The pilot in charge of the Russian military aircraft which crashed into the Black Sea in December deliberately put the aircraft into a controlled descent just moments after takeoff, the Russian media has reported.

The military Tu-154 airliner crashed moments after taking off from the Russian city of Sochi on Christmas Day, 2016, killing all 92 people on board.

A new report into the crash shows that pilot Roman Volkov put the plane into landing mode just one minute after take-off after reaching an altitude of 250 meters, the Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday.

Military simulations then show that the Tu-154 flew parallel to the water for a full ten seconds before colliding with the sea.