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Posted on 10/05/2001 3:20:25 AM PDT by CommiesOut
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| UPDATE 4 - Russia opens criminal investigation of plane crash | |
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(Adds details from Sochi; previous MOSCOW)
By Rosalind Russell
SOCHI, Russia, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Russia launched an
investigation on Friday into Thursday's crash of an airliner in
the Black Sea under a criminal code article dealing with
terrorism, as rescue workers started to bring bodies ashore.
Workers lifted corpses from the debris-strewn water off
Russia's resort of Sochi, where the plane carrying up to 78
people, mostly Russian-born Israelis, from Tel Aviv to
Novosibirsk in Siberia crashed after a mid-air explosion.
The chief prosecutor's office said Prosecutor General
Vladimir Ustinov launched a criminal investigation into the
crash under article 205, which is used to deal with terrorism.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the crash might be
a "terrorist act", but later called on the media not to
"sensationalise" the disaster.
A rival theory is that the Sibir airlines Tupolev-154 was
accidentally hit by a Ukrainian missile during a military
exercise. Ukraine has denied that.
A spokesman for Sochi's mayor, Gleb Gutiev, said six ships
were trawling through the crash site 185 km (115 miles)
southwest of the resort, while one helicopter hovered overhead.
Luggage and torn metal scraps floated across stretches of
the sea. Gutiev said 14 bodies had been recovered and taken
ashore, along with fragments of the front of the plane.
Interfax news agency quoted a senior official from the
Emergency Ministry's North Caucasus branch as saying the plane's
cockpit and a segment of its cabin had been recovered.
A door thought to belong to the cockpit was found with
several small holes, but Gutiev said only further investigation
could say if they were caused by bullets.
The plane's black boxes, which could provide vital clues to
the jetliner's mysterious plunge, were not likely to be found
because they were too deep, Interfax said quoting the mayor of
Sochi's office.
Passengers' relatives were expected to arrive in Sochi from
Novosibirsk on Friday afternoon.
UKRAINE DENIAL
Ukraine was quick to dismiss American suggestions that the
Russian plane might have been accidentally hit by a missile
test-fired by the Ukrainian military.
A U.S. official, requesting anonymity, said in Washington
there was "every indication" a Ukrainian missile was to blame.
U.S. officials said a spy satellite had detected a missile's
rocket plume.
But a Russian spokesman, quoted by Interfax, said Ukrainian
President Leonid Kuchma had told Putin by telephone that "there
was absolutely no basis to accuse the Ukrainian (military) of
any involvement in this tragic incident".
Vladimir Rushailo, secretary of Russia's Security Council,
arrived in Sochi late on Thursday with experts from the FSB
domestic security service to lead the investigation into the
crash.
The mid-air explosion triggered fears of sabotage following
the September 11 attacks in the United States, when hijacked
airliners flew into the World Trade Center in New York and the
Pentagon in Washington, leaving 6,000 people dead or missing.
TEST FIRING OF MISSILES
Ukrainian forces were test firing surface-to-air missiles
from the Crimea at the time of Thursday's crash.
But Ukrainian military spokesman Konstantin Khivrenko said:
"Neither the direction nor the range (of the missiles)
correspond to the practical or theoretical point at which the
plane exploded. So the Ukrainian military has no involvement,
either practical or theoretical, in this accident."
Igor Ashurbeili, general director of weapon manufacturers
Almaz, told Vedomosti newspaper that the C-300 missiles launched
from the Ukraine would not have been able to hit the jetliner.
He said the longest range of Ukrainian missiles was 300 km
(185 miles), while the Ukrainian exercises had been taking place
more than 320 km (200 miles) from where the plane came down.
The plane crashed in water about 1,000 metres (3,300 feet)
deep, an Emergencies Ministry official said.
Official accounts of the number of passengers and crew on
board varied between 74 and 78. An Emergencies Ministry official
in Novosibirsk said the crew were all Russian but that most of
the 65 or so passengers were Israeli citizens.
Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke by
telephone following the accident, and Sharon said they agreed
that Israel and Russia would cooperate fully in investigating
the cause of the crash.
((Moscow newsroom, +7 095 241-0101, fax: +7 095 941-8538,
moscow.newsroom@reuters.com))
05 OCT 2001 10:16:48
Wonder how many airline crashes this guy has investigated?
========================================
Chechen web site preempts accusations regarding Black Sea plane crash
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Oct 5, 2001 ............ http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=011005002614
5 October: Many electronic media outlets have been carrying reports about a Tu-154 passenger aircraft, flying from Tel-Aviv to Novosibirsk, crashing [into the Black Sea].
[Passage omitted: more details of crash]
For our part, we would like to express our condolences to the relatives of those killed and we hope that a detailed investigation into what happened will be carried out.
P.S. We would also like to hope that the FSB [Federal Security Service] is not going to find on CRI [Chechen Republic of Ichkeria] territory tomorrow, or the day after a detailed plan of this aircraft's route, precisely marking the place it crashed.
Source: Chechenpress web site, Tbilisi, in Russian 5 Oct 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
It has begun. The Greyhound Bus, The Anthrax, This Airliner.....
I wonder what today's "isolated incident" will be? Any guesses?
The Ukranians then may have decided to shoot this plane down before it could reach it's potential target, perhaps a nuclear plant or populated area....
Just a theory
Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax
Sevastopol, 5 October: Capt 3rd Rank Igor Larichev of the Russian Black Sea Fleet press service did not have any information about the crash of the Tu-154 airliner in the Black Sea and did not comment on the situation, the Black Sea Fleet press service told Interfax in response to various reports by news agencies.
"The only journalist who ventured to release incorrect information after talking with the officer (Larichev) was from Agence France Presse," the press service said. The Black Sea Fleet command takes the view that "the correspondent's extremely irresponsible attitude towards his duties caused absolute misinformation that has evoked a wide public response".
The command regretted that "authoritative world news agencies employ the services of indecent journalists and circulate evident lies in pursuing a questionable sensation" and said it hopes the news agencies will in future "derive information from more reliable sources".
Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in English 0733 gmt 5 Oct 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
Text of report by Russia TV on 5 October
We are back to the main news - the crash of the Tu-154 airliner over the Black Sea with 78 people aboard. Some half an hour ago the "Kapitan Vakulov" freighter delivered the bodies of 13 crash victims to Sochi. The ship's captain has reported that the partition [separating the cockpit from the passenger cabin] recovered from the sea has three holes resembling bullet holes, the Interfax news agency has just reported.
Source: Russia TV, Moscow, in Russian 0700 gmt 5 Oct 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
The fact that the authorities are openly treating this as non-malicious clearly shows that they are not concerned about it being a terror attack.
Why was it a heck of a shot? That missle is designed to hit a target within that 185m range. Wouldn't be that hard if it was a slow moving, unmaneuverable aircraft. An aircraft I might add that has no threat warning indicator which would give the pilot a reason to make evasive maneuvers.
I find it very possible that some trigger happy SAM operator locked on and pressed fire. Remember, there isn't a self-destruct button the operator could have pushed.
Although the tin-foil needs to worn on this incident, especially since we are getting so many conflicting reports, I think your reasoning is flawed.
gee, thats not a DC-10 ripoff is it?
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