MOSCOW: Investigators have recovered flight data recorders from the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Russia’s far east, killing 48 people, and will send them for analysis, Russian authorities said Friday.
The aircraft, an Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was making a second attempt to land in the remote Siberian town of Tynda when it disappeared from radar around 1:00 p.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Thursday.
A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 15 kilometers (nine miles) south of Tynda’s airport.
Prosecutors have not commented on what may have caused the crash, but a rescuer quoted by the TASS news agency said the twin-propeller plane — almost 50 years old — was attempting to land in thick cloud.
Investigators are looking into whether the crash was caused by technical malfunction or human error, the agency reported.
“The flight recorders have been found at the crash site and will be delivered to Moscow for decryption in the near future,” Russia’s transport ministry said in a statement.
Russian authorities have also launched an investigation into the plane’s operator, Angara Airlines, and whether it complied with regulations, it added.
“Based on the findings, a decision will be made on the company’s future operations,” the ministry said.
Angara Airlines, a small regional carrier based in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, said it was doing “everything possible to investigate the circumstances of the accident.”
The company’s CEO, Sergei Salamanov, told Russia’s REN TV channel on Thursday that it was the plane’s captain — an experienced pilot with 11,000 hours of flight time — who decided to make the flight.
“The weather forecast was unfavorable,” he said.
The plane came down in a hard-to-reach area and it took a ground rescue team hours to reach the site.
Russia’s transport ministry said the families of the 48 killed — six of whom were crew — would receive five million rubles’ ($63,000) compensation each.
The number killed could have risen to 49 if the Marina Avalyan, who was already sitting on the plane, had not been asked by her daughter to urgently get off and return home, according to a story reported by Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.
The daughter wanted Avalyan to look after her newborn baby, as she was taking her second child to a hospital, the daily said.
“I have no words to describe it: is this a miracle? Thank God she returned! My child has saved my mother,” Zimina told Argumenty i Fakty.
