3 important updates following FlyDubai incident

All 62 people aboard a passenger jet flying from Dubai to southern Russia were killed when their plane crashed on its second attempt to land at Rostov-on-Don airport on Saturday, March 19, 2016, Russian officials said.

Russia's emergencies ministry said the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Dubai-based budget carrier FlyDubai, crashed at 0340 (0040 GMT). Most of those on board were Russian.

Here are three important updates following the sad incident...

1. Putin orders assistance to relatives of those killed in plane crash in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that assistance to the relatives of those killed in a plane crash in southern Russia was the priority, local news agencies cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

"The head of the state said that now the main thing is to work with the families and the loved ones of those who had died," Peskov was quoted as saying.

2. Russia says human error or technical failure are two main theories for plane crash

The Investigative Committee of Russia said on Saturday that it is looking into a pilot error or a technical failure as the most likely causes for the plane crash that killed 62 in southern Russia, Russian news agencies reported.

"At present, we are looking into two main theories for the plane crash in Rostov-on-Don: pilot error in connection with deteriorating weather conditions or a technical error," Interfax news agency cited a representative of the Committee, Oksana Kovrizhnaya, as saying.

3. Flydubai CEO says too early to say what caused crash in Russia

It is too early to say what caused a Flydubai plane to crash in Russia on Saturday but Russia and the company are investigating the incident, Flydubai CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith said at a news conference in Dubai.

"We will have information about the circumstances of the incident and the black box in the future, and an investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Russian authorities and we are waiting to see the results," Ghaith said.

It said the plane was in a mid-air holding pattern for more than two hours. The crash occurred more than two hours after the plane, flight number FZ981, was scheduled to land.