Flydubai will provide “hardship payments” of $20,000 per passenger to relatives of those killed when its jet crashed in southern Russia, the airline said.
The Boeing 737 from the United Arab Emirates was attempting to land in poor weather conditions early Saturday.
After circling for more than two hours because of high winds and poor visibility at Rostov-on-Don airport, it crashed during a landing attempt.
All 62 people aboard flight FZ981 from Dubai died.
Flydubai said the payments of US $20,000 per passenger are in accordance with its conditions and will help address immediate financial needs.
“Our priority is to identify and contact the families of those lost … and provide immediate support to those affected,” the airline said in a statement.
Russian state media earlier reported that family members of the victims would receive 1 million rubles (about $15,000) from Moscow.
Day of mourning
Russia declared a day of mourning Sunday in the Rostov administrative region, which borders the Sea of Azov and eastern Ukraine.
“State flags of Russia, flags of the region and municipalities will be flown at half-mast across the region. An event dedicated to the memory of the victims will be held outside the international terminal of the Rostov airport,” a regional official said, according to the government owned Tass news agency.
Tass said Russia’s transport minister and the regional governor would be among those attending the event.
Search operation
Flight FZ981 aborted its initial landing and spent two hours circling Rostov-on-Don airport before crashing about 800 feet from a runway during a second landing attempt .
Russian state media reported strong winds and poor visibility at the time.
Hundreds of personnel — from investigators to medics to psychologists on standby to assist grieving family members — quickly converged on the crash site.
Russian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said the search operation was expected to end Sunday morning, according to state-run Sputnik news.
The main phase had been completed and victims’ remains recovered and sent for forensic analysis, it reported.
Possible causes of crash
Authorities have ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash.
The Russian Investigative Committee has said it will be looking at three possibilities: technical issues, severe weather and human error.
Its investigation will take at least two months, as required by Russian law, according to Sputnik.
Investigators will also be coming from the UAE and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, alongside technical advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing.
Pilots’ experience
Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith told reporters Saturday the plane had passed a comprehensive inspection on January 21.
The pilots were “quite experienced,” he said. The Cypriot captain had flown 5,965 hours while the Spanish co-captain had 5,769.
Ghaith said he was not aware of a distress call made. As far as the airline knew “the airport was open and we were good to operate,” he said.
Crash victims
Flydubai said 44 of the passengers were Russians, along with eight Ukrainians, two Indians and one Uzbekistani.
Thirty-three of the passengers were women, 18 were men and four were children.
