Putin says explosion of Russian plane could be terrorism

Associated Press WriterMOSCOW (AP) -- A chartered Russian airliner flying from Tel Aviv to Siberia exploded Thursday and crashed off the Black Sea coast with at least 77 people on board. President Vladimir Putin said terrorism could be the cause.

"A civilian aircraft crashed today and it is possible that it is the result of a terrorist act," Putin told a meeting of visiting European justice ministers.

Bush administration officials were in almost immediate contact with their counterparts in Moscow in an attempt to determine whether there was a connection between the explosion and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or U.S. plans to retaliate.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the "appropriate people" called Russian officials "to ascertain the facts."

In Moscow, Deputy Transport Minister Karl Ruppel told The Associated Press that a crew of an Armenian airliner in the area had informed Russian air traffic controllers that they saw an explosion aboard a plane flying nearby. Ruppel said he didn't know what caused the explosion. He was confirming Russian media reports that there had been a blast on the Russian plane.

The Tupolev 154 went down in pieces 114 miles off the Russian coastal city of Adler, located on the Georgian border, said Vasily Yurchuk, a spokesman for the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Garik Ovanisian, the pilot of the Armenian An-24, told AP his plane was at 20,790 feet above the Black Sea when the plane above his exploded. The Armenian plane was on a regularly scheduled flight over the Black Sea from the Ukrainian Crimean city of Simferopol to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

"I saw the explosion on the plane, which was above me at an altitude of 36,300 feet," Ovanisian said. "The plane fell into the sea, and there was another explosion in the sea. After that I saw a big white spot on the sea, and I had the impression that oil was burning."

The plane, with at least 66 passengers and 11 crew members on board, was on its way from Tel Aviv to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Yurchuk said. It belonged to Sibir Airlines, which is based in Novosibirsk, about 1,750 miles east of Moscow. Sibir Airlines confirmed it was a charter flight.

Putin, who has taken a high-profile position in the international anti-terrorist coalition that has formed following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, named Vladimir Rushailo, head of the presidential Security Council, to head the investigation.

"We must launch rescue work, gather all we can and conduct expertise. If the sea depth allows that, we must try to recover the black box," Putin said.

Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service, said that planes and ships had been sent to the area of the crash within 15 minutes.

Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said there was no clear evidence that the plane crashed as a result of a terror attack.

Nevertheless, after the crash Israel suspended takeoffs of foreign flights from its main airport, Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv.

Sneh told AP that some Israeli citizens were on board the flight. Officials at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv would not release a passenger list.

Vladimir Kofman, an official with the Interstate Aviation Committee, said the plane had made a stopover in Burgas, Bulgaria, where it apparently took on more passengers. The agency is in charge of investigating crashes in the former Soviet republics.

However, Valya Luleva, spokeswoman for Bulgaria's Transportation Ministry, told AP that the plane didn't land at Burgas airport, didn't enter Bulgarian airspace and at no time was taken over by Bulgarian air traffic control.