Posted on 10/04/2001 8:56:48 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukrainian warplanes forced a Sudanese cargo plane to land on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea on Friday after aviation officials refused to let it fly over Ukraine.
Ukraine put its air defenses on alert following last week's terror attacks in the United States and has promised Washington its active support in combatting international terrorism.
The Soviet-made An-26 had been headed to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev for repairs, but its permit to fly over Ukraine had expired earlier Friday, said a spokeswoman for Ukraine's Security Service, Maryna Ostapenko.
The plane, with nine Sudanese crew members and no cargo, had come from Antalia in southwest Turkey, where it had refueled, she said.
The plane, belonging to an unspecified Sudanese company, was picked up on radar as it approached Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said. It said the State Aviation Administration refused to allow the plane to cross over Ukraine and air defenses were put on combat alert.
But the plane's crew requested permission to land in Ukraine , saying they had too little fuel to turn around, the ministry said.
Accompanied by warplanes, the An-26 landed at the military airport of Belbek near the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The plane was put under guard and authorities were trying to clarify what happened, the ministry said.
Ostapenko, the state security service spokesman, said the crew will remain aboard under guard until an investigation ends. But she said there was no reason to believe the plane was linked to terrorist activity because its only confirmed violation was its expired permit.
NOVOSIBIRSK, October 4. /From RIA Novosti's correspondent Yuri Tyurin/ -- Management of the Sibir airline rules out a technical accident as the reason for the crash of its Tu-154 airliner, reports the RIA Novosti correspondent.
Sibir deputy general director Natalia Fileva said that the most probable reason is terrorism.
The Tu-154 plane, which has crashed, "was one of the company's best and had passed tough technical checks", said the airline's spokesman. "An experienced crew was flying it", she added.
Fileva confirmed that aboard the Tu-154 was found Victor Alexeev, Sibir deputy general director for flight safety.
She also said that the list of passengers of the crashed airliner is being ascertained.
Fileva flatly rejected certain media reports that the crashed Tu-154 had made a stopover in Bulgaria. "It was a non-stop flight and by the moment of crash the plane had been airborne for 1.5 hours", she said.
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=1917380&startrow=1&date=2001-10-04&do_alert=0
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