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 Russia's emergencies ministry said the aircraft, a Boeing <BA.N>
737-800 operated by Dubai-based budget carrier Flydubai, crashed at
0340 (0040 GMT). Most of those on board were Russian.
"The aircraft hit the ground and broke into pieces," the
Investigative Committee of Russia said in a statement on its
website. "There were 55 passengers aboard and seven crew members.
They all died."
Both of the plane's flight recorders have been recovered undamaged,
the committee said in a statement.
"Different versions of what happened are being looked into,
including crew error, a technical failure and bad weather
conditions," the committee said.
Flydubai's CEO Ghaith al-Ghaith told a press conference in the Gulf
Arab emirate that it was "too early" to determine the cause of the
crash.
 "We will have information about the circumstances of the incident
and the black box in the future, and an investigation is being
conducted in cooperation with the Russian authorities and we are
waiting to see the results," Ghaith said.
Dubai's civil aviation authority said it was sending an
investigative team to Russia, president Ismail al Hosani told
reporters.
The plane was in a mid-air holding pattern for about two hours and
the crash occurred more than two hours after the plane, flight
number FZ981, was scheduled to land.
The plane came down inside the airport's perimeter, about 250 meters
(yards) short of the start of the runway.
The plane's wing hit the ground on its second attempt to land and
burst into flames, the Rostov region's emergency ministry said in a
statement.
Grainy pictures from a security camera pointing towards the airport,
which were broadcast on Russian television, showed a large explosion
at ground level, with flames and sparks leaping high into the air.
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According to the Flight Safety Foundation, there was strong wind
with a speed of 12 meters per second, with gusts up to 19 meters,
but visibility was reasonable.
Ghaith of Flydubai said that he had no information to indicate that
the pilot had issued a distress call and said both the pilot and
co-pilot, a Cypriot and a Spaniard respectively, each had over 5,000
hours of flight experience.
The crash is the budget airline's first since it started flying in
May 2009. It last suffered a major safety incident when one of its
planes was shot at while landing at Baghdad airport on Jan. 27,
2015.
Six of the crew were non-Russians, the Russian emergency ministry
said in a statement on it website, but it did not reveal the
citizenship of the crew or passengers aboard.
Flydubai said in a statement that there were 44 Russians among the
55 passengers, eight Ukrainians, two Indians and one Uzbek. Four
children were among the dead.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered for assistance to be given
to the relatives of those killed.
"The head of state said that now the main thing is to work with the
families and the loved ones of those who had died," the Kremlin said
in a statement on its website.
(Additional reporting by Noah Browning, Christian Lowe, Tim Hepher,
Sam Wilkin, Ali Abdelaty and Jason Bush; Writing by Lidia Kelly and
Noah Browning; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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