BUCHALKI, Russia – A Russian airliner crashed and another apparently broke up in the air almost simultaneously after they took off from the same Moscow airport Tuesday night, officials said, raising fears of terrorism and leaving little hope that any of at least 89 people on board the planes could have survived.
Authorities said rescuers found wreckage from a Tu-154 jet, which was carrying at least 46 people, about nine hours after it issued a distress signal indicating an attack and disappeared from radar screens over the Rostov region about 600 miles south of Moscow.
At about the same time the first plane disappeared, a Tu-134 airliner carrying 43 people crashed in the Tula region, about 125 miles south of Moscow, officials said. The Emergency Situations Ministry later said that everybody on board the Tu-134 was killed.
The planes had left Moscow’s Domodedovo airport within 40 minutes of each other Tuesday night and disappeared from radar screens about 11 p.m, officials said.
President Vladimir Putin ordered an investigation by the nation’s main intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, and security was tightened at airports across the country.
Authorities have expressed concern that separatists in war-ravaged Chechnya could carry out attacks linked to this Sunday’s election to replace the region’s pro-Moscow president, who was killed by a bombing in May. Rebels have been blamed for a series of terror strikes that have claimed hundreds of lives in Russia in recent years.
Witnesses reported seeing an explosion before the first plane crashed about 125 miles south of Moscow.
Citing an unidentified source in Russia’s government, Interfax said the distress signal came at 11:04 p.m., shortly before the plane disappeared from radar. Emergency and Interior Ministry sources in southern Russia, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said a distress signal had been activated.
The regional Emergency Situations Ministry chief Viktor Shkareda said the plane apparently broke up in the air and that wreckage was spread over an area of about 25-30 miles. Body parts have also been found along with fragments of the plane, Interfax quoted federal Emergency Situations Ministry as saying.
ITAR-Tass reported that the authorities believe the Tu-134 fell from an altitude of 32,800 feet.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
