[fritzz]

2) We don't even know for sure that two planes have gone down in Russia. What we know thus far is that it looks like one plane crashed, and Russian air traffic control believes it has lost contact with another plane. There may not even be a second plane and, assuming there is, we don't know if anything bad has actually happened to it.

Actually we do. It went off the radar screen. Do you know of an invisible plane? I know, it could have crash landed, etc., etc.

[texasflower]

Good point.

[NJ_gent]

"Actually we do. It went off the radar screen. Do you know of an invisible plane? I know, it could have crash landed, etc., etc."

You've just contradicted yourself. Since having lost the transponder signal, that plane could have travelled a good long distance from its last known position. In that time, it may have crashed, it may have made an emergency landing, it may have exploded, or it may be flying in an area and/or at an altitude where the Russians can't see it. I should hope that they have military planes in the air locating the missing plane. Assuming that this plane existed in the first place, there are still a number of possible reasons for the transponder and radar signature to have disappeared - terrorism notwithstanding.

My hope remains that the first plane went down as the result of an unfortunate mechanical failure and that the second plane either never existed or is perfectly fine (which would point to gross incompetence on the part of some Russian air traffic controllers).