(Bloomberg) -- A passenger jet operated by Middle Eastern budget carrier FlyDubai broke apartwhile trying to land in high winds in the southern Russian city ofRostov-on-Don Saturday morning, killing all 62 people on board.

Flight FZ981 was making a repeat landing attempt in poorweather about 3:40 a.m. when it crashed and burst into flames, theRostov branch of the Emergencies Ministry said on its website. TheBoeing Co. 737-800 was carrying 55 passengers and seven crew whenit came down about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) south ofMoscow.

Human error, technical failure and difficult weather conditionsare among possible causes under scrutiny, according to the websiteof the Investigative Committee, the main Russian investigatingauthority. Rossiya-24 state television, citing a local weatherservice, said winds in Rostov-on-Don exceeded 20 meters per second(about 45 miles per hour) about the time of the accident.

“As far as we know, the airport was open and we were good tooperate,” FlyDubai Chief Executive Officer Ghaith Al Ghaith said ata press conference in Dubai. “This investigation will take timeuntil all facts are collected. Before we commit and say anything,we have to be sure. If weather wasn’t suitable, the plane wouldn’thave flown.”

While authorities said the wing came in contact with the ground,independent tracking service Flightradar24.com posted data suggesting that theapproach was unusual even before the jet reached the airport.

Two hours

Flightradar24 showed the plane circled for about two hours afteran initial landing attempt — consistent with a report byRossiya-24 — and then descended and slowed down beforeabruptly pulling up and accelerating at the last minute. The finalFlightradar24 readings then showed the plane losing altitude andstill gaining airspeed. FlyDubai said both flight recorders, theplane’s so-called black boxes, have been recovered.

Two hours is in general an unusually long time for circling,Ismail Al Hosani, a representative of the U.A.E.’s civil aviationbody, said at the Dubai press conference, in response tospeculation that the plane had been delaying its finalapproach.

A preliminary list showed 33 women, 18 men, four children andseven crew on the single-aisle 737, which Ghaith said was inspectedon Jan. 21. The passengers were mostly Russian, with Ukrainian,Uzbek and Indian nationals also on board. The Cypriot pilot andSpanish co-pilot were “quite experienced,” having logged more than11,000 flying hours between them, Ghaith said. The pilot wasidentified as Aristos Sokratous, Ria Novosti reported, citingtransportation prosecutors.

‘Unstable approach’

Bad weather “may have resulted in an unstable approach situationleading the crew to initiate a go-around, execute a missed approachprocedure and review the options to either divert or attemptanother landing,” said Mark Martin, an aviation analyst and founderof Dubai-based Martin Consultancy.

Rostov-on-Don Airport is considered a straightforward airport toland at, Viktor Gorbachev, head of a Russian airport lobbygroup, said in an interview with Rossiya-24. The only danger couldhave been a crosswind, he said. There were several airports within30 minutes flying time that could have been used instead, hesaid.

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“Holding a plane for whatever convenience, weather or slots, isa judgment call at the moment,” FlyDubai’s Ghaith said. “As far aswe’re concerned, we’ve not seen anything that would suggest that analternative airport was on the cards, but again we’d not know untilall the information is put in front of us.”

Russian Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov and head ofFederal Aviation Authority Alexander Neradko are in Rostov-on- Donand will visit the site soon, Zhanna Terekhova, a spokeswoman forthe Transportation Ministry, said by phone.

Insurance coverage

FlyDubai is covered by insurance worth $500 million, Sokolovsaid during a news conference broadcast by Rossiya-24.

The airport is operated by a unit of billionaire ViktorVekselberg’s Renova Group. It has two runways and serves more than2 million passengers per year on domestic and internationalflights. The airport will remain closed until midnight,spokeswoman Olga Ladeyschikova said by phone.

The city of Rostov-on-Don is near the Black Sea, not far fromthe border with Ukraine in the south of the country. Body partshave been found near the wreckage, Interfax reported, citing IgorOder, head of the southern region branch of the EmergencyMinistry.

In between the FlyDubai jet’s first attempt to land and thecrash, another plane made three landing efforts and then diverted,FlightRadar 24, which tracks airline movements, said in a Twitterposting.

“Diversion is a judgment call,” Ghaith said in a statement.

Boeing aware

Boeing is aware of the incident and is gathering furtherdetails, the planemaker said in an e-mailed statement. The 737 isthe workhorse of the global airline fleet and the model is Boeing’sbiggest source of profit.

The United Arab Emirates’ civil aviation authority has sentrepresentatives and advisers to work closely with the Russianauthorities to conduct the investigation under internationalstandards, Saif Mohamad Al Suwaidi, director-general of theregulatory body, said.

FlyDubai, owned by the government of Dubai, is one of twono-frills airlines in the United Arab Emirates. It began operationsin 2009 and has an all-Boeing fleet of 50 aircraft with a networkof about 90 destinations.

The year 2015 was pronounced one of the safest years forairlines globally by the International Air Transport Association.The number of fatal accidents fell by two thirds last year,excluding more than 300 deaths resulting from a pilot suicide andpossible terror attack.

--With assistance from Janet Ong, Torrey Clark, Kyunghee Parkand Ann Koh.

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