Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin held today a meeting in Rostov-on-Don, where a Boeing 737 800, flight 981 crashed on its way from Dubai to Rostov killing 62 people.

Mr. Bastrykin visited the crash site and controlled the operation of the investigative team, heard the results of the preliminary investigation and gave a number of explicit orders, including the one to pass the criminal case to the major directorate of the Investigative Committee for further investigation.

It became known earlier that both black boxes were found and handed to the specialists of the International Aviation Committee for decoding. In addition, the investigators are confiscating flight documents and studying actions of the airport’s emergency services. After all the samples have been taken for tests, forensic DNA and medical inquiries will be assigned. As of now, over 40 people – victims’ relatives, airport staff and flight operations center, Rostov weather center, representatives of FlyDubai – have been questioned, flight documents of the Rostov-on-Don airport have been confiscated.

The decision to transfer the case to the major directorate was made due to the fact that a lot of investigative operations have to be done and because it is an international incident as FlyDubai is a foreign company. It should also be noted that the major directorate of the Investigative Committee has investigators who have extensive experience in investigation of plane crashes.

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee has assumed personal control over the investigation.

Head of Media Relations                                                                                                                           V.I. Markin