According to the information available so far, the pilot was very experienced.
An investigation has been ordered by Vladimir Putin is order to shed light into the reason of the crash.
So far, the possibility of bad weather or a terrorist attack seem to be ruled out, and the investigation is focusing on the safety procedures prior to take off and the possibility of human error.
According to Interfax, the pilots did not make any distress call of any kind.
On board the flight were also journalists and TV crew from three Russian TV stations, Channel One Russia, NTV, και Zvezda.
There is a huge salvage operation going on at the moment on the crash site, that includes six Russian Navy ships, four SAR vessels, four helicopters, one airplane, a number of UAVs and more than 100 divers.
The 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensamble were traveling without the orchestra, since the concert would have recorded music on the background.
