Two Russian passenger jets crash
Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Posted: 10:28 PM EDT (0228 GMT)
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Two passenger jetliners have crashed over Russia in nearly simultaneous incidents, with as many as 94 people feared killed.
A ministry spokeswoman said the wreckage of one jet was found ablaze in the Tula region, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Moscow.
Search and rescue teams were at the site searching for possible survivors, but the ministry said none of the 34 passengers and eight-member crew are believed to have survived.
The wreckage of the second jetliner has also been found, Russian state television reported early Wednesday, citing aviation officials. It was reported missing minutes after the first crash.
They did not say whether any survivors were found.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered security services to launch an immediate investigation, Russian news agencies reported early Wednesday.
The flights took off from Moscow within minutes of each other Tuesday night and were bound for cities in southern Russia.
Witnesses reported seeing the first plane explode before it crashed, the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
The government-run news agency Ria Novosti reported that the plane's wreckage was in two separate locations.
The second plane, carrying with between 46 and 52 people on board, was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Rostov-on-Don when it dropped off radar screens.
The first plane disappeared from radar at 10:56 p.m. (0756 GMT), the news agency said.
The Tupolev-134 had taken off from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport and was en route to Volgograd, in southern Russia.
The second plane, a Tupolev-154, disappeared from radar at 10:59 p.m. after having taken off from the same airport en route to Sochi, a tourist resort on the Black Sea in southern Russia, the ministry spokeswoman reported.
The Tupolev-154 is a standard medium-range airliner on domestic flights in Russia, according to aviation websites.
Russian authorities offered no explanations for the crashes but said they had increased security at airports following an explosion at a Moscow bus station earlier Tuesday, which injured three people.
"If this were just one, you would look toward some sort of aircraft issue," Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN.
"But with two of them going down so close together, it's awfully ominous."
The incidents also took place just days before a regional election in the rebellious southern territory of Chechnya, where Russian troops have battled separatist guerrillas for five years.
Chechen separatists have been blamed for numerous bombings and other attacks in Russia in recent years, including the seizure of hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater that ended with more than 100 hostages dead.
Something's going on in Russia
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Something's going on in Russia
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It was truly amazing to flip the TV channels last night after this story first broke. Fox News was covering the Swift Boat scandal, Larry King was talking with the NBC Today Show crew, but there was absolutely no news about this incident. Apparently, Americans only care about potential terror attacks if they involve attacks on Americans...
Russia Blames Terrorism for Downed Jet
By David Holley
Times Staff Writer
11:13 AM PDT, August 27, 2004
MOSCOW — At least one of two Russian airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously this week had traces of an explosive in its wreckage, authorities said today amid mounting indications that both planes were brought down by terrorist acts.
"Traces of an explosive substance have been found during examination of the wreckage," Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service told the Russian news agency Itar-Tass. "According to preliminary information, at least one of the air crashes, that in the Rostov region, has been a result of a terrorist act."
Preliminary analysis indicated that the explosive used in the apparent attack was hexogen, Ignatchenko said. That is the same substance that was used in a series of apartment bombings in 1999 that Russian authorities attributed to Chechen terrorists.
Authorities also said that for each plane there was a case in which no relatives had come forward to claim the remains of a woman with a Chechen name. In Grozny, police officials said they have begun seeking information about the two women, but have not yet reached any conclusions.
The flight data recorders recovered earlier this week from the two jetliners provided no clues over why they crashed minutes apart Tuesday.
One plane, a Tu-134 operated by Volga-Aviaexpress, a small regional company, crashed in the Tula region south of Moscow on its way from the capital's Domodedovo Airport en route to Volgograd, killing all 43 passengers and crew members on board, authorities said.
The crash scene, said a rescuer quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, was "a very depressing sight" with parts of the plane, fragments of bodies and passengers' belongings scattered in a radius of more than half a mile.
The second jet, a Tu-154 operated by Sibir Airlines, a major Russian carrier, took off from the same airport and was headed to the Black Sea resort of Sochi when it crashed near the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, killing all 46 on board.
After initially giving several explanations that could have caused the crash, Vladimir Yakovlev, the presidential envoy to southern Russia, told the Itar-Tass news agency Thursday that terrorism was the probable cause.
Despite showing no indication of trouble, both flight recorders shut off abruptly. That finding pointed to strong evidence of explosives, according to U.S. authorities, who have joined the investigation.
The crashes came amid fears that separatist rebels in Russia's war-torn southern republic of Chechnya would launch attacks before Sunday's presidential election there.
Times wire services also contributed to this report.
By David Holley
Times Staff Writer
11:13 AM PDT, August 27, 2004
MOSCOW — At least one of two Russian airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously this week had traces of an explosive in its wreckage, authorities said today amid mounting indications that both planes were brought down by terrorist acts.
"Traces of an explosive substance have been found during examination of the wreckage," Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service told the Russian news agency Itar-Tass. "According to preliminary information, at least one of the air crashes, that in the Rostov region, has been a result of a terrorist act."
Preliminary analysis indicated that the explosive used in the apparent attack was hexogen, Ignatchenko said. That is the same substance that was used in a series of apartment bombings in 1999 that Russian authorities attributed to Chechen terrorists.
Authorities also said that for each plane there was a case in which no relatives had come forward to claim the remains of a woman with a Chechen name. In Grozny, police officials said they have begun seeking information about the two women, but have not yet reached any conclusions.
The flight data recorders recovered earlier this week from the two jetliners provided no clues over why they crashed minutes apart Tuesday.
One plane, a Tu-134 operated by Volga-Aviaexpress, a small regional company, crashed in the Tula region south of Moscow on its way from the capital's Domodedovo Airport en route to Volgograd, killing all 43 passengers and crew members on board, authorities said.
The crash scene, said a rescuer quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, was "a very depressing sight" with parts of the plane, fragments of bodies and passengers' belongings scattered in a radius of more than half a mile.
The second jet, a Tu-154 operated by Sibir Airlines, a major Russian carrier, took off from the same airport and was headed to the Black Sea resort of Sochi when it crashed near the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, killing all 46 on board.
After initially giving several explanations that could have caused the crash, Vladimir Yakovlev, the presidential envoy to southern Russia, told the Itar-Tass news agency Thursday that terrorism was the probable cause.
Despite showing no indication of trouble, both flight recorders shut off abruptly. That finding pointed to strong evidence of explosives, according to U.S. authorities, who have joined the investigation.
The crashes came amid fears that separatist rebels in Russia's war-torn southern republic of Chechnya would launch attacks before Sunday's presidential election there.
Times wire services also contributed to this report.