Investigators find flight recorders in wreckage of Russian plane

SUKHA BALKA, Ukraine — Investigators on Wednesday found the two flight recorders from a Russian jetliner that slammed into a swampy field in Ukraine during a severe thunderstorm, killing all 170 people on board.

Officials hope the devices can help explain what caused the Pulkovo Airlines Tu-154 to crash Tuesday in eastern Ukraine — the third passenger airliner crash this year in the former Soviet Union.

Ukrainian and Russian emergency officials working at the scene said remains of 140 bodies had been found amid the plane's wreckage. The flight was bringing passengers to St. Petersburg, Russia, from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa, a vacation destination popular with families.

At the airport in St. Petersburg, grieving relatives dressed in black gathered as doctors and psychologists tried to soothe them. About 50 relatives were expected to be flown to the crash site.

Valentina Risunkova said her 34-year-old son, Eduard, had asked his parents to pick him and his girlfriend up at the St. Petersburg airport, then called again to thank them in advance. The couple had taken the train down to Anapa, but decided to return by plane because they were tired from getting a lot of sun, she said.

When Risunkova heard there had been a crash, "I fainted and fell to the floor," she said.

Ukraine declared Wednesday a day of mourning, canceling entertainment and sports events, and black ribbons were attached to national flags being flown throughout the country to mark flag day. The government said it would scale back celebrations Thursday marking the 15th anniversary of Ukraine's independence, postponing fireworks and a concert in downtown Kiev until the weekend.

Thursday will be a day of mourning in Russia.

Emergency officials said preliminary information suggested bad weather caused the crash about 30 miles north of the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

"Right now, it is difficult to determine the cause of the accident," Ukraine's Transport Minister Mykola Rudkovsky said in televised remarks.

The wreckage was found in Sukha Balka, a village about 400 miles east of the capital, Kiev, about an hour after the plane disappeared from radar. Fragments of the plane — its engines, parts of the landing gear, the nose and chunks of the fuselage — were scattered around fields and a small forest. Authorities had stretched red tape around a 7,500-square-foot area.

Alexander Agayev, a Russian Emergency Situations Ministry official, said emergency workers had found the remains of about 140 passengers in the wreckage and were continuing with the grim search.