Flight Recorders Were Badly Damaged in Russia Plane Crash

Flight recorders from the Flydubai passenger jet that crashed Saturday in southern Russia, killing all 62 people on board, are “significantly damaged,” authorities said.

Officials were working Sunday to recover the information from the damaged recorders, Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said in a statement on its website. Specialists have started inspecting, opening and extracting information from the memory modules from the recorders’ protective casings, the IAC said. The investigation could take weeks to determine the cause of the tragedy, Reuters reports.

Fifty-five passengers and seven crew members died when the Boeing 737-800, operated by Dubai-based budget carrier Flydubai, crashed about 800 feet from the runway at an airport in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don during gusting winds, according to CNN.