Russian plane crash pilot’s haunting final words captured by black box recorder – as it emerges doomed jet’s final moments were filled with panic
The evidence shows the pilots were struggling to control the plane's flaps immediately after take off
THE FINAL words from the cockpit of the stricken Tu-154 military jet show the Russian flight crew in panic as the plane lost height.
Black box evidence from the flight immediately after take-off from Sochi airport shows the pilots were struggling to control the flaps.
A recording of the flight crew leaked to the Russian media is interrupted by noises of alarms as the plane loses altitude before crashing into the Black Sea killing all 92 on board.
The recording of the cockpit exchanges between the flight deck crew comprising the captain, Major Roman Volkov, his co-pilot, a navigator and an engineer.
His chilling last words are: "We are falling commander."
He also said earlier on: "The flaps, b**ch, what the f**k!"
"Judging by the first data from the black box, the situation was completely unexpected for the crew as both pilots lots control over the plane,"; said Life.ru.
"However they quickly got back to their senses and tried to rescue the plane" - but this effort failed.
Russian news agency Interfax said the "completed preliminary analysis of the data recorder.... leads to the conclusion that the priority version of the disaster is an error of piloting".
However, experts say the flaps appeared not to be functioning "asynchronously" which could be a technical problem as well as pilot error.
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The black boxes were deciphered at Moscow's Lyubertsy central researching centre of Russian Air Forces, near Moscow.
This comes as macabre descriptions have emerged about the appalling damage to bodies pulled out of the Black Sea after the crash of the Tu-154 military aircraft soon after taking off.
The first women to be pulled from the water suffered serious deformities, said a diver.
"She had no eyes," he said.
"She was a woman in her forties. There was a red suitcase floating next to her," said the account, reported by Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
"She was wearing a coat that was badly torn.
"And she was all broken... as if she had no bones...
"We lifted two more from the water about a kilometre away from the shore.
"Two military men, in uniforms... also torn... young. Around 30-35... And their bodies were all broken...
"That is it, I can't talk more about it, it's hard."
Asked if there was fire or evidence of an explosion in their bodies, he said: "God knows...
"Their clothes were wet...
"And it's hard to say by skin on face whether it was burnt or scratched off when hitting something hard at impact..."
The condition of the bodies may give investigators vital clues as to the cause of a crash that led to the deaths of almost 70 members of one of the world's great military bands, including the Alexandrov Ensemble's dancers and singers.
In total 15 bodies have been pulled from the water, and 225 body parts have been found at the crash site.
Russian law enforcement has closed off Sochi's beaches after claims looters were stealing possessions from the 92 killed in this week's air horror.
Law enforcement sources said "homeless people" were searching the shore for possessions of those lost in the disaster.
A FSB security service coast guard told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that divers "don't talk much" about what they are seeing as they try to salvage bodies from the wreckage.
"They don't talk to anyone much. They get out of the water looking darker than dark and go off," he said.
"Our task now is not to let anyone to the beach.
"Don't misunderstand me, but homeless people got very active after what happened.
"They come here early in the morning to search for anything that sea could have brought."
"When I was on duty on the first day, the waves brought somebody's remains, a phone charger, a toiletry bag, couple of shoes and a sport bag right to my feet.
"Some of my colleagues saw jewellery. We mustn't allow even a smallest bit being picked up by somebody else."
He said bodies could be washed up on Sochi's beaches in the coming days.
"Today and tomorrow are key days when sea either gives them away, or take them," he said.
"This is why they have increased number of boats, you see the whole surface is covered with them. "
Roman's family have hit out at claims that his "error" was to blame for the plane's loss and the death of 92.
Russian experts began pointing at pilot error as a cause before the black boxes were even taken out of the sea.
The captain's brother Evgeny said: "My parents and I do not believe in the version that the plane crash was due to pilot error.
"Roman was a very experienced pilot."
His grief-stricken father Alexander - a colonel in the Soviet and Russian air force - said: "He always dreamed of being a pilot.
"All the time was surrounded by military including (when the family was stationed during Soviet times in) Siversky, Poland.
";It is too hard to talk for me... sorry."
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