Sibir Tu-154 Explodes Over Black Sea
A Russian chartered airliner heading from Tel Aviv to Siberia exploded in flight Thursday and crashed off the Black Sea coast with at least 76 people on board, and a senior U.S. military official said that it may have been downed accidentally by a missile fired during a military exercise in Ukraine.
However, Ukraine categorically denied that theory, and President Vladimir Putin said he had no reason to doubt the denial.
``The weapons that were being used during this exercise could not reach the area where our Tu-154 was flying,`` Putin said. ``What I told you as of this moment is based on what our Ukrainian partners have told us and we don't have any reason not to trust them.``
Russian officials were investigating the possibility that the plane had been targeted by terrorists. ``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.
A U.S. Defense Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a land-based surface-to-air missile had been fired from the Crimean region of Ukraine.
The missile was believed to be an S-200, a surface-to-air missile of Russian design that is guided by radar to its target. NATO calls the missile the SA-5 ``Gammon.`` It flies faster than three times the speed of sound, has a range of up to nearly 250 kilometers and can hit targets above 30,000 meters altitude, according to several military publications.
Another American defense official said the missile may have been fired from a naval vessel. The exercises were conducted on Cape Onuk, in Crimea, about 250 kilometers from the site of the crash, on territory controlled by the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Ukrainian anti-aircraft, navy, rocket forces, aviation and artillery took part, as well as Russian forces including sho…
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