Russian plane crashes in Black Sea after explosion

MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian airliner flying from Tel Aviv to Siberia exploded in flight Thursday and crashed off the Black Sea coast with at least 77 people on board, Russian officials said.

Deputy Transport Minister Karl Ruppel told The Associated Press that a crew of an Armenian airliner in the area informed Russian air traffic controllers in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia they saw an explosion aboard a plane flying nearby. Ruppel could not immediately say what the cause of the explosion was.

Ivan Teterian, chief of the local Ministry of Emergency Situations branch in southern Russia, said "we cannot exclude a terrorist attack." Speaking live on Russia's NTV television, he added that only a further investigation would determine the cause.

The plane, a Tupolev 154, went down 114 miles off the Russian coastal city of Adler on the border with Georgia, said Vasily Yurchuk, a spokesman for the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The aircraft

The plane, which plummeted from an altitude of more than six miles, had been on its way from Tel Aviv to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Yurchuk said. It belonged to Sibir Airlines, which is based in Novosibirsk.

The Emergency Situations Ministry said there were at least 66 passengers and 11 crew members aboard.

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of the crash, the chief presidential press spokesman said. Putin called the head of the Federal Security Service and the Defense Minister to the Kremlin. He named Vladimir Rushailo, head of the Security Council, to head the investigation.