But the committee that investigates plane crashes throughout much of the former Soviet Union said in a statement they had been badly damaged. The news conference was also addressed by James Vile, senior vice-president – flight operations, flydubai.
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“An event dedicated to the memory of the victims will be held outside the global terminal of the Rostov airport”, a regional official said, according to the government owned Tass news agency.
Yet Sergei Zaiko, deputy chairman of the committee, tried to offer some hope saying in separate remarks that the quality of material on the data recorder was high.
Investigators confirmed that all 55 passengers and seven crew including nine different nationalities, with 45 coming from Russian Federation died instantly and launched a criminal probe into whether pilot error, a technical fault or poor weather was to blame. Earlier reports had said the passengers were all Russian.
At the crash site, Russian workers finished their search of the snow-covered wreckage, having sifted more than 200 pieces of the victims’ bodies scattered across the airfield, Russian TV reported.
“In the immediate aftermath of the accident, we have been focusing on two key priorities: care for all those who have been affected by the accident and support for the investigating authorities as they work to identify the cause”, Al Ghaith said. Aeroflot made three attempts to land but both the Russian carrier and Czech Airlines diverted to Krasnodar, about 275 kilometers (171 miles) away, while Turkish Airlines returned to Istanbul.
Regarding speculation about the plane crash reasons, the CEO said: “We are aware that, in the course of the past 24 hours, there has been a great deal of speculation as to the cause of this tragedy”.
Flight FZ981 aborted its initial landing and spent two hours circling Rostov-on-Don airport before crashing about 800 feet from a runway during a second landing attempt.
Flydubai said in a statement it was organising hardship payments to families of the victims amounting to $20,000, which is £13,810 per passenger, in accordance with its conditions of carriage.
The airline has not cancelled or delayed any flights because of the crash, it added, and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the airport would reopen on Monday morning.
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The pilots had previously flown to the Russian airport, Ghaith said.
