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An Armenian passenger plane caught in torrential rain crashed off Russia's Black Sea coast early on Wednesday while trying to make an emergency landing, killing all 113 people aboard.
The Airbus A-320, which belonged to the Armenian airline Armavia, disappeared from radar screens at 7 am on Wednesday morning from the shore and crashed while heading towards Alder airport near the city of Sochi, a spokesman for Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said.
The plane disappeared from radar screens during a flight from Yerevan to Sochi, a resort city on the Black Sea in southern Russia.
All 105 passengers, including five children and eight crew members were killed.
"The only thing we know is that when the crew asked for permission to land, the air controller in Sochi responded that bad weather meant this was not yet possible," chief of Armenian Airlines Gayane Davtyan was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
"Contact with the crew was lost at 600 mt, when the plane went to circle for a second time," he added.