Russian military plane Tu-154 carrying 91 people crashes, debris found in Black Sea

A Russian military plane carrying 91 people had disappeared from radar after taking off from the southern city of Adler.

Moscow: Debris from a Russian military plane carrying 91 people that had disappeared from radars has been found in the Black Sea, local news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying on Sunday.

"Fragments of the Tu-154 plane of the Russian defence ministry were found 1.5 kilometres from the Black Sea coast of the city of Sochi at a depth of 50 to 70 metres," the ministry said.

The Russian military plane carrying 91 people had disappeared from radar after taking off from the southern city of Adler, local news agencies reported the defence ministry as saying on Sunday.

The ministry said that there were 83 passengers and 8 crew members on board, and that search and rescue groups had been dispatched to locate the missing Tu-154.

The plane vanished from the radar screens after departing from the resort city of Sochi, authorities said.

The Tu-154 aircraft is not a civilian one and was en route to the Syrian port city of Latakia, an Emergency Ministry source told Sputnik News Agency. It lost contact with land over the Black Sea.

"The jet disappeared from radars about 20 minutes after takeoff, it departed (from Sochi) at 5.20 a.m., and the contact was lost at about 5.40 a.m.," he said.

The people onboard included journalists, military personnel, musicians, the source said.

Tu-154

The Tu-154 is a three-engine medium-range airliner produced by Russian aerospace and defence company Tupolev. It is one of the fastest civilian aircraft in use and widely used in extreme Arctic conditions.