MOSCOW (AFP) – An Armenian aircraft crashed in bad weather off Russia’s Black Sea coast killing all 113 people on board, officials said.

“According to our initial information, all the passengers and crew who were on board died,” a spokesman for Russia’s emergency situations ministry told AFP.

The crash occurred as the Airbus A320 made a second landing attempt at Adler airport near the resort town of Sochi after heavy rain had reduced visibility, said a senior official with Armenian national airline Armavia, Andrei Agatyanov.

The pilot had decided to head back to the Armenian capital Yerevan, but then made an about turn after being informed that the rain had cleared, Agatyanov told AFP in Yerevan.

Those who were on board the plane included 85 Armenian citizens, 26 Russians, one Georgian and one Ukrainian, according to a list published at Yerevan airport.

Five children and eight crew members were among the dead, Agatyanov said.

No distress signal had been received from the plane, an official with Russia’s air traffic control authority, Alexander Neradko, was quoted by Interfax as saying.

“The plane came in to land. The meteorological conditions changed sharply, requiring a decision to go round for a second time, after which the plane disappeared from the radar screen,” Neradko said.

Following the crash, debris floated in the water about six kilometres (four miles) from shore, including body parts, pieces of fuselage, baggage and life vests, Interfax news agency said.

The bodies of 25 passengers had been recovered from the scene, the emergency situations ministry spokesman said.

More than 20 boats were scouring the site, hoping to find the plane’s black box flight recorder that would help explain the crash, the spokesman said.

Rescuers, who were equipped with an underwater submersible vessel, had discovered what appeared to be the plane’s tail section, Interfax said.

According to early indications there was no sign that the crash was caused by a terrorist attack, Armenian and Russian officials said.

Relatives of the dead gathered at Yerevan airport, shocked by the crash and preparing for a flight to take them to Sochi.

“My mum was on the plane. She had gone to visit her sisters who she hadn’t seen in 15 years,” said one teenager, Apet Tatevosyan, for whom the news had yet to sink in.

“We thought she was going to call — when she didn’t, I was worried and called our relatives in Sochi who told us the news.”

The plane disappeared from radar screens at 2:15 am (2215 GMT) as it was approaching the airport near Sochi, a semi-tropical resort in the Russian Caucasus, close to the border with Georgia.

The wreckage lay at a depth of about 400 metres below the surface of the water.

A criminal case has been opened for violation of air traffic procedures leading to loss of life, the prosecutor general’s office announced.

Armenian officials were to fly to the scene later Wednesday, news agencies said.

Armavia became Armenia’s national flag carrier after the bankruptcy of Armenian Airlines in 2003.

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