Top Russian official concedes terrorism

[SN30952]

FINALLY:Top Russian official concedes terrorism likely cause of downed airliners. MARIA DANILOVA Associated Press has the story:
MOSCOW -- A top Russian official acknowledged on Thursday what many citizens already suspected -- that terrorism was the most likely cause of two jetliners crashing minutes apart, a feeling reflected in a newspaper headline warning that "Russia now has a Sept. 11."
Just a day after officials stressed there were many possibilities besides terrorism, presidential envoy Vladimir* Yakovlev told Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency that the main theory "all the same remains terrorism."
He said the planes' flight recorders had not provided any clues to the disaster.

Additionally, Transport Minister Igor Levitin confirmed Sibir airlines' report that its crew activated an emergency signal shortly before the plane disappeared from radar screens. Visiting the site of the crash, he said, however, that details were slim because "no verbal confirmation from the crew was received" saying what the problem was.

Russian media also raised questions about a possible link between the crashes and an explosion a few hours earlier at a bus stop on a road leading to Domodedovo airport, where the two doomed planes took off. Without citing any evidence, the reports suggested the blast, which wounded four people, might have been an effort to distract attention.

The suspicion of terrorism came after earlier warnings from officials that separatists might try to carry out attacks before an election this Sunday in Chechnya to replace the war-torn region's assassinated pro-Kremlin president.

Yakovlev, the president's envoy for southern Russia, where one of the planes crashed, said both boxes "turned off immediately" -- an indication "that something happened very fast."
There also was doubt about whether Russians could count on their government to tell the truth.

"I never trust what the authorities are saying, but in this case, I don't know -- it could have been an accident or a terrorist act," said Yevgeny Skepner, a 37-year-old computer programmer.

Many Russians have ingrained doubts about the government's candor after the confused and contradictory reports on the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk in 2000 and the still-murky 2002 seizure of a Moscow theater by Chechen rebels.

* I thanked Vladimir early, remeber?

[sn26567]

Fons,

Thanks for the interesting news.

But please keep the number of stories lower by posting the news about the crashed Tupolevs with the original story in the forum https://www.aviation24.be/postlite6003-.html