Huge search underway for Russia plane crash victims

Thousands of rescuers in Russia are continuing a round the clock search for victims of the crash of a Syria-bound military plane carrying 92 people.

The first 10 bodies have been flown to the Russian capital Moscow.

Investigators have yet to confirm the cause of the crash, however Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said Monday that it is not believed that the plane was targeted by terrorists.

"There could be various causes - they are being analysed by specialists, experts, the Investigative Committee," he said, adding that active theories ranged from human error to a problem with the fuel.

"Currently the main versions do not include an act of terror," he added.

A team of over 3,000 worked through the night to find debris and bodies from the crash, inclusing the black boxes that are crucial in tracking the plane's final moments. 

The operation included 39 vessels covering over 100 square kilometres (38 square miles), with planes, helicopters and drones searching from above and deep-water equipment and divers hunting below the water's surface.

"I think we will be able to find the location of the plane on the bottom of the Black Sea today," Viktor Bondarev, the commander of the Russian air force, told Russian agencies.

"When we find the plane, we will raise the flight recorders to the surface. We know they are located in the tail and I am sure that the tail was damaged the least," he said.

According to Sokolov, some of the bodies may already have been carried off by the current to Abkhazia, the separatist region of Georgia.

"Eleven bodies and 154 (body) fragments were found over the first day," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing.

"The search is complicated by the large depth range and the sea bottom relief characteristics in the presumed crash area," he said.

Along with the ten bodies, 86 body parts were flown to Moscow for DNA analysis, he added.

The Tu-154 jet, whose passengers included more than 60 members of the internationally-renowned Red Army Choir who were heading to entertain Russian troops in Syria for the New Year, went down off the resort city of Sochi shortly after take-off Sunday.

President Vladimir Putin declared a national day of mourning on Monday, with state television streaming images of the crash victims while entertainment programmes were cancelled.