Another black box from Russian plane found in Black Sea

By Hakan Ceyhan Aydogan

MOSCOW (AA) - Another black box from the Russian plane which went down over the Black Sea on Sunday, killing all 92 people on board, was found Wednesday, said Russia’s Defense Ministry.

The box will be taken to Moscow to help determine the cause of the crash, the ministry said in a statement.

The first flight recorder of the Tu-154 plane was found early Tuesday about 1.6 kilometers off the coast of the resort city of Sochi at a depth of 17 meters.

The statement also said a total of 17 bodies were retrieved from the Black Sea and 13 were sent to Moscow’s Bureau of Forensic Medicine.

About 1,500 pieces of the plane have been found, it added.

The aircraft was en route to Syria’s Latakia to take part in a New Year's concert when it disappeared from radar after taking off from Sochi.

In addition to 64 members of the Red Army Choir or Alexandrov Ensemble, the crash’s 92 victims include nine journalists, eight soldiers, two Defense Ministry officials, and one member of an NGO.