Russian officials were hoping to find out if Turkey were to blame
The damaged black box from the Russian warplane shot down by Turkey last month had no useful information contained within it, investigators in Moscow said on Monday.
The Kremlin were hoping their version of what happened could have been supported by data found in the box.
The shooting down of the Russian SU-24 fighter-bomber by Turkish jets on 24th November was the most serious confrontation between Moscow and a NATO member state in the last 50 years.
Russia’s Defence Ministry publicly opened the black box last week, hoping its contents would confirm Moscow’s assertions that the bomber did not stray into Turkish air space and was maliciously shot down.
Sergei Bainetov, the Russian Air Force’s deputy head of flight safety said: “Retrieving the information and a read out of flight data … has proven to be impossible because of internal damage.”
Bainetov went on to say that microchips inside the recorder had been destroyed and that those remaining were damaged beyond repair.
He said that the damage was so severe because of the sheer force with which the plane had struck the ground after being hit by an air-to-air missile, which severed a cord that connected the black box and the jet’s satellite system.
The defence ministry will now turn to specialised scientific institutions in the hope that they can get something from the damaged chips.
It is uncertain whether they will be able to garner any more information.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Turkey of ‘stabbing Russia in the back’ and ordered economic sanctions against Ankara, in Turkey.
Turkey says the Russian warplane strayed into its airspace and ignored repeated warnings to leave.
Russia says the plane posed no threat to Turkey.
