jbooma Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 This is strange and scary http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/08/25/russia.planecrash/index.html MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russian officials said Wednesday they had found no survivors among the 89 passengers and crew aboard two Russian jet liners that crashed near simultaneously under suspicious circumstances. Russian search and rescue officials early Wednesday found the flight data recorders from the two Russian jetliners, Russia's Emergency Ministry said. "At this time, no signs have been found of terrorist acts," Federal Sercurity Service spokesman Nikolai Zakharov told Russia's Interfax news agency. He said the investigation is focusing on possible fouled aviation fuel or pilot error, although witnesses heard explosions associated with the planes going down. However, Interfax quoted a Russian security source who said one of the planes, the Tu-154, transmitted a signal indicating a hijacking was underway before the plane crashed. The source also told Interfax a criminal investigation has been opened in the case after an air traffic controller reported receiving information that an attack had been made on the crew of the second airliner. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Federal Security Service -- the country's top intelligence agency -- to investigate the near-simultaneous incidents, Russian authorities said. About 2,000 people were combing the crash sites, the Emergency Ministry said. A number of bodies have been recovered at each location. The first plane, a Volga-Avia Express Tupolev 134, was en route to Volgograd, in southern Russia, from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport -- the city's main airport for domestic flights -- with 35 passengers and a crew of eight. It disappeared from radar at 10:56 p.m. (2:56 p.m. ET) Tuesday, and its wreckage was found about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Moscow near Tula, according to the Emergency Ministry. "First I heard a roaring noise as if a plane was driving by my house," a witness said of the late-night disturbance. "Then there were loud noises as if somebody was knocking on my window. I even went outside to check. There was nobody there so I went to bed." Other witnesses told Interfax they saw the plane explode before it crashed. The second plane -- a Siberia Tupolev 154 with 46 people on board -- was about 100 miles (160 km) from Rostov-on-Don when it dropped off radar screens at 10:59 p.m., the state news agency Novosti reported. That jet also took off from Domodedovo Airport and was bound for the Black Sea resort town of Sochi, an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman reported. The crash sites are about 450 miles (724 km) apart. Russian authorities said they had increased security at airports following an explosion at a Moscow bus station earlier Tuesday, which injured three people. "If this were just one, you would look toward some sort of aircraft issue," Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, told CNN. "But with two of them going down so close together, it's awfully ominous." The incidents also took place just days before a regional election in the rebellious southern territory of Chechnya, where Russian troops have battled separatist guerrillas for the past five years. Chechen separatists have been blamed for numerous bombings and other attacks in Russia in recent years, including the seizure of hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater that ended with more than 100 hostages dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASMTrainer Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 Dude, is your job irl to rummage through the internet and find every story you can and then post it here. Man, if your getting paid I need to know how to get a job like that. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 I think it was terrorism. No way that the planes clip each other and one survives for another three minutes--or am I wrong? This is a big story. Not that it will make a difference, except in adding to the list of evil committed by ISlamic terrorists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted August 25, 2004 Author Share Posted August 25, 2004 Originally posted by Ghost of Bilbo Stabbins I think it was terrorism. No way that the planes clip each other and one survives for another three minutes--or am I wrong? This is a big story. Not that it will make a difference, except in adding to the list of evil committed by ISlamic terrorists. Wouldn't one of the groups claim it?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost of Posted August 25, 2004 Share Posted August 25, 2004 No, I don't think any of the groups claimed the apartment bombings, one of the car bombs in Red Square or the train blasts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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