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
Prayers for all their families.
Putin has been giving aid to the Iranians who have been giving aid to these terrorists. What goes around comes around , I guess.
"...possible political motivation..." = Muslim terrorists.
Bush has probably already been on the phone to Putin...and not just gee, I'm glad you're okay.
"Local news agencies reported that security had been tightened at all the country's airports after the incidents."
"AFTER" the incidents??? What, they haven't heard there is global terrorism out there? May be this was just an wrong transulation... please, tell me they follow security protocols and if not, ban them from the airspace!
Wow.
"...Scorched earth! They blew up everything. Schools, hospitals, Mosques, Churches, Synagogues, apartment buildings, everything. And when the fires went out, they sent the giant earth movers to bulldoze everything into the ground. Never even looked for survivors."
Wake up in Najaf and Falluja... not a bad scenario...
Why on earth aren't they fighting a sensitive, politically correct war?
Thank you for keeping us on track. Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion.
Does anyone read Russian? I'm on the Sibir website (www.s7.ru) and while they have English translations, they're horrible. Like they ran the page through Babelfish or something. Anyone want to try and see if they can do better?
"Thank you for keeping us on track. Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion."
Indeed. Islam is doubleplusgood. Bush is ungood. Long live Big Brother Kerry.
ping
One of the planes was headed for Sochi .. Putin is, I believe presently in Sochi ... hmmm
About 2300 miles. Quick look at atlas & I think they'd need a very strong tail wind to make Greece !
I responded: "Well, they do not hide their battle with Chechnyan rebels - Islamic terrorists by any other name, of course".
You asked the right question; and I was wrong:
DRUDGE HEADLINE:
OFFICIAL: WRECKAGE FRAGMENTS SHOW 'NO TERRORIST ACT' IN RUSSIA PLANE CRASHES...
9-11 would probably have been covered up if the entire world wasn't watching on TV.
Presumably the bad guys would want to reach their targets with large amounts of jet fuel still in the tanks. How does that tighten the radius of potential targets? (Moscow, of course, would remain, particularly given how quickly signals were lost, but where else?)
NOT ALWAYS TRUE!
The news segment I saw showed the complete destruction of a city. It wasn't Grozny, though my Russian friends tell me there isn't much left of Grozny, either.
Besides exhibiting no consideration for schools, apartment buildings, and houses of worship, no care was shown to avoid historical or heritage sites.
All this while the rest of the Europeon television was wringing their hands decrying the "barbaric" American bombing campaign in Afghanistan.
In the Summer of '03, I read in lenta.ru that there were tens of thousands of Chechens in refugee camps throughout Chechnya and border Republics in the region, having no medicine, little water, no sanitation, little food, and little shelter.
Not a word from Koffi Anan and the UN decrying the humanitarian crisis in Chechnya.
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