The Airbus A320, operated by the Armenian airline Armavia, plunged into the sea as it tried to land at the resort town of Sochi in bad weather on a flight from the Armenian capital Yerevan.
"Boats are going to continue to work tonight in the place where the plane fell," Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin told a news conference.
Victims’ relatives overwhelmed authorities as they began the grim task of identifying their loved ones from photographs taken of the 47 bodies fished out of the water so far.
Mr Levitin said a Russian government plane has been set to return the first identified remains to Armenia.
Heavy rain and choppy seas, hampered rescue efforts as emergency workers set off in a fleet of small vessels and with floating cranes, hauling ashore human remains in black plastic sacks.
Investigation begins
The news agency ITAR-TASS has reported that the tail section of the aircraft had been raised and investigators were listening to a recording of conversations between the flight crew and ground control.
An unidentified local emergency official also told ITAR-TASS that empty lifejackets were also discovered - an indication that passengers had no time to put them on.
Sections of the aircraft remain submerged in more than 400 metres of water and as yet there was no sign of the black box flight recorder.
Already a spokeswoman for Russia's prosecutor general has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the crash.
In Yerevan, a spokeswoman for Armenia's civil aviation authority, Gayane Davdyan, told AFP the crash was due to "poor weather conditions, notably poor visibility."
Criminal case opened
The plane disappeared from radar screens at 2.15am local time as it was approaching the airport near Sochi, a semi-tropical resort in the Russian Caucasus, close to the border with Georgia.
Russian air traffic controllers said no distress signal had been received from the plan, according to an Interfax report.
Passengers included five children and eight crew members. The plane was travelling from the Armenian capital Yerevan.
A criminal case has been opened for violation of air traffic procedures leading to loss of life, the prosecutor general's office announced.