MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two Russian passenger planes with a total of more than 80 people on board went missing within minutes of each other late on Tuesday and one was confirmed to have crashed, the Emergencies Ministry said.
A ministry spokeswoman said a two-engine Tu-134 with 34 passengers and eight crew flying from Moscow to Volgograd crashed after contact with it was lost at 2256 Moscow time (2:56 p.m. EDT).
The wreckage was found near the town of Tula some 90 miles south of Moscow. Witnesses saw an explosion on board the plane just before it crashed, Interfax news agency quoted local authorities as saying.
Just three minutes later, air traffic controllers lost contact with another passenger plane -- a three-engine Tu-154 with 44 passengers and eight crew on board -- flying from Moscow to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, she said.
Contact was lost as the plane was flying near the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
Initially, Itar-Tass news agency said that a Tu-154 with 54 passengers and eight crew on board had crashed near Tula.
Tupolev's Tu-154 jet remains the standard medium-range airliner on domestic flights in Russia, according to aviation Web Sites. Some 157 ft in length, it can carry up to 180 passengers for up to 2,500 miles.
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Putin is vacationing in Sochi......Sochi was were the plane was enroute to...put two and two together.