No survivors found after Russian military plane with 92 on board crashes en route to Syria

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post

By David Filipov December 25 at 9:56 AM

MOSCOW — A Russian military passenger plane carrying dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members plunged into the Black Sea minutes after it took off en route Sunday to a military base in Syria, killing all 92 people on board, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

The cause of the crash had yet to be determined Sunday afternoon. Officials were ruling out terrorism, though Russia’s Federal Security Service was looking into everyone who could have come in contact with the jet on the ground.

Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a military spokesman, told reporters that no one survived after the aging Soviet-era jet, which had 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.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/no-survivors-found-after-russian-military-plane-with-92-on-board-crashes-en-route-to-syria/2016/12/25/d4bca3f0-ca7c-11e6-a22f-f4d703887285_story.html?utm_term=.19d2cb425489&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

[elleng]

1. Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members

[Devil Child]

2. Horrible news

Rest in peace to the dead. The loss of so many of the Red Army Choir is tragic.

Russia needs to stop using the TU-154 immediately!

[jmowreader]

10. They've been phasing it out for years

Noise regulations are the problem - you can't quiet this plane enough to satisfy Western standards.

The big problem: Tu-154 is made for gravel runways and dirt runways. Unless they can convince Airbus to produce an all-passenger A400M, or get LockheedMartin to make a C-130 airliner, they're going to need to keep a few of these planes in service. No other jetliner will do what Tu-154 does.

[cstanleytech]

16. Neither of those companies is likely to do that atm I suspect due to the sanctions in place

over Russia invading the Ukraine.

[jmowreader]

25. They'd be even less likely to do it because there's very little market for a plane like that

In most of the world, the kinds of places that HAVE to be serviced by turboprops are small enough that planes like DeHavilland Dash-8 and ATR-72 are all they really need to get the job done. Only in Russia do you have large populations in areas too cold to build paved runways. The market for an A400M airliner might be ten planes - not nearly enough to afford to type certificate the plane.

[LisaL]

28. Well, if it was a terror act, then it had nothing to do with what kind of plane it was.

[LongTomH]

3. ..............

[Sunlei]

4. really sad for so many innocents. beginning for russia,'revenge attacks', their bombs on innocents

Russia along with Asaad, and their direct genocide, a million are dead? millions more are refugees...they are hated and will never be 'safe' from revenge.

[Igel]

19. For now, "perhaps."

Anything more is truthiness.

The plane has a shoddy safety record. It might have mechanical problems.

You can never rule out human error.

And then there are terrakty, terrorist acts.

Russia news settled on the first. It blames the right people, galvanizes the population in favor of the PTB, and just makes their cause against the unrighteous anti-Russians all the more righteous. There may be problems with Russian society, abroad, but "we are stronger than any potential aggressor. Any." "The Russian Federation is stronger than any potential aggressor. And who's an aggressor? Anybody who might attack us."

The first and second have to be included in any reasonable coverage. But human error just says, "Oops." Maybe there's something systematic to fix, but what, exactly, isn't clear.

The idea of mechanical error because of an outmoded airfleet that the country, with all its "we're great and need nobody", is counterproductive. If it were true it would have to be billed as not possible until it was clearly established that it was terrorism and all that could be milked from these reporters' and musicians' deaths obtained. Then when attitudes are set you can introduce the truth, since there's little downside and once beliefs are firmed up the truth typically has little impact.

[Sunlei]

20. They are hated by millions of people today. Many will want revenge. To risky to fly civies to Syria

for Russia.

[angrychair]

5. In other news

The trump inauguration team is scrambling again as their surprise headliner event had to cancel at the last minute

(Sorry it was there..in all seriousness my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of those lost in this horrible accident)

[pangaia]

6. Shocked and saddened to hear this, especially

as I just posted a link to them on Thursday singing Sweet Home Alabama.

Their singing of the Russian National Anthem is just stunning, if you want to go listen to it on Youtube.

[Dawson Leery]

7. Never forget the thousands that have died at the hands

of Assad and Putin.

[moondust]

9. Yep.

Tragic, but how many children did this choir's boss kill in Syria today, perhaps with the approval of many choir members? Maybe there's some karma at work here.

[xor]

23. I'm sure the Choir was directly involved in that....

[samir.g]

31. They were going there to support the butchers

To raise their morale do they could kill even more.

[Devil Child]

24. What do Assad/Putin's actions have to do with this tragedy?

And never forget the millions that have died at the hands of the US government.

Or

Never forget the millions that have died at the hands of Islam.

Or

Never forget the millions that have died at the hands of Nazi Germany.

Whatever... I'm sure the innocents on the plane somehow deserved it because of the actions of their government and an allied state's government.

[Sunlei]

26. No innocents as you said, "deserve to die" for revenge over the genocides by Assad & Putin.

[marybourg]

11. Whoa. That's a bit much.

Dontcha think?

[HAB911]

12. Only because it can't be tied

to any hacking, but who can say?

[marybourg]

13. No, because it involved

taking innocent lives.

[HAB911]

14. sniff, sniff..........n/t

[LisaL]

18. WTF are you talking about?

[elleng]

15. Alexandrov Red Army Choir - Kalinka

[MBS]

17. The soloist in this video (white suit) is one guy who survived

. . . because his wife had begged him to stay home for the birth of their child.

[elleng]

21. WOW, good reason.

Thanks for the info.

[xor]

22. That's awful.

I went over to RT and I cannot believe cesspool those comment board are.

It's mostly people celebrating the crash and deaths, blaming the the US/CIA, or talking about how they need to wipe out all muslims.

Like why are people so twisted that they jump to conclusions and then run straight to the most awful things they could say? Blah. I see there was a deleted comment on this thread too. I'm glad I didn't see it.

[Charles Bukowski]

27. I can't believe people are saying this is karma.

Ugh.

RIP to the victims.

[LisaL]

29. People always say stupid things on the internet.

[Rex]

30. My condolences to the families, a national tragedy.

[Skittles]

32. this is very tragic

my sympathy to the people of Russia

[HoneyBadger]

33. There is political

And this is not political. RIP.

[Jake Stern]

34. Suspect that the folks citing karma

would sing a different tune if it were a plane full of US troops that crashed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Jeez I get it that it's de rigeur on DU to have a massive psychotic fucking hatred of all things Russia but being smug about people's fathers and husbands and sons dying is appalling.

[question everything]

35. I suspect that the cause is a maintenance problem

I suspect that in Russia one has to work on an aircraft and having it ready at a prescribed time, delaying can be costly to the crew. Worse, pointing out that there is a problem can be costly, too.

So they just go along and pray for the best.