Ten bodies recovered from Tu-154 plane crash site near Sochi

"The search operation is continuing. At the moment 10 dead people have been found," the source said.

13:10 (GMT+4) The bodies of five victims have been found at the crash site of the Tu-154 plane of the Defense Ministry in the Black Sea near Sochi, the emergencies services said, RIA Novosti reported.

"Now the bodies of five victims have been found and retrieved," the source said.

11:16 (GMT+4) The first body has been found 6 km from Sochi coastline following the crash of a Russian Tu-154 airplane in the Black Sea, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday, Sputnik reported.

"A body of a person who died in Russia's Defense Ministry's Tu-154 airplane crash has been found 6 km away from Sochi coastline. The body has been lifted on board of the rescue vehicle," Konashenkov said.

Konashenkov said earlier on Sunday that a total of 92 people were on board of Tu-154 that crashed in the Black Sea.

10:24 (GMT+4) The plane with some 91 people onboard, including 83 passengers and eight crew members lost contact with land while flying over the Black Sea, the source said, Sputnik reported.

09:46 (GMT+4) The Russian aircraft TU-154 most, which had disappeared from from radar shortly after take-off in Sochi Sunday, likely has crashed in the mountains in Krasnodar Territory in the south of the country, a source in local security services told RIA Novosti Sunday, Sputnik reported.

The plane with some 91 people onboard, including 83 passengers and eight crew members lost contact with land while flying over the Black Sea, the source said.

Journalists, military personnel, musicians from Alexandrov Ensemble, an official army choir of the Russian armed forces, were onboard.

"According to preliminary findings, the missing TU-154 arrived in Sochi from Chkalovsky airport in Moscow region for refueling. Most likely, it crashed in mountainous area of Krasnodar Territory," the source told RIA Novosti.

The priliminary data shows that the disappeared plane was heading to Syria's Hmeimim airbase. According to the source, the possible reasons for the alleged crash could be technical malfunction or pilot error.

The source added that the plane disappeared from radars 20 minutes after departing from Sochi, Krasnodar Krai.

08:37 (GMT+4) Russian Defense Ministry's Tu-154 carrying some 70 people has disappeared from radars after departing from Russia's southern city of Sochi, a source in the country's Emergency Ministry told RIA Novosti.

The source reported that the jet belongs to the Russian Ministry of Defense. "According to preliminary data, Russian Defense Ministry's Tu-154 disappeared from the radar screens after departing from Sochi.

About 70 people were on board," a source said to the agency. The preliminary data shows that the plane was heading to Syria's Latakia.