Twin plane crashes in Russia last week were tragic notification that the Chechen resistance has not stepped down, reports Ahmed Reda Two Russian passenger jets crashed simultaneously in different places after taking off from a Moscow airport last week, leaving 89 people dead and raising fears of terrorism once again in the hearts of Russians. The disaster came five days before the Chechen presidential elections that saw Alu Alkhanov, the former local interior minister, winning 73.48 per cent of Sunday's vote according to the Chechen election commission. Alkhanov, 47, a career policeman hand-picked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, faces a battle to garner some of the standing enjoyed by his hard line predecessor Akhmad Kadyrov, assassinated in May, and to bring stability to a region where separatists are becoming more audacious in their attacks. Investigators are still puzzling over the crash of the two jets that flew out of Moscow's Domodedovo Airport within 40 minutes of each other on Wednesday night and which later crashed within three or four minutes of each other. Aviation and security experts at the crash sites have said that the cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders on both planes appeared to have been abruptly shut off, indicating an explosion- induced electrical failure. Security officials said traces of the explosive hexogen have been found in the wreckage of one of the two jets. A spokesman from the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the find on the weekend, a day after a top Russian official stated that terrorism was the most likely explanation behind the tragedy that killed all those onboard the two planes. Hexogen, also known as RDX or cyclonite, is a ring-shaped, stable chemical that only becomes explosive with the assistance of a detonator. It was widely used during World War II, where it was mixed with TNT, and is now a common constituent of plastic explosives such as Semtex. It was used in the four Moscow apartment bombings that killed more than 200 people in 1999. Russian aviation officials have confirmed that one of the planes, a Sibir Tupolev 154 with 46 people aboard, sent out a hijack alert moments before it crashed. The plane was heading for the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where President Vladimir Putin was holidaying. The two planes that crashed had been in service for more than 20 years. Sibir, the airlines that operated the craft, said the planes were in good shape and recently underwent routine maintenance. Tupolev 154s have been involved in dozens of accidents that have killed over 1,700 people since 1980, according to Russian news agencies. Authorities in Moscow meanwhile announced that precautionary steps were being taken to tighten security at the city's airports and other public sites with the participation of the FSB and other government agencies. News reports carried rumours of an imminent security reshuffle in the Russian government in the wake of the crashes, but no official announcement supported such claims. President Putin, in a statement transmitted by Russian media, ordered security agencies to investigate the crashes "without delay" but there was little official comment on the crashes apart from death toll updates. Anger and frustration was reflected in the writings of most Russian newspapers as the government swiftly blamed the crashes on mechanical failure before revising its assessment and admitting there were reasons to suspect terrorist involvement. Russian newspapers said that a technical malfunction aboard the two airplanes was highly unlikely. Mathematicians calculated such an occurrence is possible only once in 5,000 years. Reports citing details of the tragedy have been contradictory, with some sections of the Russian media accusing the government of not declaring all the facts. A link to the troubled state of Chechnya is suspected, but an Islamic group claimed responsibility last Friday. Chechen rebels or their supporters have been blamed for two major bomb attacks in Moscow this year, one that occurred in the subway during morning rush hour and another on a busy public sidewalk across the street from the Kremlin. Some security experts suggest that the twin plane disaster was perpetrated by the Chechen "black widows", or women who lost their husbands and brothers to Russian security forces during the raging conflict. However, Akhmed Zakaev, a spokesman for Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, said Maskhadov was not connected in any way to the near- simultaneous crashes. According to the Russian newspaper Vremya Novostei, if the tragedy is considered an act of terrorism, Russia is likely to experience a serious exacerbation of the situation in Chechnya. A significant change of foreign policy is not ruled out either. "If it turns out that the Chechen terrorists blew up the two liners, the reaction will follow immediately. It will be seen in the actions of the federal authorities in Chechnya, the nationwide strengthening of security measures, Russia's sanctions against the countries linked with Chechen separatists," the newspaper wrote. Check-in security on Russian domestic flights is typically slack but security at the Domodedovo Airport in Moscow was tightened just hours before the two planes took off, according to airport officials and representatives from Transaero airline, a major air carrier based there. Airline spokesman Sergei Bykhal said tightened security followed an explosion earlier Tuesday at a bus stop on the highway leading to the airport. Was it the work of Chechen rebels and is it that easy to carry explosives onboard a flight from Moscow? The Russian public and local media are currently aware that there will be no answers to these questions until the official veil of secrecy is lifted.
