Russian military jet crashes into Black Sea with 91 onboard, body found

Sochi (Russia): Russia's defence ministry said a body had been recovered from the Black Sea after a Syria-bound military plane carrying 91 people crashed Sunday, local news agencies reported.

"The body of a person killed as a result the crash of the Russian defence ministry's Tu-154 was found six kilometres off the coast of Sochi," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told agencies. "The body was taken on board of a rescue ship."

The Russian military plane with 91 passengers on board went missing on Sunday just minutes after take-off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Local news agencies, citing the defence ministry, said the Tu-154 plane had crashed shortly after taking off from the southern city of Adler, south of the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, at 5:40 am local time (0240 GMT).

Its debris was soon found in the Black Sea, along with luggage belonging to passengers.

"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, adding that search and rescue groups had been dispatched earlier Sunday to locate the missing.

It was conducting a routine flight to Russia's Hmeimim airbase outside the coastal Syrian city of Latakia, the ministry said.

A military music band and reporters were aboard the aircraft. There were nine members of the media on board.

The plane disappeared from radar 20 minutes after take-off at 05:20 local time (7:40 am IST).

The aircraft went missing as it was manoeuvring over Russia's territorial waters.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that President  Vladimir Putin had been informed of the situation.

Among its 83 passengers were Russian servicemen as well as members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the army's official musical group internationally known as the Red Army Choir, who were headed to Syria to participate in New Year celebrations at the airbase.

There were also eight crew members onboard, the ministry said.

Nine members of the media were among the passengers, with state-run channel Pervy Kanal saying three of its staff were onboard the flight.

Moscow has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria since September 2015 in support of long-time ally Bashar al-Assad.

Russia's Investigative Committee said that a criminal probe had been launched to determine whether violations of air transportation safety had led to the crash.

Investigators are currently questioning the technical personnel responsible for preparing the plane for take-off, the committee said.

Tu-154 aircraft have been involved in a number of accidents in the past.

In April 2010 many high-ranking Polish officials, including then president Lech Kaczynski, were killed when a Tu-154 airliner went down in thick fog while approaching the Smolensk airport in western Russia.

Moscow has been conducting a bombing campaign in Syria in support of long-time ally President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015 and has taken steps to boost its presence in the country.

Putin in October approved a law ratifying Moscow's deal with Damascus to deploy its forces in the country indefinitely, firming Russia's long-term presence in the country.

Russian warplanes have flown out of the Hmeimim base to conduct air strikes in Syria, and the base is also home to an S-400 air defence system.