Posted on 08/24/2004 9:03:09 PM PDT by Destro
Wreckage of second missing plane found
Aug 25, 2004
The wreckage of the second missing Russian plane has been found.
Two planes crashed, each with 40 people on board.
The planes were reported missing within minutes of each other late on Tuesday night, and Russian news agencies said President Vladimir Putin had ordered the FSB security service to investigate the incidents, something it would normally do only when there are suspicious circumstances.
Witnesses saw an explosion on board one of the planes just before it crashed near Tula,150 km south of Moscow.
Local news agencies reported that security had been tightened at all the country's airports after the incidents.
The suggestion that the incidents might have been deliberately caused will raise concerns of possible political motivation.
The incidents come just days before a presidential election in Chechyna where Moscow has been battling separatist rebels for a decade. The rebels launched a major raid in the local capital Grozny last week and have promised more attacks.
A ministry spokeswoman said a Tu-134 airliner with 34 passengers and eight crew flying from Moscow to Volgograd crashed after contact with it was lost at just before 11pm.
The ministry spokeswoman said the wreckage was found near the town of Tula.
"Rescue teams are working at the site," she said. "We have no information about possible survivors, but frankly speaking one could hardly expect to find them after this kind of crash."
Just three minutes later, air traffic controllers lost contact with another passenger plane -- a Tu-154 with 44 passengers and eight crew on board -- flying from Moscow to the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Contact was lost as the plane was flying near the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
Both planes had taken off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
Russian air carrier Sibir has been quoted as saying it owned the plane that went missing near Rostov-on-Don.
A company spokesman told the agency 38 passengers were on board the plane, in operation since 1982.
The Emergencies ministry spokeswoman said a fire was seen at a location where contact with Tu-154 was lost.
"But rescue teams have not reached the place and I cannot say now whether it was the plane," she said. "We continue to refer to the plane as missing for now."
Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Moscow air controllers' source as saying that there had been no reports of any problems from the crew of the Tu-134 before it crashed near Tula.
Source: Reuters
Didn't Putin warn Bush of Saddam's terror plots against America using WMD?
Read? I just look at the pics! :>)
Well, it sure flies like the old Aeroflot planes did .
I bet if you and I pooled our money we could do a start-up.
BTTT
Big mistake terrorists! Uncle Boris doesn't play nice like the Uncle Sam. You're toast and everyone you know is toast!
I hope you are right! Maybe now the Russians will be less critical of the U.S. in the War on Terror
I pulled up http://www.aeroflot.com/ but silly me, there is nothing at all there regarding this. Homeland Security website- nothing.
I pulled up http://www.aeroflot.com/ but silly me, there is nothing at all there regarding this. Homeland Security website- nothing.
Somebody was out to get Putin it's clear. I am amazed how cautious the media is about not speculating about the "possibility of terrorism". How much proof do they really need before they figure it out.
bump
Sounds like a mini "Operation Bojinka."
Multiple bombs set on multiple planes with timers which work the same way.
Just Damn.. what next?
Hopefully not a SENSITIVE war on terror
Did you notice Reuters called them "separatist rebels"....someone needs to get a clue.
Kerry cannot escape himself in his speeches; it is so blatant; cannot help but wonder if he 'laughingly' take his worst sins; and casts them off to the GW or does he just see 'through a glass darkly'; his own sins; and call them . . .the 'Republican agenda'.(Surely makes for easy speechwriting)
As per my childhood; I want to scream; 'I know you are; but what am I?'; everytime he gives a speech.
"Wonder if the Russians will be truthful with us..and if the black boxes are intact." <P< Well, they do not hide their battle with Chechnyan rebels - Islamic terrorists by any other name, of course.
More sad; that we cannot maintain a 'resolve' against terrorism in our own country post 9/11 and that it takes 'someone elses tragedy' perhaps; to shake so many here; out of their Liberal-induced fog.
Prayers for those who are in the grips of pain and suffering with this loss.
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