Posted on 08/28/2004 8:14:12 AM PDT by yonif
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Explosives have been found in the second of two Russian jets which crashed simultaneously this week killing 90 people, investigators say, having already announced the same discovery in the first aircraft.
The latest finding, disclosed by the FSB security service, supported widely-held theories that both aircraft were downed by bombs days ahead of elections in volatile Chechnya. The FSB said on Friday explosives were found in the wreck of the other jet.
"Additional examination of the fragments of the Tu-134 aircraft which crashed on Tuesday ... has revealed traces of hexogen," an FSB spokesman said by telephone on Saturday.
Hexogen, more widely known as RDX and used in previous attacks blamed on Chechen militants, had also been found in the wreckage of the other plane.
Investigators had been pursuing leads linked to terrorism in the crashes ahead of Sunday's election, certain to return a pro-Moscow president in Chechnya.
Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Ignatchenko, an FSB spokesman, as saying Russia was "studying international experience in fighting terrorism in air transport". He said Russia was examining the system used in Israel.
As the investigation proceeded and fragments of wreckage were removed from crash sites, Russia's transport minister toughened security measures and vowed to prevent any recurrence.
TOUGHER SECURITY
Igor Levitin said his concern was to ensure safe air travel. Safety measures, previously undertaken solely by airports, would now be shared with the Interior Ministry.
"From today, they (Interior Ministry officials) are being included in teams conducting searches," Levitin, ordered by President Vladimir Putin to head a commission investigating the crashes, said in an interview.
"We want to toughen all requirements in terms of cargo and baggage ... Passengers must be made to feel that everything is in order once they are seated in an aircraft."
Authorities understood the crashes were "an extraordinary event ... We must look thoroughly into this to understand what happened and take measures to ensure it does not happen again."
Investigators have carefully avoided any suggestion that Chechen militants were behind the crashes.
But Russian media have speculated that two passengers, believed to be Chechen women, blew up the planes in the run-up to Sunday's election.
A Tu-134 aircraft crashed on a flight from Moscow to Volgograd, while a few minutes later a Tu-154 came down en route from the capital to the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
NTV television showed investigators wrapping up search operations on the Tu-134 crash site.
Television also showed pallbearers in black passing through Volgograd streets with coffins draped in wreaths. Mourners were shown weeping at a funeral in Sochi.
Russian media said investigators were trying to determine whether two women with Chechen names were linked to the crashes. The daily Izvestia reported that the brother of one woman had been seized by Russian forces in Chechnya three years ago.
Chechnya's Islamist rebels, who denounce the presidential election as a farce, have staged spectacular attacks to press their independence drive.
Moderate separatists accuse Russia's special forces of spreading misinformation and deny any connection with a group which claimed responsibility for the crashes on Friday.
Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov, backed by the Kremlin, is almost sure to win Sunday's poll, called to replace a president assassinated in May. He faces six obscure rivals.
In both cases debris was scattered over a wide area Traces of explosive have now been found in the wreckage of both passenger jets which crashed earlier this week, Russian investigators say.
The two Tupolev airliners crashed almost simultaneously on Tuesday in southern Russia, hundreds of miles apart, killing 89 passengers and crew.
The FSB security service had already announced the discovery of traces of hexogen among the remains of one jet.
Now it says the explosive has been found in the remains of the other.
After finding explosives traces on one plane, a Sibir Airlines Tu-154, on Friday, Russian officials described what had happened as a terrorist attack.
They also said the pilot had sent out a hijack alert just before the plane crashed, Russian media report.
FSB spokesman Sergei Ignachenko said on Saturday: "Additional examination of the fragments of the Tu-134 aircraft which crashed on Tuesday... has revealed traces of hexogen."
Women suspects
The two airliners took off within minutes of each other from Domodedovo airport in Moscow.
Reports say investigations are focusing on two women passengers, believed to be from the restive territory of Chechnya, where presidential elections are being held on Sunday.
Investigators say no-one has come forward to claim the women's bodies.
Officials had warned that Chechen separatist rebels could resort to terrorism to try to undermine Sunday's voting.>P> Several suicide bombings in recent years have been blamed on Chechen women who lost husbands or brothers in the war and chaos in the southern republic over the past decade.
An Islamic group has claimed responsibility for the crashes in a website statement.
A previously unknown group called the Islambouli Brigades said it had five people on board each aircraft. It warned this act would be followed by others "until the killings of our Muslim brothers in Chechnya cease".
Russian officials have repeatedly contended that the rebels, who have been fighting Russian forces in Chechnya for nearly five years, receive help from foreign organisations, including al-Qaeda.
Hexogen, more widely known as RDX, was identified as the explosive in a series of apartment building bombings that killed some 300 people in Moscow and other cities in 1999, and that were blamed on Chechen separatists.
Investigators have carefully avoided any suggestion that Chechen militants were behind the crashes.
Why the hush hush? Face it Putin, you backstabber, terrorism affects EVERYBODY. Now DEAL with it!
'Her body was almost completely vaporised by the bomb but experts found two fragments more than one and a half miles apart. She was the only passenger on the flight whose remains are unclaimed.'
2 fragments of the BODY or 2 fragments of the BOMB? either way, that's gotta be a tough search...
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