FlyDubai’s Boeing 737-800 nosedived and exploded in a giant fireball before dawn on Saturday on the runway of Rostov-on-Don after trying to land for a second time in strong winds.
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EPAFootage appears to show the Flydubai plane on fire before it crashed near a Russian airport What happened can not be expressed with any words. “We fully trust the Russian authorities in this. We can confirm that both black box flight recorders have been recovered from the crash site by the local accident investigation team and we continue to do all we can to assist their work”.
“The received recorders are badly damaged mechanically”, Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said in a statement on its website, alongside a photo of a crumpled recorder.
Belyaev noted that his ministry would continue identification of the bodies, collecting DNA samples and working with the families of the victims.
“State flags of Russian Federation, flags of the region and municipalities will be flown at half-mast across the region”. He expects the airport to open early Monday.
Thirty-three of the passengers were women, 18 were men and four were children.
Russian investigators are mystified by a plunge that led to the crash of a FlyDubai 737 that killed all 62 aboard in Russia.
FlyDubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith confirmed the crash of flight FZ981 in a video on Saturday, March 19, and promised to do?everything we can? to help those affected.
At about the same time, flights operated by Aeroflot PJSC, Czech Airlines and Turkish Airlines were due to land in Rostov-on-Don but opted to re-route, according to information from independent tracking service Flightradar24.com. “We are making arrangements for the families who wish to visit the scene of the accident, to do so”, he said.
Authorities have ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash.
The investigating group of experts from different countries will investigate whether the crash was caused by pilot error in the bad weather conditions, or whether it was a mechanical issue.
But according to news agency dpa, while the FlyDubai fight circled over Rostov-on-Don two other planes – one belonging to Russia’s Aeroflot and another to Czech Airlines – were diverted to the airport in Krasnodar 155 miles away.
U.S.-based Boeing says it stands ready to provide technical assistance upon request of the government agencies involved.
Flydubai chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith told a press conference over the weekend that it was too early to tell exactly what happened.
The pilots were “quite experienced”, he said.
The company said the Cypriot pilot and Spanish co-pilot each had almost 6,000 hours of flying experience.
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Ghaith also said the airline has set up call centers for relatives of passengers.
