Unable to read Dubai plane data: Investigators

Russian investigators said on Monday that they cannot immediately read data from the flight recorders of a Dubai plane that crashed in southern Russia last week, killing all 62 on board.

Sergei Zaiko, deputy chairman of the Inter-State Aviation Committee which investigates the crash, told Russian television on Monday that the black boxes have been damaged to the point that the experts could not immediately read the data.

He said, however, that they have copied data from the data recorder and have yet to do that for the voice recorder. Once it’s done, the experts will see if they can extract the data, he said.

Meanwhile, the airport in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don reopened on Monday, two days after a FlyDubai’s Boeing 737-800 nosedived and exploded in a giant fireball before dawn on Saturday on the runway of Rostov-on-Don after trying to land for a second time in strong winds.

“The airport is now fully functional,” an airport representative told AFP.

On Sunday, officials said workers finished clearing the runway of debris, which investigators said had been scattered up to 1.5 kilometres (one mile) away from the crash site.

Outbound flights resumed at 06.30 GMT on Monday, but incoming flights were still either cancelled or delayed.