Fuselage of crashed Russian plane found in Black Sea

The fuselage of the Russian plane, which crashed in the Black Sea on Sunday, was found by the search and rescue team.

Mocow, Dec 26: The Russian divers on Monday found the main body of the military plane that crashed in the Black Sea , an official told Russian news agencies.

"Divers... have found the fuselage of the plane that crashed yesterday in the Black Sea," agencies quoted a member of the emergency ministry's Sochi-based search and rescue team as saying.

The Russian military aircraft, with 92 persons on board, went off the radar and crashed over the black sea on Sunday.

"Fragments of the Tu-154 plane of the Russian defence ministry were found 1.5 kilometres from the Black Sea coast of the city of Sochi at a depth of 50 to 70 metres," the Russian defence ministry had said.

The plane had disappeared from the radar screens shortly after taking off at 5:40 AM (0810 IST) from the southern city of Adler, south of the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on December 25.

It was conducting a routine flight to Russia's Hmeimim airbase outside the coastal Syrian city of Latakia, the ministry said. The ministry said the plane was carrying Russian servicemen as well as members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the army's official musical group, who were headed to Syria to participate in New Year celebrations at the base. There were nine members of the media on board, the ministry had said.

PTI