Fears terror attack caused Russian plane crashes

RUSSIAN emergency workers last night searched heaps of twisted metal and tall grass amid fears a terrorist attack caused two airliners to plunge to earth within minutes of each other, killing all 89 people aboard.

Officials said one jet sent a hijack distress signal, raising fears terrorists had struck.

Flight recorders from both planes were found and taken to Moscow for investigation.

Russian security authorities said explosives specialists were still working at the scene of the crashes. They reported that terrorism remained a possible cause, although there was no evidence of a terrorist attack so far.

Federal Security Service spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said investigators were still questioning airport officials and airline and security employees at Domodedovo Airport, from which both flights left 45 minutes apart.

Rebels fighting a protracted war for independence for Chechnya, the troubled southern Russian province, have been blamed for a series of terror strikes that have claimed hundreds of lives in Russia in recent years.

A Sibir airlines Tu-154 jet, carrying 46 people, took off from Moscow’s newly redeveloped Domodedovo Airport at 9.35pm Tuesday and the other plane, a Tu-134 carrying 43 people, left 40 minutes later, according to state-run Rossiya television. The Tu-134 was headed to the southern city of Volgograd, while the other plane was flying to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is holidaying.

The planes disappeared from radar about 11pm, and by early yesterday morning, the wreckage of both had been found - with no survivors.

At about the same time the Tu-154 disappeared, the Tu-134 airliner crashed in the Tula region, about 125 miles south of Moscow, officials said. ITAR-Tass reported that the authorities believe the Tu-134 fell from an altitude of 32,800 feet. Wreckage of the Sochi-bound Tu-154 was found in the Rostov region, about 600 miles south of Moscow, about nine hours after it disappeared.

The Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies later quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying that the signal was an SOS and that no other signals were sent.