Recorders of crashed Yak-42 found in Volga river

Updated: 2011-09-08 22:51

(Xinhua)

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MOSCOW - The divers have found in Volga river both flight recorders of the Yak-42, which crashed near Yaroslavl on Wednesday, said Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday.

The experts would assess the condition of the flight recorders as they were kept in the tail part underwater for hours, said Shoigu at a meeting of the emergency response headquarters, which was chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev at the air crash site.

Meanwhile, Russian transportation authorities will carry out a check over the next three days of all airlines that operate the Yak-42, said Transport Minister Igor Levitin at the same meeting.

According to Levitin, 16 Russian airlines currently operate a total of 57 Yak-42 planes.

The crashed plane was manufactured in 1993 and underwent scheduled maintenance in Kazan last August. It was expected to undergo a thorough overhaul some time around the end of this year, said local reports.

Aviation officials said the plane, operated by the domestic Yak-Service airline, failed to gain altitude possibly due to poor quality fuel and struck a radio mast.

So far, bodies of all the 43 crash victims have been recovered and over 20 of them had been identified, according to the rescuers.

Two survivors, including the Lokomotiv ice hockey team player Alexander Galimov who suffered burns to 90 percent of his body, have been transferred to a Moscow hospital, local media reported.