MOSCOW —The Russian investigation into the crash of a military transport plane that killed dozens of members of the Red Army Choir is focusing on pilot error or a technical fault, rather than terrorism, a top official said Monday.
Sunday’s crash was the second national tragedy for Russia in less than a week, once again in the shadow of the country’s military involvement in Syria. Once again, the nation was left with more questions than answers.
Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said on television the main theories for the crash “do not include the idea of a terrorist act.”
“We are working on the assumption that the reasons for the catastrophe could have been technical or pilot error,” he said. All 92 people on board are believed to have died.
The crash shook Russia six days after its ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was killed in public by a man who shouted about the war in Syria after the shooting.
A beloved and prominent charity worker was also killed in the crash when the plunged into the Black Sea minutes after it took off en route to a military base in Syria
Russia’s special Investigative Committee, which opened a criminal inquiry, said it was considering all possibilities.
A massive sea and air search operation has been launched with some 3,500 people and 32 ships, including over a 100 divers from across the country.
The government has helicopters ships and submarines searching the Black Sea for debris and bodies, the Defense Ministry said.
[Russian jets keep crashing, and it may be an aircraft carrier’s fault]
Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a military spokesman, told reporters in Moscow that no one survived after the aging Soviet-era jet, which had set out from Moscow, crashed shortly after taking off from the Sochi airport. The plane did not send a distress signal.
The pilot was “first-class,” Konashenkov said, and the 33-year-old Tu-154 jet had been serviced recently.