A Russian military plane enroute to Syria has crashed off Sochi coast. There were 92 people on board the Tupolev Tu-154 plane. Russia's Defense Ministry said that the Russian military plane crashed in the Black Sea, killing 92 passengers. The plane was going to Syria.

Search and recovery operations are under way after a Russian military plane - carrying members of a prominent armed forces song-and-dance ensemble to Syria for a New Year’s concert - crashed in the Black Sea killing all 92 people on board.

Russia’s Defense Ministry says "no survivors have been seen" at the crash site and President Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will observe a national day of mourning on December 26.

The plane had vanished from radar screens shortly after taking off at 5:40 a.m. local time on December 25 from the southern city of Sochi. It was flying to Russia's Hmeimim airbase outside the coastal Syrian city of Latakia.

The cause of the crash isn't immediately known. Putin "has ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to form and head a state commission to investigative the crash of the Tu-154 plane," the Kremlin said in a statement on December 25.

The Defense Ministry said rescuers have recovered at least 10 bodies off the coast of Sochi, where dozens of ships, drones, and divers are searching for more.

Earlier, the ministry said that "fragments … of the plane were found 1.5 kilometers from the Black Sea coast of the city of Sochi at a depth of 50 to 70 meters."

The plane crashed shortly after taking off from Sochi on the Black Sea where it had stopped for refuelling.

The Defense Ministry has released a list of the passengers. They include 64 members of the Aleksandrov Ensemble, the official army choir of the Russian armed forces. The ensemble’s leader Valery Khalilov was among the passengers.

Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the ensemble members had been flying to Latakia for a New Year's performance for Russian troops deployed in Syria.

Nine Russian reporters were also been on board as well as military servicemen. The state-run TV stations First Channel, NTV, and Zvezda said they each had three staff onboard the flight.

The passenger list also includes Elizaveta Glinka, known as Doctor Liza, a prominent activist and member of Putin's advisory human rights council.

The ministry said 84 people aboard the aircraft were passengers and eight were crew members. The flight originated in the capital, Moscow, and had a stopover in Sochi for refueling.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was too early to say what had caused the crash.

Officials said a probe has been launched to determine if any violations of air transport safety regulations had taken place.

Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov had flown to Sochi along with a team tasked with clarifying the circumstances surrounding the crash, spokesman Konashenkov said.

Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov, the head of a state commission probing the crash, is also on his way to the region, the government said in a statement.

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee at the upper house of the Russian parliament, said he "totally excludes" terrorism as a possible cause of the crash.

In remarks carried by the state news agency RIA Novosti, Ozerov - without citing any source - said the crash could have been caused by a technical malfunction or a crew error, but he believes it could not have been terrorism because the plane was operated by the military.

According to the Defense Ministry, the aircraft had been in service since 1983 and had flown some 7,000 hours since. The plane last underwent repairs in December 2014 and was serviced in September, the ministry said.

The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the plane had not sent an SOS signal.

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