A passenger jet circled a southern Russian airport in high winds and poor visibility before making a second, fatal attempt at landing Saturday, killing all 62 people aboard.
The flydubai Boeing 737 jet crashed at the Rostov-on-Don airport after traveling from Dubai, Russia's Southern Regional Emergency Center said Saturday.
All those on board died, authorities said.
Officials believe bad weather, which kept the plane from reattempting landing for more than two hours, likely caused the crash.
Psychologists on scene
The jet was carrying 55 passengers and seven crew members when it crashed, Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said.
It was scheduled to touch down at 1:20 a.m. local time (6:20 p.m. ET), but went down at 3:50 a.m. (8:50 p.m. ET ), he said.
The airport is closed, and medics and psychologists are on standby to assist family members, he said.
About 700 people are involved in the rescue operation, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said. The crash site is 800 feet (243 meters) from the airport runway, it said.
The ministry said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash at this stage and weather conditions were most-likely responsible.
Emergency staff found one of the plane's flight recorders amongst the wreckage, state news reported.
The plane's pilot circled the airport, waiting for the weather to clear before making a second attempt to land, but the aircraft's tail had clipped the runway, it said.
State media reported winds of 97 kph (60 mph) at the time of the crash.
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched an investigation, and is considering three potential causes, state-run Ria Novosti news agency reported.
"Different versions of the incident are being investigated, including crew error, technical failure, bad weather and other factors," it quoted committee chief Vladimir Markin as saying.
Emergency staff have found one of the plane's two flight recorders and were searching for the second, Ria Novosti reported.
Children among victims
Flydubai said no one survived.
"Flydubai very much regrets to confirm that the accident involving flight number FZ981 at Rostov-on-Don earlier today has resulted in 55 passenger fatalities including 33 women, 18 men and four children.
"The nationalities of the deceased passengers include 44 Russians, eight Ukrainians, two Indians and one Uzbekistani," the airline said.
Earlier, Russia's Emergencies Ministry had said 50 of the passengers and one of the crew members were Russian citizens. It has published a list of those on board.
Emergency workers are at the scene of the crash.
Flydubai has said that its primary concern was for the relatives of the victims.
"We don't yet know all the details of the accident but we are working closely with the authorities to establish the cause. We are making every effort to care for those affected and will provide assistance to the loved ones of those on board," flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims, state news agency Tass reported.
Assistance to victims
Families of passengers killed will receive one million rubles (approximately USD$15,000) from the government, Russian state media reported. It said Sunday has been declared a day of mourning in the Rostov region.
A Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employee (L) tries to comfort a relative of the plane crash victims at the Rostov-on-Don airport.
Dubai's government media office posted a statement of sympathy on Twitter.
"UAE offers its deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the Russian government and people for the tragic accident of flydubai," it said.
Boeing issued a statement saying its thoughts were also with the crash victims, their families and friends. "Boeing stands ready to provide technical assistance upon the request of government agencies conducting the investigation," it said.
Pilot disorientation?
CNN aviation expert Mary Schiavo said radar suggested the plane had flown three large, looping circles around the airport before it crashed.
"The poor visibility is probably the biggest clue," Schiavo said. "But this runway was lighted, it had good lighting at one end and passable lighting at the other and it did have an instrument landing system."
"With the clue of bad weather and making at least three different circles trying to reorient to this runway, it does look like pilot disorientation."
Meantime, Aviation Safety Analyst David Soucie agreed with the ministry's preliminary assessment that weather was likely to blame.
"It's not likely it was a mechanical failure," Soucie said. "It's most-likely a weather-related incident."
Rostov-on-Don airport would be closed until March 20, Russia 24 quoted officials as saying.
Until then, flights were redirected to the city of Krasnodar -- 141 miles south of the airport, it said.
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