A Russian military plane carrying 92 people, including dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members, crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday, killing everyone on board, Russian authorities said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said one of its TU-154 Tupolev planes had disappeared from radar screens at 0525 MSK (9.25 p.m. ET), two minutes after taking off from Sochi in southern Russia, where it had stopped to refuel from Moscow, on its way to Syria, Reuters reported. Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a ministry spokesman, told reporters that nobody had survived.
"The area of the crash site has been established. No survivors have been spotted," he said.
In televised comments, President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St Petersburg, declared December 26 a national day of mourning. Nine Russian reporters were also on board as well as military servicemen. Konashenkov said four bodies had been recovered from the sea. Russian news agencies cited a higher figure.
Russia's RIA news agency, citing an unidentified security source, said preliminary information indicated that the plane had crashed because of a technical malfunction or a pilot error. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was too early to say what had caused the crash.
"Putin was being kept constantly informed of the latest developments," Peskov said.
The last big TU-154 crash was in 2010 when a Polish jet carrying then-president Lech Kaczynski and much of Poland's political elite crashed in western Russia killing everyone on board.
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