Second black box of crashed plane presumably found: Russian Emergencies Ministry

Rescuers have presumably recovered the second flight data recorder of the AN-148 passenger jet that crashed in the Moscow region on Sunday, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said Monday.

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employees and Russian police officers work at the scene of a AN-148 plane crash in Stepanovskoye village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. [Photo: AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko]

"A flight data recorder has been found in the 18th sector (within the search area). The Interstate Aviation Committee is now working to confirm and identify it," Sergey Poletykin, head of the ministry's Moscow Region Directorate, said during a meeting of the Governmental Disaster Management Commission's working group, according to a ministry statement.

On Sunday, an Antonov-148 of Saratov Airlines bound for the city Orsk in Russia's Orenberg Region bordering Kazakhstan crashed shortly after takeoff from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, killing all people on board, including 65 passengers and six crew members.

The other black box was found earlier, according to the Emergencies Ministry.

A total of 780 people and 175 units of equipment are involved in the search and rescue operations round the clock, the ministry said.

It said nine drones are being used to identify main places for search operations in an area of more than 30 hectares over which the debris was scattered. In addition, 20 snow mobiles have been provided to investigators and experts of the Interstate Aviation Committee.