BBC Services

A Russian airliner en route from Tel Aviv to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk has crashed into the Black Sea with at least 77 people on board. A Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesman said the plane - Flight 1812 - had gone down 185 kilometres (114 miles) off the Russian coastal city of Adler. The water is understood to be about 90 metres (300 feet) deep at the scene of the crash. Russian President Vladimir Putin has put the secretary of the country`s Security Council in charge of an investigation into the crash following a report that there was a blast aboard the plane. An Armenian pilot in a nearby plane said he saw an explosion on the Russian airliner before it crashed. Russian officials have said they are not ruling out the possibility of a terrorist attack. Israeli aviation officials say Flight 1812 - a regular weekly charter flight - went through the same stringent security checks that are carried out on all planes travelling to or from the country. Emergency rescue crews have been sent to the scene by air and sea, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. The Russian Emergencies Ministry has said there were at least 66 passengers and 11 crew on board. The plane went down at approximately 1335 Moscow time (0935GMT), the agency said. The three-engine TU-154 plane belonged to Siberia Airlines, which is based in Novosibirsk. The BBC`s Jonathan Charles says Russian airlines generally have a poorer safety record than their Western counterparts. A TU-154 crashed in the eastern Russian city of Irkutsk in July, killing all 145 people on board. That crash was due to pilot error, an investigation concluded. Mr Putin declared a national day of mourning following that crash - the worst Russian air disaster in many years.

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