Flydubai announced it will give $20,000 (around Rs 13.3 lakh) to the families of each of the 62 victims of Saturday’s air crash in Russia. PTI reported that the air carrier, a budget airline affiliated with Emirates, said its priority now is to identify all 62 victims and contact their families. Flight FZ981 crashed early on Saturday morning while attempting to land at the airport in Rostov-on-Don. Reports said the aircraft crashed into the runway while landing, after it had circled for hours after its first attempt at landing. Several other planes also had trouble on the runway because of strong winds approaching hurricane levels, with one diverting to another airport after three failed attempts to land.

Investigators recovered both flight recorders from FZ981 but said both are badly burnt and will take many weeks to decode. The aircraft reportedly exploded when it crashed into the runway. Experts said a sudden change in wind speed and direction could have caused the crash. All 55 passengers and seven crew members on board were declared dead immediately after the crash. Many of the passengers were Russian, while two were Indian.