Russia: Boeing black box opened, recording quality good

The black box of the "Fly Dubai" plane, which, under gusts of strong wind, crashed yesterday at the airport near Rostov-on-Don in Russia, has been opened, and the quality of the records is good, the head of the Interstate Aviation Committee, Segey Zaiko, said today.

Zaiko stated that the black box was recording until the spacecraft crashed.

At the same time, it was announced that the runway, which was damaged on Saturday due to the crash of the plane, will be opened tomorrow at eight o'clock in the morning Moscow time, reported Tas s.

As announced, the first plane to land on that runway will be the "An-148" of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The black boxes, which were delivered to Moscow this morning, are being examined by experts from Russia, the United Arab Emirates, France and the USA, since the crashed "Boeing", which is American-made, had engines produced in France, according to AP.

To the airport in Rostov-on-Don, 950 kilometers south of Moscow, a day after all 62 passengers and crew members of the downed plane lost their lives in an accident, hundreds of people headed today to lay candles, flowers and toys in memory of the dead.

During this time, some media claimed that the aircraft caught fire before it hit the ground, referring to a video of the Boeing crash that appeared on the Internet, allegedly showing the plane catching fire while still in the air, and was released by the Russian " Life News".

Some experts, however, claim that the glare seen in the video actually originates from the landing lights.

The operation to search the site of the plane crash near Rostov-on-Don has been completed, Russian Minister of Transport Maksim Sokolov announced today, adding that the identification of the body will take at least another two weeks.

The analysis of the found parts of the plane will continue in order to determine the cause of the accident, as well as the identification of the dead and cooperation with the families of the victims.

The Russian authorities consider three basic versions of the Fly Dubai plane crash near Rostov-on-Don: technical malfunction, complex weather conditions and pilot error.

The AP said, citing expert testimony, that several planes had problems landing at the airport at the time of the crash, with one of them attempting to land three times before giving up and diverting to another airport.

One TV footage shows the plane descending steeply and exploding, leaving a large crater on the runway.