Terror attack feared in Russian plane crashes
Enviado: 25/8/2004 13:42Terror attack feared in Russian plane crashes
Wed 25 August, 2004 12:58
By Douglas Busvine
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two Russian passenger planes have crashed almost simultaneously, killing all 89 people on board in what investigators say was probably a freak coincidence but might have been a terrorist attack.
The planes took off from the same Moscow airport and disappeared from air traffic controllers' radar screens within minutes of each other late on Tuesday. The crash sites were some 800 km (500 miles) apart.
One plane, carrying 46 passengers and crew bound for the Black Sea port of Sochi, sent a hijack alert before crashing.
President Vladimir Putin, vacationing in Sochi, ordered the FSB security service to investigate the crashes ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Chechnya. Rebel separatists have threatened to disrupt the poll with violence.
"The main line of inquiry we are following is violation of the rules of operating civil aircraft," FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said.
Ignatchenko said this meant pilot error, mechanical defects or problems with fuel quality -- prime suspects in Russia, where pilots are poorly paid and planes often old.
"We are also examining the possibility of a terrorist act, but we have no evidence to support this."
Sibir Airlines, operator of Flight 1047 to Sochi, said the alert had been triggered when the pilot of the Tu-154 plane pressed a concealed button before the plane came down near the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
"The message was generated right before all contact was lost with the plane and it disappeared from radar screens," Sibir, Russia's number two airline, said in a statement.
EXPLOSION HEARD
Witnesses on the ground heard an explosion from the second plane, Volga-Aviaexpress Flight 1303 to Volgograd with 43 on board, before it crashed near Tula, 150 km (90 miles) south of Moscow.
"Around 11 p.m. (8 p.m. British time), give or take five minutes, there was this strange noise in the sky, then this torn-up book fell onto our garage," a local man told NTV television, holding up the book with its tattered pages.
Local prosecutors opened criminal probes into both crashes. Investigators recovered the flight recorders from both planes and sent them to Moscow for analysis by crash investigators.
Earlier, an aviation source quoted by Interfax news agency said the coincidence of both planes leaving from the same airport and disappearing at the same time would suggest it was "a planned action".
"In such a situation one could not exclude a terrorist act," the source was quoted as saying.
9/11 PARALLELS
Both planes took off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport after passing routine mechanical checks. The airport gave the final toll as 89, all Russian citizens except for an Israeli man.
Security was tightened at Russian airports, where passenger checks on internal flights are often cursory -- the kind of loophole exploited by the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001, suicide hijack attacks in the United States.
The incidents came against a backdrop of mounting violence in Chechnya, where Moscow has been battling separatists for a decade. Rebels launched a major raid in the local capital Grozny last week.
Moderate Chechen separatists denied any role in the crashes.
"Our government has nothing to do with terrorist attacks. Our attacks only target the military. This is part of the Russian propaganda plan to besmirch the struggle of the Chechen people," Farouq Tubulat, a spokesman for Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, told Al Jazeera television.
NO WARNING
The Volga-Aviaexpress Tu-134 which crashed near Tula came down without warning after nearing its cruising altitude. The Emergencies Ministry said nobody could have survived the crash.
"I rule out pilot error, because even in the most serious conditions which can affect this kind of plane, such as loss of control or fire, the crew always has time to pass on information to the ground," Yuri Dmitriev, director of Volgograd airport, told Russia's First Channel television.
At 10:59 p.m. (1859 GMT), three minutes after the Tu-134 crashed, air traffic controllers lost contact with the Sibir Tu-154. Its wreckage was found after a search hampered by fog.
The task of recovering the bodies of victims -- whose names were shown on Russian television -- was continuing. Rescuers had found 34 victims in Tula, while a number of victims of the Rostov crash were found in the plane's fuselage, media reported.
Wed 25 August, 2004 12:58
By Douglas Busvine
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two Russian passenger planes have crashed almost simultaneously, killing all 89 people on board in what investigators say was probably a freak coincidence but might have been a terrorist attack.
The planes took off from the same Moscow airport and disappeared from air traffic controllers' radar screens within minutes of each other late on Tuesday. The crash sites were some 800 km (500 miles) apart.
One plane, carrying 46 passengers and crew bound for the Black Sea port of Sochi, sent a hijack alert before crashing.
President Vladimir Putin, vacationing in Sochi, ordered the FSB security service to investigate the crashes ahead of Sunday's presidential election in Chechnya. Rebel separatists have threatened to disrupt the poll with violence.
"The main line of inquiry we are following is violation of the rules of operating civil aircraft," FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said.
Ignatchenko said this meant pilot error, mechanical defects or problems with fuel quality -- prime suspects in Russia, where pilots are poorly paid and planes often old.
"We are also examining the possibility of a terrorist act, but we have no evidence to support this."
Sibir Airlines, operator of Flight 1047 to Sochi, said the alert had been triggered when the pilot of the Tu-154 plane pressed a concealed button before the plane came down near the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
"The message was generated right before all contact was lost with the plane and it disappeared from radar screens," Sibir, Russia's number two airline, said in a statement.
EXPLOSION HEARD
Witnesses on the ground heard an explosion from the second plane, Volga-Aviaexpress Flight 1303 to Volgograd with 43 on board, before it crashed near Tula, 150 km (90 miles) south of Moscow.
"Around 11 p.m. (8 p.m. British time), give or take five minutes, there was this strange noise in the sky, then this torn-up book fell onto our garage," a local man told NTV television, holding up the book with its tattered pages.
Local prosecutors opened criminal probes into both crashes. Investigators recovered the flight recorders from both planes and sent them to Moscow for analysis by crash investigators.
Earlier, an aviation source quoted by Interfax news agency said the coincidence of both planes leaving from the same airport and disappearing at the same time would suggest it was "a planned action".
"In such a situation one could not exclude a terrorist act," the source was quoted as saying.
9/11 PARALLELS
Both planes took off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport after passing routine mechanical checks. The airport gave the final toll as 89, all Russian citizens except for an Israeli man.
Security was tightened at Russian airports, where passenger checks on internal flights are often cursory -- the kind of loophole exploited by the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001, suicide hijack attacks in the United States.
The incidents came against a backdrop of mounting violence in Chechnya, where Moscow has been battling separatists for a decade. Rebels launched a major raid in the local capital Grozny last week.
Moderate Chechen separatists denied any role in the crashes.
"Our government has nothing to do with terrorist attacks. Our attacks only target the military. This is part of the Russian propaganda plan to besmirch the struggle of the Chechen people," Farouq Tubulat, a spokesman for Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, told Al Jazeera television.
NO WARNING
The Volga-Aviaexpress Tu-134 which crashed near Tula came down without warning after nearing its cruising altitude. The Emergencies Ministry said nobody could have survived the crash.
"I rule out pilot error, because even in the most serious conditions which can affect this kind of plane, such as loss of control or fire, the crew always has time to pass on information to the ground," Yuri Dmitriev, director of Volgograd airport, told Russia's First Channel television.
At 10:59 p.m. (1859 GMT), three minutes after the Tu-134 crashed, air traffic controllers lost contact with the Sibir Tu-154. Its wreckage was found after a search hampered by fog.
The task of recovering the bodies of victims -- whose names were shown on Russian television -- was continuing. Rescuers had found 34 victims in Tula, while a number of victims of the Rostov crash were found in the plane's fuselage, media reported.