90 killed as two Russian jets crash, cause unclear

‘‘The message was generated before contact was lost with the plane and it disappeared from radar screens,’’ the airline said in a statement. The company also said there were indications that its plane exploded in the air. ‘‘The distribution of the debris indirectly confirms the conjecture that the plane broke up in midair because of an explosion,’’ a statement said.

Volga-Avia Express, a small regional carrier which owned the TU-134, said the crew did not report any problems on board before the plane crashed with 43 passengers and crew.

Interfax news agency quoted an aviation source as saying the coincidence of both planes leaving from the same airport and disappearing at the same time would suggest it was ‘‘a planned action’’. ‘‘In such a situation one could not exclude a terrorist act,’’ the source said. But the FSB officials said they were more likely accidents.

‘‘The main line of inquiry we are following is violation of the rules of operating civil aircraft,’’ FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said. Moderate Chechen separatists denied any role in the crashes. Asked if his group was behind the the crashes, Akhmed Zakayev, a spokesman for separatist Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, said: ‘‘Of course not’’. Witnesses on the ground heard an explosion from the TU-134 before it crashed.

‘‘Around 11 pm, there was this strange noise in the sky, then this torn-up book fell onto our garage,’’ a local man said, holding up the book with its tattered pages. Investigators recovered the flight recorders from both planes and sent them to Moscow for analysis. — (Reuters)