National News

Two Russian airliners crash in suspected terrorist attack

BUCHALKI, Russia (AP) - Russian investigators labored Aug. 25 to determine whether terrorism caused the near-simultaneous crashes of two airliners, killing all 89 people aboard and spreading anxieties about a possible escalation of the Chechen conflict.

Officials stressed that no evidence of a terrorist attack had yet been found among charred wreckage and said they were looking at other possibilities like bad fuel, equipment malfunction and human error.

The planes crashed far south of Moscow on Aug. 24, just days before a Kremlin-called presidential election in Chechnya, whose rebels have staged suicide bombings and other attacks across Russia in recent years, including the 2002 seizure of hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater.

Russian authorities had expressed concern the separatists might stage new attacks before the Aug. 29 vote, but there was no rush to tie the crashes to Chechnya - a determination that would underline the government's failure to quell the decade-old insurgency.

Outside experts, however, have expressed skepticism that anything but violence could be behind two planes crashing at almost the same time hundreds of miles apart.

One Washington security consultant said he was convinced it was terrorism: "The timing indicates that this is probably a coordinated attack."

He also noted reports that one of the airliners activated an emergency signal shortly before disappearing from radar screens, which could indicate a hijacking.

Shukan ST: Sept. 3, 2004

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