Black box reveals "noise" before Russian plane crashed

The leader of the Russian plane crash technical investigate committee has told reporters that data from the jet’s cockpit voice recorder has been downloaded. A “noise” can be heard in the last moments of the recording. He said the nature has not yet been determined.

The flight data recorder revealed that the plane’s autopilot had been engaged until the end of the recording, 23 minutes 14 seconds into the flight.

He explained that the information is still in the “information gathering” phase and said debris from the plane was scattered over a 13 kilometre area, which is consistent with an in-flight break-up.

Initial observations do not allow investigators to draw any conclusions about the cause of the crash.