The "black box" from a Russian warplane downed by Turkey in November was damaged and was not immediately readable, according to Russia's state-run English-language Sputnik news agency.<br />The damage may make it difficult for Russia to determine whether the Su-24 jet was flying over Turkish territory on November 24, as Turkey says.<br />Russia says the jet was in Syrian airspace near the border.<br />"The readout of data from memory blocks is impossible at this point due to internal damages," Lt. Gen. Sergei Bainetov, head of the Defense Ministry's flight safety department, said in a press conference on Monday, according to Sputnik.<br />Assistance may be sought from Russian scientific institutions that have the expertise to read data directly from the microchip, Bainetov said.
