The Russian TU-154 plane that crashed into the Black Sea on Christmas Day was on its way from Sochi (Russia) to a Russian army base in Syria; currently the rescue operations have recovered 12 bodies out of the 92 people on board.
One of the two black boxes has also been recovered and crash investigators will study the recordings to establish the cause of the crash.
The passengers included 64 members of the internationally-renowned Alexandrov Ensemble (aka Red Army Choir) who were going to entertain troops at the military base in Hamaimim in Syria.
The choir has been founded in 1928 by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov who composed the Soviet national anthem which later became Russia's national anthem, with new lyrics. The choir regularly performed a range of music including folk tunes, hymns, operatic arias and popular music.
The choir performed in Luxembourg in 2011, when they sang, among other songs at a concert in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg's national anthem.
Russia has since grounded all its Tupolev TU-154 aircraft
