(AP) MOSCOW – Two Russian airliners carrying a total of more than 100 people crashed almost simultaneously south of Moscow, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Tuesday. There was no word on survivors.
The first plane was carrying 54 passengers and a crew of eight when it crashed in the Tula region near the village of Buchalki, the agency said, citing a duty officer at the regional center for civil defense and emergencies. The Tula region is about 110 miles south of Moscow.
The second plane was carrying 44 people when it crashed near Rostov, the agency said, citing an Inter-State Aviation Committee official. Rostov is about 600 miles south of Moscow.
Both planes were Tupolev Tu-154 jets, the standard medium-range airliner on domestic flights in Russia, other former Soviet states, Iran and parts of eastern Europe, according to the Web site Airliners.net.
In Washington, a senior U.S. State Department official said, “We are obviously concerned by the news. We’re following developments closely and trying to determine the facts.”
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=2&u=/ap/20040824/ap_on_re_eu/russia_plane_crash
Same type of craft, departed about the same time, were probably serviced by the same ground crew, and both crashed. The odds on this being chance $#1t#0u$3 coincidence are about the same as trying to draw three cards to a royal flush after holding the 10-Q with nothing wild and no joker.
At least, Neverquit, that’s about how I got the probability figured. Bet Pres. Putin has it about that way also.
Theres no question. These planes were taken down one way or another, and it was from mechanical failure. Aside from that, let me just say again, to any jackoff terrorists that if you hijack my plane, you will some sorry mofos.
Although it may seem far fetched for this to happen by any other means than terrorism there is another possiblity.
I bet both AC were fueled by the same truck… wanna bet?? I also wager that typical Russian sloppiness prevented someone from checking the fuel for water contamination, which is SOP in the U.S..
On the other hand the Russian are pretty good at disinformation and if they wanted to ‘insulate’ the public from an attack they might blame it on fuel, maintenance…etc as they are doing now.