|
(Above) Russian women weep at news
of the casualties list in Moscow. |
|
(Above) Russian transportation official
removes the flight recorder. |
|
(Above) Workers sift through the
debris. Note the severely worn tires. Could be fire
damage from after the crash, I don't know. |
|
(Above) A Russian Tupolov-134 flight
recorder. Interesting to me that it has English stenciled
on the container. |
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Explosives have
been found in the wreckage of the second of two jets which
crashed almost simultaneously this week, Russia's FSB
security service told CNN.
"Additional examination of the fragments
of the Tu-134 aircraft which crashed on Tuesday ... has
revealed traces of hexogen,"
an FSB spokesman said.
The FSB said on Friday that hexogen, more
widely known as RDX, had been found in the wreckage of
the other Tu-154 plane which crashed on Tuesday in southern
Russia.
CNN's Paula Hancocks said that the investigation
was now firmly focused on terrorism as the likely cause
of the crashes.
She said hexogen has been used in previous
attacks in Russia blamed on Chechen separatists -- including
the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow.
Until now. Russian Investigators have
carefully avoided any suggestion that Chechen militants
were behind the crashes.
But Russian media have speculated that
two passengers, believed to be Chechen women, blew up
the planes in the run-up to Sunday's Chechen election
certain to return a pro-Moscow president.
Moscow toughened security measures for
airline flights Saturday and vowed to prevent any recurrence
of the twin air crashes.
Transport Minister Igor Levitin said his
concern was to ensure safe air travel. Safety measures,
previously undertaken solely by airports, would now be
shared with the Interior Ministry.
"From today, they (Interior Ministry
officials) are being included in teams conducting searches,"
Levitin, ordered by President Vladimir Putin to head a
commission investigating the crashes, said in an interview.
"We want to toughen all requirements
in terms of cargo and baggage ... Passengers must be made
to feel that everything is in order once they are seated
in an aircraft."
Authorities understood that the virtually
simultaneous crashes were "an extraordinary event
... We must look thoroughly into this to understand what
happened and take measures to ensure it does not happen
again."
Levitin said ministers wanted to enshrine
tough regulations in a law on air safety. Airports were
to be provided with new detection equipment partly financed
by the government.
The FSB had earlier said traces of an
explosive used in past attacks blamed on Chechen militants
were found in the wreckage of the Tu-154 plane, which
crashed en route from Moscow to the Black Sea resort of
Sochi.
Later it said the same explosive had been
found at the crash site of the Tu-134 plane which came
down on its way to Volgograd in central Russia.
NTV television, reporting from the Tu-134
crash site, earlier said investigators were leaning towards
the notion that the second aircraft had also been blown
up.
The television showed coffins draped with
wreaths in Volgograd, with groups of women dressed in
black seated nearby. At least one funeral was shown taking
place in Sochi.
Russian media said investigators were
trying to determine whether two women with Chechen names
were linked to the crashes. The daily Izvestia reported
that the brother of one woman had been seized by Russian
forces in Chechnya three years ago.
Chechen separatists have been blamed for
numerous bombings and other attacks in Russia in recent
years, including the seizure of hundreds of hostages at
a Moscow theater that ended with more than 100 hostages
dead.
Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov,
backed by the Kremlin, is almost sure to win Sunday's
poll, called to replace a president assassinated in May.
He faces six obscure rivals.
|