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Russian plane crashes in Black Sea
10/04/2001
Associated Press
MOSCOW - A chartered Russian airliner flying from Tel Aviv to Siberia exploded in flight Thursday and crashed off the Black Sea coast with at least 77 people on board. Russian officials said they could not rule out a terrorist attack.
Deputy Transport Minister Karl Ruppel told The Associated Press that a crew of an Armenian airliner in the area had informed Russian air traffic controllers that they saw an explosion aboard a plane flying nearby. Ruppel said he didn't know what caused the explosion. He was confirming Russian media reports that there had been a blast on the Russian plane.
Garik Ovanisian, the pilot of the Armenian An-24, told AP his plane was at 20,790 feet above the Black Sea when the plane above his exploded. The Armenian plane was on a regularly scheduled flight over the Black Sea from the Ukrainian Crimean city of Simferopol to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
"I saw the explosion on the plane, which was above me at an altitude of 36,300 feet,'' Ovanisian said. "The plane fell into the sea, and there was another explosion in the sea. After that I saw a big white spot on the sea, and I had the impression that oil was burning.''
Ivan Teterian, chief of the local Ministry of Emergency Situations branch in southern Russia, said "we cannot exclude a terrorist attack.'' Speaking live on Russia's NTV television, he added that only a further investigation could confirm it.
Bush administration officials were in almost immediate contact with their counterparts in Moscow in an attempt to determine whether there was a connection between the explosion and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or U.S. plans to retaliate.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has taken a high-profile position in the international anti-terrorist coalition that has formed following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was immediately informed of the crash.
"We must launch rescue work, gather all we can and conduct expertise. If the sea depth allows that, we must try to recover the black box,'' Putin said. He named Vladimir Rushailo, head of the presidential Security Council, to head the investigation.
Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service, said that planes and ships had been sent to the area of the crash within 15 minutes.
Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said there was no clear evidence that the plane crashed as a result of a terror attack.
But Israel suspended takeoffs of foreign flights from its main international airport, Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv, Sneh said.
The Tupolev 154 went down 114 miles off the Russian coastal city of Adler, located on the Georgian border, said Vasily Yurchuk, a spokesman for the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The plane was on its way from Tel Aviv to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Yurchuk said. It belonged to Sibir Airlines, which is based in Novosibirsk, about 1,750 miles east of Moscow. Sibir Airlines confirmed it was a charter flight.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said there were at least 66 passengers and 11 crew members aboard.
After the crash, Israel suspended takeoffs of foreign flights from its main airport.
Sneh told AP that some Israeli citizens were on board the flight. Officials at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv would not release a passenger list.
Vladimir Kofman, an official with the Interstate Aviation Committee, initially said the plane had made a stopover in Burgas, Bulgaria, where it apparently took on more passengers. The agency is in charge of investigating crashes in the former Soviet republics.
However, the head of the Flight Coordination office in the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna, which oversees air traffic in eastern Bulgaria, said the plane did not land in Bulgaria or enter Bulgarian airspace. The official said the plane had flown through Turkish airspace.
Zhivko Zhelyazkov, director-general of the Bulgarian government's Air Surveillance Authority, told The Associated Press that the plane flew from Tel Aviv over Turkey without entering Bulgarian airspace. The plane did not land in Bulgaria, he said, confirming earlier accounts by local aviation officials.