Report: Russian Airliner Sent Hijacking Signal Before It Downed

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Russian Jet Crashes, Another Disappears

7 minutes ago

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer

BUCHALKI, Russia - A Russian airliner crashed and another apparently broke up in the air almost simultaneously after they took off from the same Moscow airport Tuesday night, officials said, raising fears of terrorism and leaving little hope that any of at least 89 people on board could have survived.

Authorities said rescuers found wreckage from a Tu-154 jet, which was carrying at least 46 people, about nine hours after it issued a distress signal and disappeared from radar screens over the Rostov region, some 600 miles south of Moscow.

Officials made conflicting statements about whether the signal indicated a hijacking or an SOS and the claims could not be independently confirmed.

At about the same time the Tu-154 jet disappeared, a Tu-134 airliner carrying 43 people crashed in the Tula region, about 125 miles south of Moscow, officials said. The Emergency Situations Ministry later said that everybody on board the Tu-134 was killed.

link: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040825/ap_on_re_eu/russia_plane_crash&cid=518&ncid=716

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