Flight recorders of crashed FlyDubai plane severely damaged: authorities

The flight recorders of a Dubai low-cost airline's passenger plane that crashed Saturday in southwestern Russia are badly damaged, authorities said Sunday.

"Specialists of the IAC (Interstate Aviation Committee), as well as experts from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France, have started to inspect and remove the memory modules from the recorders' protection storage place, in order to further restore the cable connections and prepare for the copying of information," the IAC, a supervisory body overseeing the management of civil aviation in the Commonwealth of Independent States, said in a statement.

The IAC, which is currently taking part in the investigation of the crash, also noted that preparation work for analysis of the information recorded by the black boxes would be completed before the end of the day.

FlyDubai Flight 981, a Boeing 737-800 that came from the UAE city of Dubai, was making its second attempt to land at the Rostov-on-Don airport at about 3:50 Moscow time (0050 GMT) Saturday when it missed the runway and crashed.

The ill-fated plane was carrying 55 passengers and seven crew members on board, including four children. Among the passengers, 44 were Russians, and eight were from Ukraine, two from India and one from Uzbekistan.

Russian authorities said the aircraft was landing amid high winds and rain that reduced visibility, while the Russian Investigative Committee is considering several versions of the crash, including a crew mistake, technical failure and difficult weather conditions. Endi