Iranian president expresses condolences over Russian air crashes
27/8/2004 12:36
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami expressed condolences over two air
crashes in Russia which reportedly killed 89 people, the official IRNA news
agency reported on Friday.
"Regretful incidents of the crash
of two passenger airplanes in which a number of Russian civilians lost their
lives deeply saddened me," Khatami was quoted by the agency as
saying.
"I express condolences to the Russian nation and the
bereaved families of the victims and wished patience for them," Khatami said in
a message to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Two
Russian aircraft crashed on Tuesday after taking off from Moscow's Domodedovo
airport.
A Tu-134 aircraft, flying to Volgograd, went down
near the town of Tula, south of Moscow. Moments later a Tu-154 heading for the
Black Sea resort town of Sochi crashed near the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
No group claimed responsibility for the disasters and
investigators indicated they were also looking at explanations
other than
terrorism, including bad weather, pilot error and problems with the fuel pumped
into the jets.
The "black box" flight data recorders from
both aircraft were recovered and Russian news agencies reported that one of the
planes had issued a distress signal before plummeting to the
ground.
A Russian Federal Security Service spokesmen said an
initial study of the wreckage showed no terrorist act was carried out aboard the
two planes, and technical failure, low-quality fuel, fueling violations or pilot
error may be to blame.
But Prosecutor General Vladimir
Ustinov told President Vladimir Putin that terrorism has not been ruled
out.
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