2016 Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 crash

Investigation

By 27 December, the cockpit voice and flight data recorders had been located, and both were later recovered and sent to Moscow for analysis. By 28 December, the bodies of 18 people had been recovered from the sea. On 29 December, a third recorder, which backs up data from the CVR and FDR, was found, which, despite being damaged, revealed more information.

One Russian official downplayed the possibility of a terrorist attack as the cause of the crash, focusing more on the possibility of mechanical or human error. After the crash, all Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft in Russia were grounded.

A bright flash was purportedly caught on surveillance cameras along the Sochi coastline before the crash. Witnesses told reporters the plane appeared to experience trouble in gaining altitude, turned 180 degrees, started descending and crashed into the sea.

On 27 December, the Interfax news agency reported that Russian investigators believed the crash was due to a fault with the aircraft flaps. The Life.ru news portal was reported to have obtained a recording of the last words of one of the pilots: "The flaps, damn it. Commander, we are going down." There was no official confirmation.

On 29 December, it was announced by the Flight Safety Service of the Russian Ministry that a preliminary analysis of data from the cockpit voice recorder showed that no explosion had occurred on board.

On 16 January, the Interstate Aviation Committee, the civil authority in aviation accident investigation, announced that its representative would participate in the investigation.

On 19 January, Interfax reported that, during the underwater search, remains had also been found of a Soviet Douglas A-20 Havoc/DB-7 Boston bomber, supplied from the U.S. through the Lend-Lease agreement, which crashed on 15 November 1942.

On 31 May 2017, Russia's Kommersant said all the evidence pointed to the pilot, Maj Roman Volkov having suffered from somatogravic illusion. Analysis of the flight data suggested that the pilot had "lost his bearings and ignored his instruments, believing that the jet was climbing too sharply." Fatigue was thought to be a factor. Experts said that he was already feeling unwell on the ground and had trouble getting the plane on to the correct runway; he could not understand which of the two runways he was to take off from and which way to taxi. An escort vehicle was deployed to get him to the correct runway.

The criminal case was dismissed in December 2019 due to lack of corpus delicti. All materials of the investigation are classified.