On 25 December 2016, a Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner of the Russian Defence Ministry crashed into the Black Sea shortly after taking off from Sochi International Airport, Russia, while en route to Khmeimim Air Base, Syria.

[1][3] The Tupolev had taken off at 05:27 local time (02:27, 25 December 2016 (UTC) (2016-12-25T02:27UTC)) from the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia, where it had landed to refuel, bound for Syria.

[5] The members of the Ensemble were travelling from Moscow to the Russian military base at Khmeimim near Latakia, Syria, to take part in New Year celebrations.

[15] Witnesses told reporters the plane appeared to experience trouble in gaining altitude, turned 180 degrees, started descending and crashed into the sea.

[16][17] On 27 December the Interfax news agency reported that Russian investigators believed the crash was due to a fault with the aircraft flaps.

[18][19] On 29 December it was announced by the Flight Safety Service of the Russian Ministry that a preliminary analysis of data from the cockpit voice recorder showed that no explosion had occurred on board.

[21] On 19 January Interfax reported that, during the underwater search, remains had also been found of a Soviet Douglas A-20 Havoc/DB-7 Boston bomber, supplied from the U.S. through the Lend-Lease agreement, which crashed on 15 November 1942.