Investigators from Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee along with experts from France and the United Arab Emirates began the process of retrieving information from the flight data recorder recovered from the FlyDubai Boeing 737-800 that crashed in southern Russia Saturday morning, killing all 62 on board. Although both the CVR and FDR suffered damage in the crash, experts managed to repair a broken cable in the FDR, allowing them to study the memory module and retrieve its data, according to Russia’s official TASS news agency. Efforts to retrieve a recording from the more heavily damaged CVR continue.
The Boeing 737-800s crashed while attempting to land in high winds at the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. All 55 passengers and 7 crew died in the accident, which happened at 3:50 am local time, after the crew aborted an initial landing attempt and remained in a holding pattern for more than two hours.
Operating as Flight FZ981 from Dubai to Rostov, the airplane crashed 800 feet short of the runway, according to a statement by Russia’s accident investigation agency.
According to Flydubai, the passengers included 44 Russians, 8 Ukrainians, 2 Indians and one Uzbek. All but one member of the crew were Russian, according to a statement from the country’s emergency ministry.
The airport at Rostov reopened Monday morning and FlyDubai said it would resume its regular schedule to the destination on Tuesday.
Flydubai began operations in 2009 and its route network covers 90 destinations. Its fleet consists of 48 Boeing 737-800s and its order backlog calls for delivery of 11 more. It also signed a contract covering deliveries of 75 of Boeing’s new 737 Max 8 narrowbodies, plus options for 25 more.