Russian pilot sent hijack alert

SMH ^

[Shortwave]

Date: August 26 2004

The pilot of one of two Russian planes that crashed almost simultaneously had sent a hijack alert, raising fears of a terrorist attack.

All 89 people on board the two passenger planes died.

[Netizen]

The guy at the corner market (seriously) said he heard that when the first plane went down it took out the second plane because it was in the crash path or something. I have yet to hear that anywhere else, but I suppose it could happen.

Doesn't explain what happened to the first plane, tho.

Considering that the flights took off about an hour apart, for two different destinations, I'm not sure how that could be.

Terrorism, Error May Explain Russian Plane Crashes

By Oleg Shchedrov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Terrorism, human error or mechanical mishap could have caused one of Russia's worst air tragedies in which two planes crashed almost simultaneously and killed at least 89 people, officials said on Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin, acting swiftly before Sunday's presidential poll in rebel Chechnya, ordered the tightening of security at all Moscow's airports and put the Interior Ministry in charge of screening procedures.

Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov told Putin he had no clear view of what happened to the planes, which took off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport late on Tuesday around an hour apart for two different destinations.

They crashed within four minutes of each other.

"We are examining a number of versions, among them a terrorist act, and human and technical factors," Ustinov told Putin during a meeting with the heads of the FSB security service and the Emergencies Ministry shown on television.

A Tu-134 flying to Volgograd went down near the town of Tula south of Moscow. Within minutes and 500 miles away, a Tu-154 bound for the Black Sea resort of Sochi crashed near the southern town of Rostov-on-Don.

The owner of the Tu-154, Sibir Airlines, said the pilots had triggered a hijack alert just before their plane crashed and the aircraft seemed to have exploded in mid-air. It was carrying 46 passengers and crew.

Volga-Aviaexpress, a small regional carrier which owned the Tu-134, said the crew did not report any problems on board before the plane crashed with 43 passengers and crew. The Emergencies Ministry later said 44 people were aboard.

Aided with cranes, investigators sieved through high grasses in almost identical countryside near the two sites. Huge slabs of twisted metal, seats and the odd piece of clothing were scattered over dozens of miles.

FSB IN CHARGE

Putin, who broke off his summer holiday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to return to Moscow, had ordered the FSB to investigate the case, which it is normally only asked to do if terrorism is suspected. Continued ...

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved. At the link there is a map and you can see how far apart these crashes were.

[John W]

"That plane was mechanically doomed."

Could you elaborate?Thanks.

[garyb]

This is very efficient on the Russia's part. Deny any link to terrorism one day after the crash and get it over with. By making the lie so obvious it doesn't seem as deceptive.

Not just the Russians. Worked for TW800 and AA587 ?

[RightWhale]

spelling Occam wrong

You meant Achmed's boxcutter, right?

[azhenfud]

"Achem is the Islamfascist terrorist spelling, isn't it?"

I thought it was the spelled sound of clearing the throat...

[Balto_Boy]

I suspect terrorism too, but I can remember a few years ago when at least one US Air Force plane crashed everyday for several days straight.

[Netizen]

I don't recall AQ claiming responsability for the 9/11/01 hijackings for months afterwards. I personally believe that they have figured out that when governments CAN deny there was an attack/hijacking, they will, so the attacks have to be spectacular to for the involved government to concede it occured.

Yes. Even ur own government couldn't come up with a believable 'it was an accident' report for 9-11.

[oldcomputerguy]

" result of terrorism, or poor aircraft maintenance "

Maintanance is not even likely unless it is fuel related as they have said they suspected. Even then it would be highly unlikely given that they went down 3 minutes and several hundred miles apart.

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

The Russians, so far, have emphatically denied that this is a result of terrorism.

I haven't heard that. So far, they have said that they have no evidence that it is terrorism, but they haven't ruled it out. That seems reasonable.

[Shortwave]

I'll do the best I can.

On a 747, some wiring runs through the fuel cells. I know, strange. The investigation concluded that the wiring was chaffed. Normally, this is not a problem because the fuel will not ignite in direct contact with electricity. Unfortunately, the fuel cell was near empty. When not full of fuel, the cell contains explosive gas that remnants of the fuel that has been used.

It's a little fuzzy now but I believe that's the gist of report.

[sionnsar]

Achems Razor

Occam's Razor. (For William of Ockham... there's another variant I cannnot recall at this time...)

[b4its2late]

I guess we were both in the ball park in some fashion or another. You said terror, I said they needed to claim responsibility to be effective and we have both it appears.