MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) - The flight recorders from a Russian tactical bomber that crashed Monday in the country's far-eastern Amur Region have been recovered, an Air Force spokesman said Tuesday.
"Experts say the black boxes are in good condition," Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said, raising hopes that the recorders will shed some light on what exactly happened.
Nobody was hurt in the incident as the two-man crew of the Su-24 Fencer, which has similar capabilities to the American F-14 Tomcat or the British Tornado, managed to eject and were later picked up by a helicopter.
A special committee has been established to investigate the crash, but preliminary information suggests that a control failure was to blame.
The Su-24 can maintain supersonic speeds while flying low and is equipped with terrain-following radar and laser-designators for guided weapons, which means the plane can approach enemy targets beneath radar coverage and attack with pinpoint accuracy.
About 650 Su-24s are thought to have been built, but many have been withdrawn from service since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
