Air Transport

Russian investigators examining the flight recorders from the Itek Air Boeing 737-200 which crashed in Kyrgyzstan have found that both devices were badly damaged in the accident.

The 737 crashed on 24 August while attempting to return to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, a few minutes after departing for Tehran. An intense fire destroyed the aircraft.

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) is attempting to retrieve information from the flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders.

But it states: "During the dismantling of the recorders' protective casing, the tape-recording mechanisms were found to have significant damage.

"Work is being carried out on the damaged media to read the data."

MAK has not drawn any conclusions about the accident but says investigators are continuing to assess information from radar data and other sources. Twenty-five of the 90 occupants of the jet survived.