The flight recorders from the Russian Tu-134 passenger plane that crashed on Monday near the northern city of Petrozavodsk have all the necessary information for an investigation, the Interstate Aviation Committee’s (MAK) press service of said on Wednesday.
“All the data on the magnetic tapes have been copied and are currently being examined in terms of quality and completeness of the information. All the flight recorders were operational and registered the information,” MAK said.
The RusAir Tu-134 jet took off from Moscow and was due to arrive in Petrozavodsk, the capital of Karelia, at 12:04 a.m. on Tuesday (20:04 GMT Monday), but crash landed on a nearby highway, which was shrouded in fog.
The aircraft broke up and burst into flames on impact. Initially eight of the 52 people on board survived and were taken to local hospitals. On Wednesday a 10-year old boy, injured in the crash, died in a hospital, bringing the death toll to 45.
Soon after the crash, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov blamed the incident on a combination of pilot error and bad weather.