Two Russian passenger jets crash
Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Posted: 10:28 PM EDT (0228 GMT)



Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an immediate investigation.
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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.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/08/24/russia.planecrash/index.html

I just hope there is a special place in hell for those that devote their lives (terrorists) to the destruction of innocent human beings.

Two Russian Airliners Crash; Hijack Alert Reportedly Sent
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

The Russian news agency Interfax reported that a hijacking signal was activated on the second plane before it disappeared from radar. The signal came at 11:04 p.m. from the Tu-154 airliner, Interfax quoted the source in Russia's "power structures" as saying.

There was no word on survivors among the 89 people believed to be aboard the planes, which left Moscow's Domodedovo airport (search) 40 minutes apart, Russian news agencies reported.

President Vladimir Putin ordered an investigation by the nation's top intelligence agency, and security was tightened at airports across the country.

Authorities have expressed concern that separatist rebels in the southern republic of Chechnya could carry out attacks linked to this Sunday's presidential election there. Rebels have been blamed for a series of terror strikes that have claimed hundreds of lives.

Chechnya's previous president, the pro-Russian Akhmad Kadyrov, was killed by a bombing in May.

Witnesses reported seeing an explosion before the first plane crashed about 125 miles south of Moscow, and authorities were not ruling out terrorism, the agency said.


Putin ordered the Federal Security Service to investigate, Russian news agencies reported. The service is the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

No restrictions were placed on flights at Domodedovo, Interfax reported.

A Tu-134 airliner with 43 people aboard crashed in the Tula region, 125 miles south of Moscow, at about 10:56 p.m. Tuesday, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Marina Ryklina said. She said the plane was carrying 35 passengers and a crew of eight.

ITAR-Tass reported that the plane belonged to Volgograd-based airline Volga-Aviaexpress and was being piloted by the company's director. Rescuers found the jet's tail near the village of Buchalki, Interfax reported.

A Tu-154 with 46 people aboard lost contact with flight officials about three minutes later near Rostov-on-Don, about 600 miles south of Moscow, Ryklina said. The jet belonged to the Russian airline Sibir, which said the plane disappeared from radar screens at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Interfax reported. There were 38 passengers and a crew of eight aboard the plane, which Sibir said had been in service since 1982. Russian state television reported that the second flight has also crashed.

The plane that crashed near Tula left Moscow at 10:15 p.m. and was headed to the southern city of Volgograd, while the plane that disappeared left at 9:35 p.m. for the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where Putin was vacationing, ITAR-Tass and Rossiya reported.

When Russia's U.N. Ambassador Andrey Denisov was told of the initial report of two near-simultaneous crashes, he said, "Now we have to see if there's terrorism."

In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity Tuesday evening, said it was the understanding of American officials that the two Russian planes disappeared within four minutes of each other, which "in and of itself is suspicious."

Separately, a U.S. counterterrorism official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no threat reporting to indicate a threat to U.S. aircraft or to U.S. aircraft in Russia.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department was monitoring the situation but was not implementing any additional security measures in the United States, spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,129919,00.html