Russian TU-154 RA-85572 down over Black Sea with army choir

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Some Tu-154 Victims Recovered Wearing Life Jackets
RUSSIA 14:56 26.12.2016 (updated 15:02 26.12.2016) Get short URL
Tu-154 Crash in Black Sea (70) 0 42114

According to a source familiar with the search and rescue operation, several victims of the deadly military plane crash in the Black Sea were recovered wearing life jackets. © SPUTNIK/ SERGEY MAMONTOV Two Apparatuses for Search of Crashed Russian Tu-154 Arrive in Sochi MOSCOW (Sputnik) –

Several victims of the deadly military plane crash in the Black Sea were recovered wearing life jackets, a source familiar with the search and rescue operation told RIA Novosti on Monday. "People in jackets, preparing for evacuation," the source said, clarifying that the life jackets were not worn on every of the 11 bodies found so far. The Russian Defense Ministry's Tu-154 aircraft en route to Syria from Moscow crashed soon after takeoff near Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi early Sunday. The plane was carrying 92 people including eight crew members, 64 musicians of the Alexandrov Ensemble, nine reporters, head of Spravedlivaya Pomoshch (Fair Aid) charity Elizaveta Glinka, and two federal civil servants. All the passengers and crew members are feared dead.


Read more: https://sputniknews.com/russia/201612261049005125-tu-154-victims-life- jackets/

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Tu-154 crash: Latest audio recording on board raises many questions
27.12.2016 | Source: Pravda.Ru
http://www.pravdareport.com/news/hotspots/disasters/27-12-2016/136519- tu_154_crash_black_sea-0/

Tu-154 crash: Latest audio recording on board raises many questions. 59515.jpeg
AP photo
The audio recording of the conversation between the pilots of the crashed Tu-154 and flight control officers of the Center of the Black Sea Air Traffic Management was published on YouTube.
Judging from the recording, there were no emergency situations on board. The pilots were working normally, their voices were calm. After some time, the flight control officer tried to contact the crew again, but the pilots were not responding.
Noteworthy, the authenticity of the negotiations has not been officially confirmed.
The Tu-154 plane of the Russian Ministry of Defence with 84 passengers and eight crew members on board, crashed in the Black Sea on December 25. The wreckage of the aircraft was found 1.5 km from the coast near Sochi at a depth of 50-70 meters.
"If there had been turbulence, an abnormal sound, a flash, the crew would have reported it. Even 15-20 seconds would have been enough. Yet, it appears that no one has been able to inform flight control officers of what was happening on board. This speaks of the nature of instant destruction of the aircraft - some sort of either internal or external interference," Hero of Russia, pilot Anatoly Knyshov told Pravda.Ru.


Also read: Tu-154 crashed as a result of NATO's covert operation?

[TonyGosling]

Highly suspicious crash.
Massive morale downer for Russia/Syria after NATO crazies losing hold of Aleppo there.
Pilot crying out 'flaps' could be an automatic reaction to the stall warning, no?
Maybe the flaps were fine but there was something else, more subtle, wrong?

My uncontroversial post here

TU154 out of Sochi is missing.
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/588730-tu154-out-sochi-missing-10.h tml

on this crash was NOT ALLOWED by the moderators.
Madly... amazingly... for a so called aviation safety site

Then there's this article below which I would imagine is a pretty reasonable summary
http://www.pravdareport.com/hotspots/disasters/27-12-2016/136527-tu_15 4_crash-0/

Finally - if foul play - small explosive device, or electronic warfare most likely IMHO.
Russian military may know A LOT MORE than they're saying knowing this to be a provocation.


Tu-154 crashed as a result of NATO's covert operation?
27.12.2016
http://www.pravdareport.com/hotspots/disasters/27-12-2016/136527-tu_15 4_crash-0/
Tu-154 crashed as a result of NATO's covert operation?. 59520.jpeg
Russia's Ministry for Transportation does not consider a terrorist attack to be one of the versions that led to the crash of the Tu-154 passenger airliner of the Russian Defence Ministry in the Black Sea on December 25. For the time being, we know that the weather was fine, the pilots were experienced, and the aircraft was technically sound.
The crash of the Tu-154 over the Black Sea looks very much like the explosion of the Russian passenger jetliner over Sinai Peninsula, when the Federal Security Bureau made an official announcement about the terrorist attack only two weeks after the crash. There is another version - of radio-electronic attack.
Black boxes may not give an answer to the question of whether there was a terrorist attack on board the Tu-154. This has already been the case in the investigation of the Sinai plane crash, before specialists found traces of two-component explosives in a can of Coke, hidden in a seat pocket. The explosion caused the plane to collapse in midair. This explained the reason why the fragments of the aircraft were scattered on a large territory, FSB Director Bortnikov then said.

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The Tu-154B MO, Flight RA-85572, took off from Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow on December 25th. The aircraft was en route to Damascus with a refuelling stop in Mozdok on a regular route across the Caspian Sea, Iran, Iraq and the whole of Syria. Mozdok was closed, and the plane detoured for 408 km in the opposite direction, to Adler, even though there were other airports working nearby (Mineralniye Vody, Nalchik, Makhachkala). Allegedly, the passengers of the aircraft were not allowed to leave the airplane in Adler for two hours. Reportedly, no one boarded the plane and nothing was loaded on the aircraft either. The plane was only refuelled, and then it took off at 5.25 a.m. Two minutes later, at 5.27 a.m., Flight RA-85572 stopped responding to dispatchers and went off radar screens.
During one of the briefings of the Ministry of Defence, the map showed that the plane disappeared from radar screens immediately after making a turn of 180 degrees. However, flightradar24 real time tracker did not reflect such a manoeuvre. Was the transponder turned off?
After the crash, the wreckage was scattered over an area of ​​about 10-12 square kilometers. Was it a current or an explosion? The Ministry for Transport said that the version of the terrorist act was not among the priorities. FSB officials rejected the version too.
Versions of the disaster

The basic versions of the crash are the following: a piloting error, a technical malfunction and improper alignment of cargo on board the plane. However, Tu-154 commander Roman Volkov had the total flight time of more than three thousand hours. He had made a number of flights to Hmeymim air base in Syria. Navigator Alexander Petukhov was awarded with the Order of Courage for landing an uncontrollable Tu-154 airplane in 2011.
According to experts' estimates, Tu-154 aircraft do not fall apart in the air for no reason. The plane was designed to withstand airborne loads that dramatically exceed common flight loads. The aircraft has a three-time margin of safety of all systems. Ageing and metal fatigue after replacement of spare parts is not critical for Tu-154.
The aircraft was crashing at a flight speed of about 300 km per hour, at an altitude of about 1,200 meters. If there had been an emergency on board, the crew would have reported it, even 15-20 seconds would have been enough for that, specialists said.
Many experts note that the nature of the fragments and their dispersal over long distances say speak of an explosion on board. For example, the rack chassis was found in the water. This part of the plane retracts immediately after take-off and remains in the gondola during the flight. Was there something in the gondola that caused the landing gear of the aircraft to separate?
Strangely enough, the plane belonged to the Russian Defence Ministry, and the passengers of the aircraft were not common passengers. They were actually well-known individuals in Russia. Who could plant a bomb in the plane? Was it like in Sharm el-Sheikh? The Chkalovsky airfield in the Moscow region is known as a well-protected military facility, where it is impossible to take a bomb on board a plane.
The airport in Sochi is an airport of dual use, where the level of protection is higher than at other conventional airports.
Here is an opinion from pilot-instructor Andrei Krasnoperov. "I had flown from Chkalovsky airfield to the east. There was no inspection at all, and the level of security there is much worse than at civilian airports," Krasnoperov said.
If this was a terrorist attack, it comes well into line with the killing of Russian Ambassador to Turkey. It also matches John Kirby's remarks, who said that Russia would lose more planes if it was not going to stop operations in Syria.
Noteworthy, disabled transponders and communication systems can be explained as follows. French reconnaissance ship Dupuy de Lome had entered the Black Sea on the eve of the tragedy. The ship can send a strong impulse to deactivate all electronic equipment on board the aircraft. Israel resorts to this practice against Russian airplanes in Syria. It was reported that the bodies of the victims of the Tu-154 crash were wearing life jackets. Therefore, the crew had time to warn the passengers, but not the flight control officers. In this is the case, then this is a war against NATO, rather than an act of terrorism.
There is another question: what was the need to send a military ensemble to the war-torn country, where tens of thousands of terrorists and their mentors from NATO still long for vengeance? Are we complacent about the war in Syria? Have we won and defeated everyone? One could hear it both from the president, who said that Russia was stronger than any aggressor, and from the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defence and Security Viktor Ozerov, who said a few hours after the tragedy that the version of a terrorist attack was excluded.
Lyuba Lulko (Stepushova)
- See more at: http://www.pravdareport.com/hotspots/disasters/27-12-2016/136527-tu_15 4_crash-0/

[TonyGosling]

Looking into this one
Sergey Bainetov, the Russian Air Force's deputy head of flight safety
Minister of Transport, Maxim Sokolov

Latest press conference reports
https://sputniknews.com/trend/tu_154_search_rescue_operation/

Also - sorry, but all talk of flaps may be premature - a single 'leak' and 'assumptions' in an echo chamber vacuum?

[TonyGosling]

The disaster of the Russian military Tu-154 – a few short first thoughts
http://thesaker.is/the-disaster-of-the-russian-military-tu-154-a-few-s hort-first-thoughts/

20571 ViewsDecember 25, 2016 239 Comments
The disaster of the Russian military Tu-154 – a few short first thoughts (UPDATED)
It is too early to conclude what happened with this aircraft, but since I have been asked about this by email, here are my own, personal and provisional, thoughts:

Mechanical failure: unlikely. The Tu-154 is a three engine aircraft and an extremely strong beast. It’s safety record is comparable to most aircraft of its time, even though it was often used in extreme conditions other aircraft types did not have to operate in. The Tu-154 had already taken enough altitude to attempt a return to base or even a water landing. The weather that day was good. Besides, the crew did not communicate any problem. Thus the disaster had to be instantaneous.
Fuel problem: unlikely. Fuel problems are always a prime suspect when a crash occurs, but even if the engines had suddenly experienced problems or even a full shutdown, the pilots would have had the time to report this. Also, like any other aircraft, the Tu-154 can glide and maneuver without power.
Bird strike: unlikely. I am not even sure that there have ever been a triple engine failure due to a bird strike but even if there has been, they crew could have reported it which it did not. And, again, the case of US Airways flight 1549 has shown that even a catastrophic birdstrike does not prevent a fully loaded airliner from attempting to land.
Pilot error: highly unlikely. The guys flying this aircraft where extremely experienced and while human error is always possible, it mostly results in situation were it can be reported. The Tu-154 was a very complex aircraft to operate and it had its weaknesses – but these were all very well known to the Russian crews and this crew was a very experienced one.
Missile: unlikely. The Tu-154 has three engines including one mounted over the top of the rear of the fuselage and a MANPAD type missile warhead does not have the kind of blast radius capable of taking out all three of them. As for bigger missiles, the Black Sea coasts of Russia is very tightly controlled by the Russian military and security services (as is the entire Black Sea) and to get that close to the city of Sochi would be risky and difficult.
Sabotage/bomb: most likely simply because all other causes are even less likely. True, this was a military aircraft with, supposedly, good security. Alas, I can confirm from personal experience that if you look Russian and speak Russian like a native and if you act the right way, military security in Russia is nowhere near as good as it should be. However, if you speak with an accent or look foreign, and that includes speaking with a Caucasian accent or looking like somebody from the Caucasus, you would have a much harder time beating the controls.
For all these reasons and even though it is way too early to speculate, my of preferred hypothesis is that it was a terrorist act executed by Ukrainian operatives. I hope that I am wrong and that I will be proven wrong in the next 24 hours but at this point in time, this appears to me as the most likely scenario.

One more thing: this tragedy really breaks my heart. Not only did the entire Alexandrov Ensemble perish, but two amazing personalities were on board: Valerii Khalilolv and “Dr Liza“. There are no words to express the loss which the death of all these people represents for Russia. This is why I hope and pray that in spite of why first reaction outlined above, this is not a Ukrainian terrorist attack because if it is, the consequences will be very severe. We should know more very soon.