Diplomats witness opening of downed jet’s black box

The package, which was signed off on without discussion, has been mooted for 10 months, but became a pressing concern after Turkey shot down a Russian Su-24, which it claimed had violated its border.

Moscow and Ankara are locked in a bitter spat over Turkey’s shooting down of Russian Su-24 jet on November 24, killing two Russian officers and sparking a furious war of words as well as economic sanctions from the Kremlin.

Three of eight chips from Su-24 jet’s flight data recorder were completely damaged due to the Turkish F-16 missile strike, Sputnik News reported citing the Russian Aerospace Forces.

But only British and Chinese experts accepted the offer, he said.

Wearing lab coats and gloves, technicians used screwdrivers, drills, and even a vacuum cleaner as they opened the device under the watchful eyes of military personnel and dozens of journalists in a live national television broadcast.

Dronov said the data from the recorder will be released on Monday.

Ankara has said it warned the plane before firing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had described the downing of the jet as a “stab in the back” carried out by “accomplices of terrorists”. The comments come just a day after Russian Federation said that Turkey must pay compensation over its actions and guarantee that a similar incident would not happen in the future.

Dronov said the black box presented to the public on Friday had not been touched since it was recovered from the crash site. Ministry official Sergey Dronov told Interfax that experts from 14 countries had been invited, but a lot of them refused to participate.

Putin also said it was “practically impossible” to overcome tensions with Ankara after this event.

Diplomats said the United States and European allies are in the awkward position of urging Ankara to do more against Islamic State in Syria – including sealing a section of the border crossed by fighters and oil smugglers – while encouraging it to avoid further incidents with Russian Federation and to keep alive a peace process with the Kurds in southeastern Turkey.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Russian military had retrieved the black box after Syrian special forces “liberated” rebel-held territory where the jet was shot down.