Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a Russian military spokesman, told reporters that no one survived after the aging Soviet-era jet, which originally set out from Moscow, crashed shortly a refueling stop at the airport in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
“The area of the crash site has been established,” Konashenkov said. “No survivors have been spotted.”
Russian news agencies reported that the plane had not sent a distress signal before disappearing from the radar and that no life rafts had been found by 3,000 people engaged in the recovery. Konashenkov described the captain of the jet as an experienced “first-class pilot.”
In nationally televised comments, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking in St. Petersburg, declared Dec. 26 a national day of mourning and said the cause of the crash would be carefully investigated.
Earlier Sunday, Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee in the upper house of Russian parliament, said in remarks carried by the state news agency RIA Novosti that he “totally excludes” terrorism as a possible cause. The news agency Interfax quoted a law enforcement source as saying that the aircraft took off from a heavily guarded military aerodrome outside Moscow.
