MOSCOW: The Russian defence ministry said there was no sign of survivors at the site where a military plane travelling to Syria crashed in the Black Sea on Sunday, local news agencies reported.
"The site of the Tu-154 plane crash has been identified," news agencies quoted the ministry as saying, adding that four bodies had been recovered from the water. "There is no sign of survivors."
Ealier President Vladimir Putin had ordered the government to probe the crash of the military plane carrying 92 people including more than 60 Red Army Choir members, the Kremlin said Sunday.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to form and head a state commission to investigative the crash of the Tu-154 plane in Sochi," the Kremlin said in a statement, adding that Putin expressed his deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the crash.
Local news agencies, citing the defence ministry, said the Tu-154 plane had crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Adler at 5:40 am local time (0240 GMT).
A body had been recovered from the Black Sea after a Syria-bound military plane carrying 91 people crashed Sunday, local news agencies reported, quoting defence ministry.
"The body of a person killed as a result the crash of the Russian defence ministry's Tu-154 was found six kilometres off the coast of Sochi," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told agencies. "The body was taken on board of a rescue ship."
A list of passengers and crew published by the ministry showed that 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the army's official musical group, and its conductor Valery Khalilov were on board the Tu-154 travelling to Syria to celebrate the New Year with Russian troops.
It was conducting a routine flight to Russia's Hmeimim airbase outside the coastal Syrian city of Latakia, the ministry said.
"Fragments of the Tu-154 plane of the Russian defence ministry were found 1.5 kilometres from the Black Sea coast of the city of Sochi at a depth of 50 to 70 metres," the ministry said, adding that search and rescue groups had been dispatched earlier Sunday to locate the missing.
Among its 83 passengers were Russian servicemen as well as members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the army's official musical group internationally known as the Red Army Choir, who were headed to Syria to participate in New Year celebrations at the airbase.
There were also eight crew members onboard, the ministry said.
Nine members of the media were among the passengers, with state-run channel Pervy Kanal saying three of its staff were onboard the flight.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the situation and was being kept updated on the search operations.
Russia's Investigative Committee said that a criminal probe had been launched to determine whether violations of air transportation safety had led to the crash.
Investigators are currently questioning the technical personnel responsible for preparing the plane for take-off, the committee said.
Tu-154 aircraft have been involved in a number of accidents in the past.
In April 2010 many high-ranking Polish officials, including then president Lech Kaczynski, were killed when a Tu-154 airliner went down in thick fog while approaching the Smolensk airport in western Russia.
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.
Putin in October approved a law ratifying Moscow's deal with Damascus to deploy its forces in the country indefinitely, firming Russia's long-term presence in the country.
Russian warplanes have flown out of the Hmeimim base to conduct air strikes in Syria, and the base is also home to an S-400 air defence system.
