Both flight recorders from a Russian airliner that crashed in stormy weather in Ukraine Tuesday with the loss of everyone on board have been found, the press secretary for Russia's transportation minister said Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.
The Tu-154 crashed in eastern Ukraine en route from a Russian Black Sea resort to St. Petersburg, Russia's second biggest city. Pulkovo Airlines, which owned the plane, said Wednesday morning that 170 people - including 45 children under the age of 12 - had been killed. Other sources had suggested 171 passengers and crew had lost their lives.
"Both black boxes have been discovered," Svetlana Kryshtanovskaya said.
Experts are studying the flight data recorder, the first to be found, and the cockpit voice recorder in the hope of identifying why the tragedy happened.
A spokesman for Pulkovo Airlines, which until the tragedy had an excellent safety record, said earlier Wednesday that five foreigners - from the Netherlands, Germany, France and Finland - had lost their lives, according to preliminary information.
