MOSCOW – Russian divers on Tuesday morning retrieved the main black box data recorder from the wreckage of a Russian military jet that crashed mysteriously en route to Syria on Christmas Day, killing all 92 aboard.
The Tu-154 airliner, carrying military officers, journalists, musicians, a celebrity aid worker and eight crew, disappeared from radar just one minute after taking off from an airport in the southern Russian city of Sochi. It slammed into the Black Sea moments later.
Why the plane crashed remains a mystery. Investigators have suggested various accidental causes, including bad fuel or mechanical error, while politicians have sought to play down speculation about a possible act of terror.
In revenge for Russia’s intervention in Syria, a Russian passenger jet flying from Egypt was blown up in 2015, killing all 224 aboard.
Amid speculation over a mechanical malfunction, Russia’s security services were reported to have grounded all their in-service Tu-154s, a three-engine airliner that has become a staple of Russian commercial and official air travel since its inception in 1972.
Russian airlines have largely phased out the jet, but the plane has remained a workhorse of the Russian military, ferrying planeloads of officials and journalists back and forth to Syria since Russia intervened in the conflict last year.
The Tu-154 has also been involved in a number of high-profile crashes, including the 2010 accident near Smolensk that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and senior Polish officials.
Divers continued to recover bodies from the wreckage site on Tuesday.
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