A fuel system failure such as rupture of a duct or a flow divider valve could have caused the Tu-154 plane crash in the Black Sea, Nikolay Antoshkin, former deputy chief of the Russian Air Forces, said on Tuesday.

"I think that if engine fail, one should examine the fuel system. A rupture of a duct, a ducting or a flow divider valve could have occurred – one should look for a problem there," Antoshkin told RIA Novosti. He also said that other possible problems are unlikely to have caused the crash. "I do not think that the crash was caused by a foreign object penetrating the engine. The jet could not have been fueled by low-quality fuel, the pilots were experienced and there was no sabotage," Antoshkin said.

He added that the time necessary to decode the plane’s flight data recorder would depend on damages of the black box.

The Russian Defense Ministry`s Tu-154 aircraft en route to Syria from Moscow crashed soon after takeoff near Russia`s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Sunday. The plane was carrying 92 people including eight crew members, 64 musicians of the Alexandrov Ensemble, nine reporters, head of Spravedlivaya Pomoshch (Fair Aid) charity Elizaveta Glinka, and two federal civil servants. All 92 are feared dead.

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