As Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s plane streaked toward disaster, at least two passengers visited the cockpit, others may have chatted on mobile phones that can obstruct navigation instruments and an under-trained crew faced heavy fog over challenging terrain.

Russian searchers have recovered the cockpit voice recorder from an Armenian passenger jet that crashed in the Black Sea nearly three weeks ago, killing 113 passengers and crew.

A Russian passenger jet crashed and another apparently broke up in the air almost simultaneously after they took off from the same airport, raising fears of a double terrorist atrocity.

Authorities are today examining flight data recorders from a Russian jet that slammed into a forest near Moscow just after take off, killing 14 people. Two flight attendants survived the crash.