International

Flight Recorders Were Badly Damaged in Russia Plane Crash

BYMelissa Chan and TIME
March 20, 2016, 8:37 PM UTC
RUSSIA-UAE-AVIATION-ACCIDENT-FLYDUBAI
Russian Emergency Ministry rescuers examine the wreckage of a crashed airplane at the Rostov-on-Don airport on March 20, 2016. Investigators in southern Russia on March 20 were probing the causes of a flydubai passenger jet crash that killed all 62 people on board, as emergency workers at the site wrapped up the salvage operation. Investigators confirmed that all 55 passengers and seven crew -- including nine different nationalities, with 45 coming from Russia -- died instantly and launched a criminal probe into whether pilot error, a technical fault or poor weather was to blame. / AFP / VASILY MAXIMOV (Photo credit should read VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images)
VASILY MAXIMOV AFP/Getty Images
Flight recorders from the Flydubai passenger jet that crashed Saturday in southern Russia, killing all 62 people on board, are “significantly damaged,” authorities said.

Officials were working Sunday to recover the information from the damaged recorders, Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said in a statement on its website. Specialists have started inspecting, opening and extracting information from the memory modules from the recorders’ protective casings, the IAC said. The investigation could take weeks to determine the cause of the tragedy,Reuters reports.

Fifty-five passengers and seven crew members died when the Boeing 737-800, operated by Dubai-based budget carrier Flydubai, crashed about 800 feet from the runway at an airport in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don during gusting winds, according to CNN.

This article was originally published on Time.com