The third flight data recorder, which was in the tail section of the Tu-154 plane has been destroyed, a law enforcement source said.
"A tape has been found from the third black box and this shows that it was destroyed," TASS cited the source as saying.
"The third black box that was in the tail section, duplicates the parameters of the two others that are in Moscow. Its tape has been found and it is seriously deformed but it can be decoded," the source noted.
The condition of two flight data recorders - the cockpit voice recorder and the main one (that records parametric data) is satisfactory. Their decoding is taking place in Moscow.
A Russian Defense Ministry Tu-154 plane bound for Syria crashed in the early morning hours of December 25 shortly after taking off from the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. There were 92 people on board the aircraft, including eight crew members and 84 passengers. Among them were journalists, servicemen and musicians from the world-renowned Alexandrov ensemble, the official choir of the Russian armed forces.
