A Russian passenger plane carrying 71 people c...

MOSCOW (AP) - Tramping through snowy fields outside Moscow, emergency workers found both flight data recorders from a crashed Russian airliner on Monday as they searched for debris and the remains of the 71 passengers and crew who died. Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employees and Russian police officers work at the scene of a AN-148 plane crash in Stepanovskoye village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Mon...

(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko). Temperatures were around minus 5 degrees Celsius with periodic snowfall when the short-haul AN-148 operated by Saratov Airlines took off for the city of Orsk in Orenburg region, about 900 miles (1,500 km) southeast of the capital. Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov confirmed there were no survivors and said DNA tests would be needed to identify the dead. The 65 passengers ranged in age from 5 to 79, according to a list posted by the Russian Emergencies Ministry, which did not give their nationalities. Russian news agencies reported 65 passengers and 6 crew were on board. One of the flight recorders was recovered, Russian news reports said, but it was not immediately clear if it was the data or voice recorder. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the U.S. “is deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of those on board Saratov Airlines Flight 703.”

Russia’s Investigative Committee said all possible causes were being considered. Airline spokeswoman Elena Voronova told the state news agency RIA Novosti that one of the pilots had more than 5,000 hours of flying time, 2,800 of them in an An-148. The other pilot had 812 hours of experience, largely in that model plane. Elena Voronova, a spokeswoman for Saratov Airlines, said there had been no concerns about the technical condition of the plane, which went into service with her company in 2016. The Russian-made plane was 7 years-old and bought by Saratov Airlines from another Russian airline a year ago. TV images of the crash site showed wreckage of the plane, including at least one engine, lying in fields covered with thick snow. “That says potential of engine failure or a technical problem,” Cox told The Associated Press. President Vladimir Putin offered condolences to those who had lost relatives and ordered a special investigative commission to be set up. The An-148 once was touted as an example of Russian-Ukrainian co-operation, but it fell into trouble as relations between the two neighbours unravelled following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The last large airline crash in Russia occurred on Dec. 25, 2016, when a Tu-154 operated by the Russian Defense Ministry on its way to Syria crashed into the Black Sea minutes after takeoff from Sochi. In December 2016 a military plane carrying Russia’s famed Red Army Choir crashed after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 92 people on board. In March 2016, all 62 passengers died when a FlyDubia jet crashed in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport.
Emergency teams comb snowy fields outside Moscow Monday for debris from a crashed Russian airliner and the remains of the 71 people who died. Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov says that emergency teams have already found the plane's flight data recorder, which will help them determine the crash's cause, but notes that the search for the victims' remains will take at least a week.