Putin sees terrorists' hand

SOCHI (RUSSIA), OCT. 5. Rescue workers urgently swept a wide area of the Black Sea on Friday to recover bodies and collect fragments of the Russian jetliner that exploded and crashed, killing 78 people before swift currents carried away potentially valuable evidence as to the cause of the disaster.

The Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, said terrorists may have caused the crash and he had no reason to doubt the Ukrainian Government's statement that missiles used in military exercises did not have the range to reach the airliner. The Defence Minister, Mr. Sergei Ivanov, sent an urgent request to the Pentagon for ``documentary data'' that could prove or disprove its officials' contention that a missile had brought the plane down. However, U.S. intelligence officials believe a Ukrainian long-range, anti-aircraft missile fired during a military exercise accidentally hit the Tupolev 154. The Ukrainian Government has denied the allegation, and Russia has said it is investigating the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Mr. Vladimir Rushailo, head of Russia's Security Council, who is overseeing the investigation into Thursday's crash, said debris was spread over an area with a radius of 10 km. ``Our task today is to maximise the collection of everything from the surface of the water because we can see the current,'' Mr. Rushailo said after flying over the crash site in a helicopter. ``If we don't actively do this, many fragments could be lost.'' Rescue workers have brought to shore 14 bodies that have been found since the crash, and relatives from Siberia and Israel were arriving in the Black Sea coastal resort of Sochi to identify the victims.

The Tupolev 154 belonging to Sibir Airlines, which was en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, went down in pieces 180 km off the Russian coastal city of Adler, near Sochi. The plane carried 66 passengers and 12 crew members, according to a spokesman for Sochi's Mayor. The plane was carrying Israeli residents, many of whom had recently migrated from Russia and were flying back to visit family.

Along with the bodies, parts of the fuselage and the cockpit as well a door of the plane were recovered. Mr. Rushailo said it was premature to conclude holes in the cabin door had come from bullets. ``We don't talk about theories or guesses, we say only what is established fact,'' he said. There was little hope the plane's black box would be recovered because the wreckage was lying at least 1,000 metres deep. Mr. Rushailo said Russia had asked Israel and the United States for help in recovering the black box.

A U.S. official said there was no evidence of terrorism and a Ukrainian military exercise probably led to the crash. The U.S. had tracked the surface-to-air missile with satellites that sense the heat of its launch. An Armenian airline pilot flying nearby witnessed the explosion and crash. ``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,'' the pilot said.

When Pentagon officials first were told a missile felled the plane, they concluded that the weapon cited did not have the range needed to reach the aircraft. Later in the day, the Pentagon was informed that a much larger weapon was involved. That, along with fresh intelligence information, virtually erased U.S. suspicions of terrorism.

Ukrainian officials angrily denied the U.S. claim, saying they had launched only short-range missiles that couldn't reach the plane flying some 250 km away from the exercise area.

- AP

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Section  : International
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