Search For Debris Of Tu-154 Jet In Progress

The area of the crash of Russia's Tu-154 jet is still being searched for victims' bodies and fragments of the aircraft. As of this moment, rescuers have scoured 68.6 million square meters of the Black Sea water area, reports the press service of the Russian emergencies ministry. No bodies or debris were retrieved over the past 24 hours. The search involves a total of 333 rescuers, several rescue vessels and two cutters. The Tu-154, a passenger jet belonging to the Russian airline Sibir, was hit by a Ukrainian missile on October 4 and plunged into the Black Sea, killing all 78 people on board. Of the 14 bodies rescuers managed to retrieve, 13 have been identified. Despite the ban on missile launches above the Black Sea, where air traffic is habitually heavy, Ukraine was engaged in an exercise involving launches of air defence missiles from the Crimean Peninsula. No fire exercises were ever conducted in this area before.