The Hindu : Front Page : Two Russian planes crash, 90 killed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 26, 2004

Front Page

Two Russian planes crash, 90 killed

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, AUG. 25. Two Russian airliners crashed on Tuesday night within minutes of each other, killing 90 people in what is feared to be a terror attack.

Both airlcraft took off from the Domodedovo Airport after 2200 hours (12.30 a.m. IST) and within 40 minutes of each other, disappeared from the radar screens at about 2300 hours. While the TU-134, flying to Volgograd with 35 passengers and a crew of eight, crashed near Tula, about 200 km from Moscow, the other one, a TU-154, carrying 38 passengers and eight crew flying to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, went missing near Roston-on-Don, a town some 1,000 km south of Moscow.

`Explosion' before crash

Air-controllers said there had been no reports of any problems from the crew of the Tu-134 before it crashed. However, witnesses reported seeing an explosion before the airliner hit the ground. In the case of the TU-154, two minutes before it was reported missing, it had sent a hijack alert. Sibir Airline, which operated the flight, said in a press release that it received a report from the military air control that "the hijack message was generated right before all contact was lost with the plane and it disappeared from the radar screens."

Putin orders probe

President Vladimir Putin ordered the FSB security service to investigate both crashes "without delay," the Kremlin press service said. Security has been tightened in all airports of the country.

A spokesman for the FSB said investigators had not yet found evidence of a terrorist act or explosion but he did not rule out either. "The main line of inquiry we are following is violation of the rules of operating civil aircraft," said the spokesman, Sergei Ignatchenko.

Officials said the recorders had been recovered and sent here for analysis.

Several security experts felt that the simultaneous crash of two airliners which had taken off from the same airport looked like a terrorist attack.

"It may be a well-planned attack by Chechen or Al-Qaeda terrorists," said Mr. Viktor Ilyukhin, a member of the security committee of the State Duma lower house.

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