Russian investigators have disclosed that flight-data recordings from an Angara Airlines Antonov An-24 were destroyed by fire when the aircraft crashed into a forest in the Amur region.

The Interstate Aviation Committee says, however, that the cockpit-voice recorder information “was preserved”.

None of the occupants of the An-24 survived when the aircraft came down on 24 July. It had been nearing its destination, Tynda airport, following a service from Blagoveshchensk.

The committee says the flight-recorder containers retrieved from the crash site showed “signs of exposure to high temperatures”.

Upon opening the containers, it adds, the magnetic tape media of the flight-data recorder was found to have been “destroyed” by fire.

The cockpit recording is being analysed. “Prior to the moment of the aircraft’s collision with the ground, no failures of the aircraft’s systems were recorded,” the inquiry states.

It has yet to determine the circumstances of the accident, which is also the subject of a routine criminal investigation.

The federal Investigative Committee says it has completed an inspection at the scene of the crash, seizing the two Ivchenko-Progress AI-24 engines and a number of other components of interest.

“Aircraft components found at the scene have been removed and sent for storage to a specially equipped location,” it states. “The specified components will be examined by investigators.”