Posted on 12/25/2016 2:34:13 PM PST by RitchieAprile
One report had them lost from radar 2 minutes after takeoff. That would still be low enough for MANPADS.
I was thinking something on-board, but external strike is also possible.
Tu-154s have a habit of falling out of the sky even without external influence - safety and noise regulations ban them from flying in Western Europe and the US.
Quite some time ago I came across them on YouTube singing "Sweet Home Alabama." They did a great job.
Not really.
“Has seen 39 fatal accidents, although few were due to technical problems. Many were as a result of difficult weather conditions and poor air traffic control. A few were lost in conflicts including in Lebanon, Georgia and Afghanistan”
They don’t do well against missiles. And crash as easily as anything else when flown into bad weather.
It’s a little strange that they were headed to a Christmas celebration. Russian Orthodox celebrate Christmas on January 7.
RIP and condolences to the families.
It was Glenn Miller, and he was likely taken down by the British or Americans.
Around here, most folks have their Christmas concerts a week or two before Christmas. And the tradition in Russia seems to be to put up the decorations on December 1. So it's well within their celebration window.
It was almost certainly a technical failure of some sort. The flight was a military-run shuttle, not a public flight, so the chances of terrorism being involved are pretty small. And that old 3-engine Tu-154 is notorious. Remember several years back when the Polish president died when a plane went down over Eastern Europe or western Russia? That was also a Tu-154.
Mohamed Tupolev.........
At least it wasn’t the Young Octoberists from Pskov.
same team.
Russia gave back Palmyra to ISIS,
Assad’s daddy helped kill 250 Marines.
Don’t expect me to go in for the Russian love-in with Russian prop. Too bad, folks politicize this.
Russia or Assad or ISIS.
Russia or ISIS, see how the Russians left ISIS a bunch of tanks at Palmyra, US airforce bombed it. Enough Russian prop here. Assad buys ISIS oil. Same team.
Gotta link or just Iranian propaganda, thanks for the laugh.
Official stories say it is highly unlikely it was an act of terror - old plane with a less-than-spectacular record of reliability.
I was wondering if anyone would recognize the reference.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.