while performing a flight near the city of Homs , with the Defense Ministry stressing it was not shot down . The crash left both pilots dead , with technical failure cited by Moscow as the likely cause of the accident . Last October , another Mi-8 helicopter was badly damaged and then destroyed by IS fighters after an emergency landing in the middle of search and rescue operation to extract a surviving co - pilot of a Su-24 M bomber jet shot which was down by a Turkish Air Force F-16 .
The hijacker surrendered at Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus and all passengers were released safely . No one was hurt in the incident , which Cypriot authorities said was not terrorism related . A Russian passenger plane crasheddisaster.accidentcrash.accidentcrashin Egypt 's Sinai peninsula in October , killing all 224 people on board . Moscow said it was brought down by an explosive device , and a local branch of the Islamic State claimed responsibility . Contributing : Jacob Wirtschafter in Cairo ; Nikolia Apostolu from Lesbos , Greece ; Maya Vidon in Paris ; Melanie Eversley , Gregory Korte in Washington .
Reuters could not independently verify the video . Social Media Website via Reuters TV A view of the wreckage of a plane that crasheddisaster.accidentcrash.accidentcrashsoutheast of Damascus , Syria in this still image taken from video said to be shot April 22 , 2016 . The video was shared online by Islamic State - affiliated news agency Amaq . Reuters could not independently verify the video .
One of the J-8s piloted by Lt . Cdr . Wang Wei , made two close passes to the EP-3 before colliding with the spyplane on the third pass . As a consequence , the J-8 broke into two pieces and crasheddisaster.accidentcrash.accidentcrashinto the sea causing the death of the pilot , whereas the EP-3 , severely damaged , performed an unauthorized landing at China ’s Lingshui airfield . The 24 crew members ( 21 men and three women ) , that destroyed all ( or at least most of ) the sensitive items and data on board the aircraft , were detained by Chinese authorities until Apr. 11 .
The inbound flights are getting rerouted to Krasnodar . The Emergencies Ministry has opened up a hotline while a team of psychologists has been sent to help the grieving relatives . Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed has expressed condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the crasheddisaster.accidentcrash.accidentcrashBoeing . “ The Russian president feels deeply for all those who lost their loved ones in the Boeing 737 crash in Rostov - on - Don , ” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Saturday , stressing that the president has made it a priority to provide all possible assistance to the relatives of the victims . The Russian Defense Ministry has joined the recovery operation following the crash of the Boeing-737 - 800 , it said in a statement .