TA-ATTACKS: 2 Planes Crash in Russia, Second Plane Transmits Hijacking

A third plane with 254 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing in the Sakhalin Islands because one of four engines went out. This may be totally unrelated, but has been added to this story for the time being.

Updated.

Maybe Russia just has really bad airplane mechanics?

Originally posted by Aelita
I'll speculate that they crashed because of the poor maintenance. Russia is running on the old Soviet infrastructure and hardware, and there are limits to this.

You would have to put a gun to my head to get me to take anything with Tupelov on it. Thier civil aviation planes are a little scary to say the least. This may be a coincidence, or it may be Chechen Rebels?

Thats a pretty big coincidence though. I mean two planes crashing at pretty much the same time due to old planes or mechanical failure? I find that hard to believe.

Just a question here, but has a video been released by Bin Laden ending the truce? Remember this from a few weeks back? I wonder if it could be connected. Russia is in Europe.

�Expect an audio message from Osama Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri,� said a statement on the Minbar Ahl al-Sunna wal Jamaa website, which has repeatedly posted terror-related news and videos by various shadowy groups.

�To all Muslims: expect an audio message from Osama Bin Laden on one of the satellite channels during which he will announce the end of the truce that he has given to the Europeans for a pullout from Iraq,� it said.

I haven't really kept up with that story.
ATSNN Discussion Thread
Bin Laden to Air Message Ending Truce

[edit on 24-8-2004 by deeprivergal]

Originally posted by deeprivergal
Thats a pretty big coincidence though. I mean two planes crashing at pretty much the same time due to old planes or mechanical failure? I find that hard to believe.

Im not counting out a terroist act, but the safety record in Russia rivals Africas in its scariness: Some recent crashes. Notice alot of TU-154 go down. And not just in Russia, but Iran, China etc

Taken from CNN.com
MOSCOW, Russia -- Here are details of some of the most serious crashes involving Russian planes in recent years, as reported by Reuters news agency:

July 1, 2002: A Russian Tu-154 collides in midair with a Boeing 757 cargo plane over southern Germany. The 69 passengers and crew on the Russian plane and the two-person cargo crew are feared dead.

October 4, 2001: A Siber Airlines Tupelov 154 flight carrying 77 people on board exploded and crashed into the Black Sea during a flight between Israel and Siberia.

July 4, 2001: A Tu-154 Russian passenger plane crashed and burst into flames in Siberia, killing all 143 people on board, officials said.

October 25, 2000: An Ilyushin-18 military plane flying from Russia crashes on a Georgian mountainside, killing 82 people.

November 11, 1998: Thirteen people are killed when an An-12 crashed on takeoff from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia.

December 6, 1997: Forty-eight people are killed when their Antonov-124, carrying two Sukhoi fighter planes, crashes into a residential area on the outskirts of Irkutsk in Siberia.

March 18, 1997: Fifty passengers and crew die when the tail of their An-24 charter plane breaks off in mid-air while en route for Turkey.

December 17, 1996: Seventeen people including commander of the Leningrad military district are killed when their military plane, an Antonov-12, crashes at an airfield near the city of Pskov in northwestern Russia.

November 28, 1996: Russian air force Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane crashes in Siberia, killing all 23 people on board.

November 14, 1996: Thirteen people are killed when an antiquated Antonov An-2 biplane crashes in the semi-autonomous region of Komi in northern Russia.

August 29, 1996: A Tu-154 passenger plane carrying Russian and Ukrainian miners and their families to work on Norway's Arctic island of Spitzbergen crashes into a mountaintop, killing all 143 people on board.

December 7, 1995: A Tu-154 with 97 people aboard disappears en route to the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk. No survivors were ever found.

June 16, 1995: At least 12 people are killed when their Antonov An-2 single-engined propeller plane crashes in bad weather in Russia's Far East on a flight from Poliny Osipenko, in the Khabarovsk region, to the city of Nikolayevsk-on-Amur.

April 8, 1995: An Il-76 plane crashes on the slopes of a volcano just before it is due to land at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, regional capital of the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula. All 14 people on board are killed.

October 29, 1994: Twenty-one people die when an Antonov An-12 cargo plane crashes on approach near the airport of Ust-Ilimsk, 385 miles north of the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

September 26, 1994: A Russian Yak-40 airliner crashes while trying to reach an airport at Vanavara, Siberia, to make an emergency landing in bad weather. All 26 people aboard are killed.

March 23, 1994: A half-empty Airbus A-310 belonging to Russian state international airline Aeroflot crashes near Novokuznetsk, killing 70 people. Investigators say crash was caused mainly by the pilot's teenage son inadvertently disconnecting the autopilot.

January 3, 1994: All 124 people on board a Russian Tupolev-154 plane are killed when it crashes minutes after taking off from the Siberian city of Irkutsk on a flight to Moscow.

AirDisaster.Com Accident Database
� AirDisaster.Com � Accident Database � By Manufacturer/Type � TU-154

Date Airline/Location Aircraft Type/Registration Fatalities



02.19.1973 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 66:100
Prague, Czechoslovakia SSSR-85023


09.30.1975 Malev Tupolev TU-154B 60:60
Beirut, Lebanon HA-LCI


06.01.1976 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154A 46:46
Nacias Nguema, Equatorial Guinea SSSR-85102


12.02.1977 Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev TU-154B 59:165
Al Bayda, Lebanon LZ-BTN


07.07.1980 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154B 166:166
Alma-Ata, Kasakastan SSSR-85355


11.16.1981 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154B 99:167
Nor'ilsk, Russia SSSR-85480


10.11.1984 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154B 174:175 + 4
Omsk, Russia SSSR-85243


12.23.1984 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154B 110:110
Kranoyarsk, Russia SSSR-85338


07.10.1985 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154B 200:200
Uchuduk, Uzbekistan SSSR-85311


01.18.1988 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154B 11:143
Krosnovodsk, Turkmenistan SSSR-85254


05.23.1991 Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 13:178
Leningrad, Russia SSSR-85097


07.20.1992 Georgian Air Tupolev TU-154B 24:24
Tbilisi, Georgia SSSR-85222


02.08.1993 Iran Air Tupolev TU-154M 132:132
Tehran, Iran EP-ITD


09.22.1993 Transair Georgia Tupolev TU-154B 106:132
Sukhumi, Georgia SSSR-85163


01.03.1994 Baikal Air Tupolev TU-154M 124:124 + 1
Irkutsk, Russia RA-85656


06.06.1994 China Northwest Airlines Tupolev TU-154B 160:160
Xi'an, China B-2694


12.07.1995 Far East Aviation Tupolev TU-154B 97:97
Grossevichi, Russia RA-85164


08.29.1996 Vnokovo Airlines Tupolev TU-154 141:141
Spitsbergen, Norway RA-85621


09.13.1997 Luftwaffe Tupolev TU-154 24:24
Namibia, Africa ---


12.15.1997 Tajikistan Airlines Tupolev TU-154 85:86
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates EY-85281


08.29.1998 Cubana de Aviacion Tupolev TU-154M 69:90
Quito, Ecuador CU-T1264


02.24.1999 China Southwest Airlines Tupolev TU-154M 61:61
Rui'an, China B-2622


07.03.2001 Vladivostok Avia Tupolev TU-154M 145:145
Burdanovka, Russia RA-85845


10.04.2001 Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154M 77:77
Black Sea - off Sochi, Russia RA-85693


02.12.2002 Iran Air Tours Tupolev TU-154M 118:118
Khorramabad, Iran EP-MBS


07.01.2002 Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev TU-154M 69:69
Ueberlingen, Germany RA-85816

Yes I've seen that article, yet I don't see any plane incidents that happened on the same day within 3 minutes of each other and another plane making an emergency landing, again on the same day.

You need to put the article in quotes and link it to cnn Fred

Thanks for posting that though.

Oops, you double posted too

[edit on 24-8-2004 by deeprivergal]

The article does indicate in about the 6th paragraph, that they are not goingt to rule out terrorism.

From "The Voice of America":

Two Airplanes Reported to Have Crashed in Russia
Bill Gasperini
Moscow
24 Aug 2004, 22:25 UTC


Two passenger airliners with a total of around 100 people are reported to have crashed in Russia. However, there are indications the conflicting reports may in fact be talking about one airplane.
Wreckage of one airliner has been sighted near a village in the Tula region about 180 kilometers south of Moscow, while the other was reported missing while on its way to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi further south.

Emergency officials say the confirmed crash was a Tupolev 134 aircraft carrying 34 passengers and eight crew which was flying to the city of Volgograd.

The other plane was a larger Tupolev 154 with 44 people on board, which air controllers reported missing near the city of Rostov-on-Don near the Black Sea.

The Tula region is on the flight path for planes heading south from Moscow toward southern Russia.

Rescue teams with the Emergency Situations Ministry have confirmed finding wreckage of the first plane in the Tula region, and that witnesses reported hearing an explosion just before the crash.

Officials in Moscow say both planes dropped off of radar screens within minutes of each other, and that they couldn't rule out the possibility of terrorism.

Bombings have occurred in recent years in Moscow and other cities, some in southern Russia near the breakaway region of Chechnya where Russian troops have been battling separatist rebels for most of the past decade.

However many planes in Russia are old and mechanical problems are common, although the country's overall safety record has improved in recent years.

Originally posted by deeprivergal
Just a question here, but has a video been released by Bin Laden ending the truce? Remember this from a few weeks back? I wonder if it could be connected. Russia is in Europe.

�Expect an audio message from Osama Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri,� said a statement on the Minbar Ahl al-Sunna wal Jamaa website, which has repeatedly posted terror-related news and videos by various shadowy groups.

�To all Muslims: expect an audio message from Osama Bin Laden on one of the satellite channels during which he will announce the end of the truce that he has given to the Europeans for a pullout from Iraq,� it said.

I haven't really kept up with that story.
ATSNN Discussion Thread
Bin Laden to Air Message Ending Truce

[edit on 24-8-2004 by deeprivergal]

Still wondering if anyone thinks that this story might have something to do with this.

Originally posted by deeprivergal

Originally posted by deeprivergal
Just a question here, but has a video been released by Bin Laden ending the truce? Remember this from a few weeks back? I wonder if it could be connected. Russia is in Europe.

�Expect an audio message from Osama Bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri,� said a statement on the Minbar Ahl al-Sunna wal Jamaa website, which has repeatedly posted terror-related news and videos by various shadowy groups.

�To all Muslims: expect an audio message from Osama Bin Laden on one of the satellite channels during which he will announce the end of the truce that he has given to the Europeans for a pullout from Iraq,� it said.

I haven't really kept up with that story.
ATSNN Discussion Thread
Bin Laden to Air Message Ending Truce

[edit on 24-8-2004 by deeprivergal]

Still wondering if anyone thinks that this story might have something to do with this.

You are so right the "Truce" has ended...
And that first message, months ago was a warning to the those "North of the Mediterranean" he had stated.

Actually, maybe yes. Deeprivergal, I found a "re-released" video with Osama bin Laden on it this past weekend. Actually discussed it with two other editors. At first we were going to run it as an ATSNN article, and then we found that it was an old rather under-publicized video from some time back.

We then decided it might not be anything. But the deal is the video had been heavily edited down from its first release.

It could mean something...but now that I admit that, I have to tell you that that jihadist site which had re-released that video on the 19th...put a new thing up yesterday. It does not have bin Laden on it, but it is new. It's completely in Arabic.

p.s. This site has a STRONG Chechnyan connection....and, in fact, I was able to view a video taken of a substantial raid on an artillery depot by Chechnyan AL-QAEDA fighters...and the Al-Qaeda connection was emphasized in the video.

Just watching lunchtime news in Oz and witnesses reported that the 1st plane
exploded in mid-air. Sorry no links.

Sanc'.

2 planes going down, and another having failures...all on the same day?

Hell of a coincidence.

You know, all these coincidences these days...makes ya wonder who we can really trust.









Answer = no one apparently.

Originally posted by TrueLies
It's too ironic that it's two planes...

Did you mean too improbably so as to not be natural? Whats ironic about two planes crashing?


Everyone is definitely jumping to conclusions, there is nothing to support the idea that this is terror related. Having said that, it might very well be. The fact that two Russian Planes crashed on the same day is definitely 'eyebrow raising'. But also keep in mind that russian passenger jets are starting to develop a tendency to crash. I recall the plane that crashed not so long ago in iran was russian built, and supposedly the existing planes are very old.

This incident does look like there were terrorists involved. You can't however, automatically assume that everything is terror related. This paranaoia will cause us to make rash decisions and leave us living scared. Exactly what terrorists want.

Until an official report comes out I'll leave my opinion open.

CBS 2 News in NYC is reporting "undisclosed sources" are investigating a terrorism connection to these events.

Whether I'm right or not, the word "undisclosed" bothers me.

[edit on 24-8-2004 by cstyle226]

Could Georgia have a role in this?