MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investigators found Monday the black box of a civilian plane that crashed near Moscow and killed all 71 passengers, a major step toward finding out why.
An AFP correspondent saw hundreds of Russian personnel inspecting the crash site for debris and debris, passing trucks, automatic skis, snowmobiles and a helicopter.
According to the State Aviation Commission, the black box containing the flight data was found, adding that "specialists have begun to open it to study and analyze the information."
The Commission confirmed that "more than 400 pieces of the plane were found" within 27 hectares.
The Antonov 148, a two-engine aircraft belonging to the Saratov airline introduced in 2010, crashed Sunday near Moscow shortly after taking off from Domodedovo airport.
The plane disappeared from radar screens at 14.28 local time (1128 GMT), four minutes after taking off, and crashed about 70 km southeast of Moscow, near the village of Stepanovskoy.
The Russian authorities said they were studying all the possible assumptions of the crash, including climate conditions, the human factor, and technical problems, without referring to the hypothesis of terrorist action.
Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said at a meeting that about 1,000 people and 200 cars were involved in the search and that the operation would last for about a week.
On Friday night, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Butchkov said the search would last for about a week "because of the debris scattered over a large area and the snow falling."
The list of victims included Swiss, Azerbaijani and Kazakh women, and three children, the youngest of whom is in his fifth year.
The Swiss, who died in the crash, was an engineer at Burkhard Compression and was heading for Ursk in Orenburg to take part in the opening of a new unit at a local refinery, the company said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was in contact with its relatives.
Russian authorities announced the opening of an official investigation to determine whether there had been any violation of safety rules.
The inquiry questioned staff at Saratov Airlines, airport employees who had seen the plane before take-off and air traffic controllers. No problem was reported in the plane before taking off, according to the committee.
Saratov said in a statement that the plane was introduced in 2010 and that it underwent comprehensive maintenance in January, did not show any defect or technical problem.
The company has announced a "temporary" suspension to use the relatively modern model of Antonov.
The Antonov 148 took off in 2004 and can carry up to 85 passengers at 3,500 kilometers.
Since its introduction, the model has been exposed to at least five accidents related to the landing system, electronic system and routing systems.
Saratov relies mainly on Russian Antonov and Yakovlev planes, and its planes have not suffered any casualties since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It flies to Russian cities and capitals of the Caucasus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to go to Sochi on Monday, preferring to stay in the Kremlin and "permanently" look into the progress of the investigation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
In December 2016, a Tupolev-154 military plane carrying the famous Red Army choir crashed after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing 92 passengers on board, including 60 members of the choir.
The choir was due to host an entertainment party for Russian troops operating in Syria. The pilot's fault was the cause of the tragic accident.
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