Russian crash investigators find voice recorder

[November 20, 2013]  MOSCOW (AP) — Russian crash investigators say they have found a tape of cockpit conversations from a Boeing 737 that slammed into the ground in a nosedive crash, killing all 50 people on board.

The voice-recording tape, missing when its container was found earlier, was located by search teams Wednesday.

Systems data retrieved from another onboard black box allowed the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee to conclude that the crew lost speed in a steep climb, then overcompensated and sent the plane into a near-vertical dive. It said all the plane's systems were working normally until the moment it hit the ground and exploded in a giant fireball.

The Tatarstan Airlines plane was flying from Moscow to the central city of Kazan, 720 kilometers (450 miles) to the east.

[Associated Press]

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