Could they have had to do with the Chechen elections coming up? Ask Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. However, the Russians and Chechens are denying this at this point. From AP:
BUCHALKI, Russia - Russian emergency workers searched through heaps of twisted metal and tall grass Wednesday for clues to what caused two airliners to plunge to Earth almost simultaneously, killing all 89 people aboard and raising concerns of a terrorist strike. Officials said one of the jets sent a distress signal that may have indicated a hijacking.Russia's main intelligence agency, however, said it had found no evidence of terrorism in initial investigations at the crash sites. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it was investigating other possibilities such as technical failures, the use of poor quality fuel, breaches of fueling regulations and pilot error, its press service told The Associated Press. Rain and thunder was reported in the regions where both crashes occurred.
A Sibir airlines Tu-154 jet, carrying 46 people, took off from Moscow's newly redeveloped Domodedovo airport at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday and the other plane, a Tu-134 carrying 43 people, left 40 minutes later, according to state-run Rossiya television. The Tu-134 was headed to the southern city of Volgograd, while the other plane was flying to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where President Vladimir Putin is vacationing.
The planes disappeared from radar screens about 11 p.m., and by early Wednesday morning, the wreckage of both had been found — with no survivors. Domodedovo airport said in a statement that both planes "went through the standard procedure of preparation for flight ...(and) the procedures were carried out properly."
Uncertainty over the cause of the crashes came after Sibir said that it was notified that its jet had activated a hijack or seizure signal shortly before disappearing from radar screens. Officials said the crew of the other plane gave no indication that anything was wrong, but witnesses on the ground reported hearing a series of explosions.
"There were three loud bangs on the window, like someone knocking," said Nikolai Gorokhov, a local resident who was in his home at the time of the crash.
The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian aviation security expert as saying the fact that the two planes disappeared around the same time raised suspicions of terrorism....
Officials had expressed concern that separatists [that is, jihadists] in war-ravaged Chechnya might carry out attacks ahead of a regional election Sunday to replace the pro-Moscow president who was killed in a May bombing. Chechen rebels have been blamed for a series of terror strikes that have claimed hundreds of lives in Russia in recent years.
Rebel representative Akhmed Zakayev told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio from London that Chechen rebel forces and rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov were in no way connected to the near simultaneous crashes.
What are the odds that both these aircraft just happened to disappear and crash at approximately the same time,I'd say zero.
Islamo-maggot terrorists strike again?
according to debka.com
it was the moslems.
I read on a Russian newsight that these planes "altered" their course...Putin was supposedly in a resort town not that far away...were these planes shot down due to the altered course and the hijack alert sent out by one of the planes?
There's pro-muslim bias in the news again. A news station in Calgary reported this sad incident and says that Chechnian rebels are most likely behind the attacks. Do you see the bias? They are not Chechnian Rebels, they're Muslims!!!
Regarding the downing of the 2 Russian aircraft..
I heard just this morning on the radio that a Russian Intelligence Officer was quoted as saying that one of the planes (not the one that blew up in mid-air but the one that nose-dived straight into the ground) reported that they were being hijacked then his radio went silent...
Look.. This presents a real quandry for the Lefist Media Establishment because to report this as a terror attack (to show that GWB is losing the war on terror) they have to say that the perpetrators of these attacks were muslims which casts islam in a bad light..
My guess is that the Media will do everything they can to AVOID REPORTING that the followers of islam were behind this attack. Watch.. They'll never use the word 'islam' or 'muslim' in identifying the attackers. Rather, they'll use words like 'separatist' or 'rebels' or 'radical faction'..
thanks, forrest shalom
also from debka:
http://debka.com/article.php?aid=895
The terrorists also count on Russian security services’ responses to terror being cumbersome and slow. Tuesday afternoon, a small explosive charge blew up at a bus stop on the road to Domodedovo airport, injuring three people. Witnesses at the airport describe the security authorities’ response as hysterical and muddled, which the hijackers must have exploited to slip through to the targeted airliners. The small blast should have prompted the sealing off of the airport and its approaches and flight cancellations for redoubled checks
To our Russian comrades: I mourn for the loss of your citizens, martyred by Islamic fascists. We welcome you in a common alliance to crush Islamic terrorism and the states that use it once and for all. Let us join together to utterly detsroy our enemies.
This from the country that wants to sell nuclear fuel rods to Iran. They haven't figured out that one day a Chechen jihadist will make them pay dearly for this mistake.
I suggest that our Russian Comrads join the U.S. in their fight against Islamic Terrorism and the U.S. aid Russia in their fight agaist Islamic Terrorism in Chechnia.
I almost hate to admit it, but I hope it was muslims. The laws there do not protect the militants like we so blindly do.