Moscow, June 22 (Interfax) - More than 20 bodies of the passengers of the Tupolev Tu-134 airplane, which crashed in Karelia, have been identified, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
"During the scene inspection, all 44 bodies were found and removed. By now, more than 20 bodies have been identified," Markin told Interfax on Wednesday.
Investigators and criminal experts have finished working at the air crash scene and "now specialists from the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) will start working at the crash impact area," he said.
"The identification procedure continues. Where identification is impossible, genetic tests will be carried out, samples have been taken from relatives for identification," Markin said.
Also, the flight recorders have been recovered and "are now being deciphered with the IAC specialists," he said.
"The fragments and debris of the airplane were removed from the crash scene to a specially allocated area. IC criminal experts and aviation specialists will be working with them," the IC spokesman said.
Investigators are already studying the technical documentation seized at the Besovets and Domodedovo airports, he recalled. "By now, more than 15 people have been questioned as witnesses," Markin said.
The Tu-134 airplane owned by the RusAir airline company, which was flying from Moscow to Petrozavodsk, crashed while approaching the Karelian capital in the early hours of June 21. As a result of the crash landing, the airplane’s fuselage collapsed, causing fire. There were 52 people on board, 45 of them died, seven sustained various injuries.
