2 planes crashed in Russia.

[Leo Hubbard]

Just reported on FOX. One plane has no survivors, the other plane hasn't been found yet and it is "my" assumption that it crashed too. Both came from the same airport. I have no idea if their is a internet link to a news report about it yet.

If its terrorist, they being very stupid, could swing Russia back on our side again.

[dotnina]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,129919,00.html

[LeeTom]

Ah Leo, you sensationalist.

Lee Tom

[mactastic]

I bet it was Iran. Let's launch an invasion right away.

[LethalWolfe]

Lee & Mac,
If yer gonna thread crap why even both to post?


Lethal

[takao]

actually russia always was on the side of supporting US action in the "war on terror" because it opend them a lot possabilites in chechenya (sp?)

it's pretty obious that if this _is_ a terroristic attack then it's because of that...

but it could be one of the famous 'aeroflot' accidents ;)

[mactastic]

Lee & Mac,
If yer gonna thread crap why even both to post?


Lethal


If yer just gonna mommy me, why do you bother to post?

[LethalWolfe]

If yer just gonna mommy me, why do you bother to post?

What's w/the attitude? I asked a simple question.

I don't see anything wrong or out of line w/Leo's speculation. If you can't contribute to the thread why bother to post?


Lethal

[skunk]

but it could be one of the famous 'aeroflot' accidents ;)
Or "Aeroflop" as it's known in the trade... ;)

[mactastic]

What's w/the attitude? I asked a simple question.

I don't see anything wrong or out of line w/Leo's speculation. If you can't contribute to the thread why bother to post?


Lethal

Are you contributing right now?

All I did was make a sarcastic comment ane you jump down my throat. WTF?

[LethalWolfe]

Are you contributing right now?

Not yet but I'm thinking about it.

Although it's too early to know what happend, it does seem odd that two planes taking off from the same place crashed so soon after take off.


Lethal

[Ugg]

skunk is correct, aeroflop is bad news and Putin's support of war was based on being able to do what he wanted in Chechnya just as Aznar's was based on being able to destroy ETA. It would be good to wait until we know more before the increasingly meaningless word, terror, is brought into play.

[mactastic]

We'll see. Two simultaneous planes going down is awful suspiscious. Particularly before some kind of election occurs regarding Chechnya. Russia doesn't give up as much to the media as we're used to here, until some time passes we likely won't know for sure what caused these. No need for knee jerk reactions before we know more than we do now.

[Neserk]

Why is this in the political forum (curious)?

[Rower_CPU]

Why is this in the political forum (curious)?

Wasn't me, but I assume someone saw the OT discussion take off and decided to get it out of current events.

[zimv20]

i believe it started off here.

[zimv20]

the news agencies are reporting that the missing plane sent a hijacking signal. (one link here (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/08/24/russia.planecrash/index.html))

chechens?

[Leo Hubbard]

Normally if it was terrorism wouldn't someone be out there taking credit for it by now?

Both planes launched at same time, both planes crashed at two different locations at virtually the same instant. Mechanical failure just doesn't sound right to me.

[Thomas Veil]

Normally if it was terrorism wouldn't someone be out there taking credit for it by now?
Well, not necessarily. Even though we zeroed in our suspicions on Osama bin Laden pretty quickly after 9/11, it was days and days before he actually took credit for it.

[IJ Reilly]

the news agencies are reporting that the missing plane sent a hijacking signal.

That's an interesting development. The 9-11 hijackers were knowledgeable enough about aviation procedure to turn off the transponders (which is where the hijack code is set). So yes, perhaps it was Chechen rebels attempting to emulate the 9-11 attacks, but without as much training or planning.

[zimv20]

perhaps it was Chechen rebels attempting to emulate the 9-11 attacks, but without as much training or planning.
that's pretty much where my thoughts lie

[Chip NoVaMac]

We'll see. Two simultaneous planes going down is awful suspiscious. Particularly before some kind of election occurs regarding Chechnya. Russia doesn't give up as much to the media as we're used to here, until some time passes we likely won't know for sure what caused these. No need for knee jerk reactions before we know more than we do now.

I know, I thought that I should go out and buy a lotto in MD, DC, and VA (live in the DC area). I figured I stood a good chance at winning all three, since two planes went down at roughly the same time - leaving from the same airport.

[skunk]

FYI:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3600740.stm

Russian press suspects terrorism

Russian newspapers, with few exceptions, scorn the official view that the two plane crashes which killed 89 people on Tuesday night were the result of a technical fault or human error.

They are also scathing about security at the country's airports, and some suggest that August has become the "season" for terror attacks.


Disaster on schedule. Now Russia has its own 11 September.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Practically none of our informed intelligence sources has any doubt that the double air disaster was a carefully planned act of terror, rather than a tragic coincidence. And they are all inclined to believe that it is related to the Chechen presidential elections, which are to take place this Sunday.

Moskovskiy Komsomolets

99 per cent certain it was terrorism.

Komsomolskaya Pravda

[Chechen rebel spokesman] Akhmad Zakayev has already said that [Chechen rebel leader Aslan] Maskhadov has nothing to do with the terrorist attack. This is the standard approach from the Chechen guerrillas. While the Red Brigades of the 1970s immediately claimed responsibility for attacks, the Chechens prefer to blame everything on the Kremlin.

Novaya Gazeta

The investigating team said they were checking the lists of those killed. They are looking particularly closely at two female passengers with Eastern surnames. They both bought tickets at the airport about an hour or 90 minutes before the flight, checked in at about the same time, then got on different flights. The investigators are now checking who they are and where they came from.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Could the terrorists have been aiming for a nuclear power station?

Pravda

Experts investigating the crash have not ruled out a carefully planned act of terrorism. One fact supporting this theory is that the military centre of Russia's unified air traffic control system registered a signal from the Tu-154, before communications were lost, that it had been hijacked.

Pravda

Although experts are not ruling out the aircraft crashing as a result of terrorist actions, the known condition of the Russian aircraft fleet, and the country's aircraft industry as a whole, unfortunately does not rule out a continuation of the sad list of air tragedies.

Krasnaya Zvezda

An explosion took place before the air crashes on the Kashirskoye highway, which leads straight to Domodedovo airport. One suggestion is that the blast was organised to distract the law enforcement bodies from preparations for the terrorist attack on the aircraft. In the same way, terrorists set off a "distraction" bomb near McDonalds before seizing the Nord-Ost Theatre in 2002.

Komsomolskaya Pravda

Useless "security alert" - The capital's airports said that security had been stepped up the evening before the crashes, following Tuesday's tragedy on the Kashirskoye highway.

Izvestiya

Staff at Domodedovo airport are on alert. There are guards all around. But funnily enough, Moskovskiy Komsomolets correspondents were easily able to get in through a service entrance straight onto the apron and up to the aircraft. We spent an hour happily wandering between various airliners being prepared for flight.

Moskovskiy Komsomolets

There's probably some kind of justification for it, like: let's not cause a panic or make the public nervous. I hope that is what they were thinking in the prosecutor-general's office... This touching care for our mental well-being has not been wasted. The public has not become nervous and has not panicked. The public understood everything straight away. Despite the titanic efforts of state television, we are not all imbeciles just yet.

Moskovskiy Komsomolets

This is the fifth year in a row that terrorist attacks with large numbers of victims have taken place in the same month. Why the peak of terrorist activity in Russia always comes in August-September-October remains a mystery.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

BBC Monitoring , based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.