Russian plane crashes into sea

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, OCT. 4. A terrorist bomb is feared to have caused a Russian passenger plane, with 76 people on board, to plunge into the Black Sea today, Russian security sources said. The three- engine TU-154 belonging to a Siberian airline was on a chartered flight from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Siberia when it burst into flames and fell into the sea, 180 km off the Russian coast. The explosion was reported by the pilot of an Armenian airliner which was in the area at the time of the catastrophe.

The security sources said they were working on a theory that it was a terrorist attack. The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, appointed his security chief, Mr. Vladimir Rushailo, in- charge of the investigation and summoned the defence and counter- intelligence agency chiefs to the Kremlin to discuss the tragedy.

If it is a terrorist attack it, probably, is directed more against Israel than Russia, as most passengers on board were Israeli nationals, who had migrated from the former Soviet Union. Ukraine denies downing plane

Meanwhile, Ukraine has denied reports that the Russian plane had been accidentally shot down by an Ukrainian missile fired during air defence exercises.

The Ukrainian Defence Minister, Mr. Alexander Kuzmuk, admitted that surface-to-air missiles had been fired in the Black Sea but said all the missiles hit their targets. A spokesman for the Ministry explained that the missiles fired had a range of 30 to 35 km, while the Russian plane went down 250 km away from the area of the exercises.

The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, suggested it could have been a terrorist attack. The Russian Defence Ministry refused to comment on Western media reports that the Russian airliner had been shot down by a Ukrainian missile, citing lack of information. However, a spokesman for the Russian Navy denied that Mr. Igor Larichev, a press officer of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, mistakenly identified as an officer of the Ukrainian Navy, had spoken to Western agencies about the Ukrainian connection in the catastrophe.

Bodies recovered

AP, PTI report:

An Emergency Situations Ministry officer in the Russian Black Sea port of Novosibirsk, Mr. Konstantin Ludchenko, said that 10 bodies had been recovered so far. The Itar-Tass news agency said the Russian plane made a brief stop-over in Bulgaria where it picked up six passengers.

Bush administration officials quickly contacted their counterparts in Moscow in an attempt to determine whether there was a connection between the explosion and the September 11 terrorist attacks or U.S. plans to retaliate.

The crash was the 21st involving a TU-154 since it entered service in the early 1970s. With some 1,000 planes built, it is the most widely used jetliner in Russia and is used in many other countries. After the crash, Israel suspended takeoffs of foreign flights from its main airport, Ben Gurion International near Tel Aviv.

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