Russian officials said Monday, Nov 18 that they located flight recorders from a Boeing 737 that crashed in the city of Kazan over the weekend, killing all 50 people on board.
The Interstate Aviation Committee said in a statement that the container carrying the recorders was seriously damaged, according to RIA Novosti.
The precise cause of the accident is not yet known, but terrorism has been ruled out.
Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov said the aircraft appears to have exploded, but that it was unclear if that happened while the plan was still in flight.
Those killed included Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov's son, Irek, and republican Federal Security Service department chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Antonov. One British national, 53-year-old education consultant Donna Bull, was also said to be among the dead.
The Tatarstan Airlines aircraft was bound from Moscow to Kazan and was carrying 44 passengers and six crew when it crashed Sunday around 7:30 pm local time (1530 GMT).
Crash investigators initially said the possible causes of the accident were a technical malfunction or pilot error. Flight recorders had not been located as of mid-morning Monday.
The head of the transportation department of the regional Investigation Committee, Alexander Poltinin, said the pilot made two attempts at landing the aircraft for unknown reasons.
A Kazan airport air traffic controller, Kirill Kornishin, told state broadcaster Rossiya-24 that the pilot reported a problem with the “landing configuration” as he began attempting a second approach.
“He reported that he was performing another circle, and I dictated the data to him, according to procedure, and that was that,” Kornishin said.
Deputy Emergency Situation Situations Minister Vladimir Stepanov said the process of retrieving bodies would be completed Monday.
“Not all the bodies have been located,” Stepanov said. “The main work will be completed today.” Stepanov said operations to sort through the wreckage would carry on into the week.
A source in the Federal Air Transport Agency said that the plane last underwent a full servicing in March 2012.
The Tatarstan Airlines plane had previously been in service with a number of other international companies, including low-cost airline Blue Air from 2005 to 2008.
A pilot with Blue Air told RIA Novosti on condition of anonymity that the company had experienced no problems with the aircraft while it was used by the company.
