Russian military plane en route to Syria crashes with 92 on board

A Russian military plane with 92 people on board has crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday, and it was unlikely there would be any survivors.

The Russian defence ministry said the defence force TU-154 aircraft carrying musicians from the famous Alexandrov military choir to a New Year concert for troops in Syria went missing soon.

One body has been found, while rescuers also found personal documents belonging to some of those on board, the Russian defence ministry said.

There were no reports of survivors.

Earlier, Russian agencies, citing unnamed security sources, said the TU-154 aircraft had crashed in the sea near the southern Russian city of Sochi after disappearing from radar screens.

A total of 84 passengers and eight crew were on board when the plane dropped off radar shortly after take-off at 5:40am local time (0240 GMT). Nine Russian reporters were among the passengers, agencies said.

The ministry later said fragments of the plane, a Soviet-designed three-engine airliner, had been found by rescuers about 1.5km from the shore in water around 50-70 metres deep.

Russia’s RIA news agency, citing an unidentified security source, said preliminary data indicated the plane had crashed because of a technical malfunction, Reuters reported.

The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the plane had not sent an SOS signal.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Sunday it was too early to say what had caused the crash. President Vladimir Putin was being kept informed of latest developments, Peskov added.

Russia's Defence Ministry regularly flies musicians into Syria to put on concerts for military personnel. The base they were heading for, Hmeymim, is in Latakia province. It is from there that Russia flies air strikes against Syrian rebels.

Moscow has been conducting a bombing campaign in Syria in support of long-time ally president Bashar al-Assad since September 2015 and has taken steps to boost its presence in the country.

Earlier in December, another Russian Defence Ministry crashed in Siberia with 39 people on board as it tried to make an emergency landing near a Soviet-era military base. Nobody was been killed in that incident, though 32 people were airlifted to hospital.