2 Russian Passenger Planes Crash Almost Simultaneously

2 Russian Passenger Planes Crash Within Minutes of Each Other
By C. J. CHIVERS

Published: August 25, 2004

MOSCOW, Wednesday, Aug. 25 - Two Russian passenger jets on domestic flights crashed nearly simultaneously after departing from the same terminal in Moscow on Tuesday night, officials said. At least 88 people were presumed dead.

While precise details surrounding the crashes were unclear, the Russian news service Interfax, citing an anonymous official source, reported that minutes after the first plane went down, the second jet issued a distress signal indicating it had been hijacked. Then it, too, disappeared from radar.

As airport security was tightened throughout Russia, President Vladimir V. Putin, who has been vacationing and working in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, ordered the F.S.B., one of the successor agencies to the K.G.B., to begin immediate investigations into the crashes, a spokesman for the president told the news service.

"Vladimir Putin is constantly receiving reports from the directors of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the F.S.B. and other power agencies of Russia," said the spokseman, Aleksei Gromov.

Wreckage of the first plane, Volga AviaExpress Flight 1303, a Tupelov-134 en route to Volgograd, was found in the Tula region, about 100 miles south of Moscow, after disappearing from radar at about 10:56 p.m.

The plane was reported to have carried at least 34 passengers and a crew of 8. Interfax reported that the plane was flown by the airline's general director, whom the company described as an experienced pilot. No survivors were found, according to initial reports.

Witnesses near the town of Kimovsk, in the Tula region, told authorities that the plane exploded before it fell from the sky, according to Interfax, which also reported that a portion of the aircraft's tail and fuselage had been discovered.

The second aircraft, Sibir Airlines Flight 1047, a Tupolev-154 bound for Sochi, disappeared from radar over the Rostov-on-Don region, about 500 miles south of Moscow near Russia's border with Ukraine, minutes after the first jet crashed. A ground fire was reported in the region near the village of Zelenovka in the predawn darkness on Wednesday.

The Sibir Airlines flight was initially reported to have carried 38 passengers and 8 crew members, although a later report said the plane may have carried 6 more passengers, for a total of 52 people on board.

There was no further insight into the cause of the crash. The airline said it knew only that the flight had suddenly gone missing.

"Flight 1047 disappeared from the radar of air traffic controllers at around 23:00," Yevgeny Selyanin, a spokesman for the airline, said in a telephone interview.

Moscow has three commercial airports. Both planes departed in clear weather from the same field, Domodedovo, which has only one terminal for domestic flights - circumstances that suggested the possibility of terrorism.

Russia has been engaged in a protracted war with its breakaway republic of Chechnya, from where terrorists have carried out several high-profile terrorist attacks in recent years. Shamil Basayev, a prominent rebel commander who is considered a terrorist by both Moscow and Washington, recently threatened more attacks.

A special election is scheduled for this weekend to replace the former Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in the spring. Chechen rebels, who nearly killed the interim president a few weeks ago, have vowed to assassinate whoever wins the election.

When Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Andrey Denisov, was told of the initial report of the crashes, he said, "Now we have to see if there's terrorism," The Associated Press reported.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said the circumstances surrounding the crashes were being closely watched. "We are obviously concerned by the news," the official said. "We're following developments closely and trying to determine the facts."

A spokesman for Domodedovo airport told Interfax that a review of passenger lists from the two aircraft found no foreign citizens on either plane. He did not provide further information.

Tupelovs are the backbone of the Russian domestic passenger fleet, and have been in service for more than three decades. The Tupelov-134, used on shorter routes, can carry more than 90 passengers, depending on its configuration; the Tupelov-154 is a medium-range jet that can carry more than 160 passengers.