No explosion hits crashed Russian airliner
26/8/2004 12:37
The Russian Tu-134 passenger jet, which crashed Tuesday night and killed
all 43 people on board, did not suffer an explosion as earlier reports said, an
Emergency Situations Ministry official said Thursday, citing preliminary
investigation results at the site of the tragedy as saying.
The plane and the other southbound Tu-154 airliner downed almost simultaneously
Tuesday night after taking off from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, killing all 89
people aboard and raising fears of a terrorist attack.
Eyewitnesses said they heard an explosion before the Tu-134 slammed into the
ground about 200 km south of Moscow in the Tula region.
However the unnamed official, who was in charge of the regional administrative
affairs, said no signs showed that an explosion had hit the jet as the fuselage
maintains basically intact after the crash, according to Interfax news
agency.
The official said the jet had spiraled down to the
ground and did not catch fire, which indicates that the engine had been shut
down in the air.
The Tu-154, carrying 46 people, triggered
an SOS alert and then disappeared from radar screens moments later. The wreckage
of the jet was found in the Rostov region and early indications suggested it
exploded in midair.
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.
Transport Minister Igor Levitin, who was
appointed by Putin to head the investigation commission, confirmed Thursday that
all theories are being examined and not a single version has been dismissed so
far, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Fears of terrorist
attacks have been high ahead of Sunday's vote in Chechnya for a president to
replace Akhmad Kadyrov, who was killed in a bomb blast in May.
Security has been strengthened at all Russia's airports and
the Interior Ministry has pledged to reinforce security measures in public
places.
Putin called for a national day of
mourning on Thursday, and the search operation in Tula has finished but still
continues in Rostov.
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