Russia's airline regulator said that the flight recorders from a passenger jet which crashed in southern Russia killing all 62 aboard are badly damaged.
ADVERTISEMENTTrying to make sense of the tragedy, mourners gather outside the airport in Rostov-on-Don where a FlyDubai flight crashed overnight on Friday killing all 62 people aboard.
Most of those travelling on the passenger jet were Russian citizens. Children’s toys piled up in tribute to four children who lost their lives in the crash.
“It makes your heart sink,” said one woman arriving with flowers at the memorial site. “We knew many people (on the flight), that’s why we all came here. We worked with them.”
Rescue teams were replaced by investigators at the scene of the crash on Sunday as they try to piece together the clues. A tough task with news that the flight recorders were badly damaged and may take a month to decode.
#Flydubai crash: Flight #recorders 'significantly damaged', say officials. Pictures here https://t.co/Gq4EKO42×4
— Gulf Business (@GulfBusiness) March 20, 2016
But this has not stopped speculation over the causes. Ex-pilot Yury Sytnik questions the pilots actions asking why he circled for two hours, when he could have landed in Krasnodar. He added that, “Moscow was only two hours away. Why did he circle to use up all the fuel? And then he had to land in bad weather conditions in the end he spent 6 hours in the air.”
FlyDubai’s CEO said it is too early to determine a cause of the crash but officials have suggested it could have been caused by human error, a technical problem or strong winds at the airport.