MOSCOW. July 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Flight recorders found on the scene of the TU-22M3 Backfire bomber crash are in good condition and their decoding will not take long, Pyotr Deinekin, former commander of the Russian Air Force, said on Friday.
"Only after that we will learn about true causes of the crash," Deinekin told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The most important goal of the investigation is "to determine the measures that must be taken to rule out such tragedies in the future," he stressed.
"When in was in command of an air force regiment in Ukraine in 1974, I was the first in the Air Force to commission planes of this type that had just arrived from the factory. I must say that the TU-22M3 is among the most reliable aircraft of long-range aviation. Its accident rate is the lowest," Deinekin said.
Commenting on expert reports that the crash was caused by equipment wear and the human factor, he noted, "As a rule, these statements are improvised by people who are far from aviation."
"The human factor has been involved in every air accident since the times of Icarus. It is humans that design, produce and operate equipment. The competent commission that is working on the scene will find out everything. Before it is done, it is too early to speak about causes," Deinekin said.