Putin Declared Thursday a Day of Mourning

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Putin Declared Thursday a Day of Mourning

A helicopter crash that killed 114 people in Chechnya was most likely caused by a rebel attack from the ground, the prosecutor general said Tuesday, and Interfax reported that a missile launcher had been found nearby.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

A helicopter crash that killed 114 people in Russia's Chechnya was most likely caused by a rebel attack from the ground, the prosecutor general said Tuesday, and Interfax reported that a missile launcher had been found nearby.

Monday's crash outside the military headquarters at Khankala, near Grozny, has been described as the country's worst military air disaster.

Citing an anonymous source at the Khankala headquarters, Interfax reported that investigators found a Strela anti-aircraft missile launcher that had been used to shoot down the Mi-26 helicopter. Chechen rebels on Monday claimed that they had shot the helicopter down.

Officials at first gave widely differing accounts of how many people had been on board the helicopter and how many had been killed. On Tuesday evening, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said 114 out of 147 people on board were killed.

TVS television said the dead included one child, who was traveling with his mother, an army nurse. All five crewmen survived the crash. The passengers were a mix of officers, conscripts and contract soldiers returning from leave or traveling to Chechnya to relieve units that were to have been rotated out of the region, state television reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Thursday a day of mourning for those killed in the crash.

The helicopter's flight data recorders were found and were brought to Mozdok in North Ossetia for examination. Media reports said the recorders were severely damaged.

Ivanov said he was suspending the army's aviation commander, Colonel General Vitaly Pavlov, until the investigation into the crash was completed. Ivanov said Pavlov had violated instructions, but that these violations were not connected to the crash.

The Kommersant newspaper reported that overcrowded flights, carrying up to 110 people in addition to cargo, had become the norm. The paper reported that Mozdok had suffered a spell of bad weather in recent days, with rain and heavy fog, and that flights had been irregular in any case because of inadequate supplies of fuel and spare parts.

Source: Agencies

Questions?Comments? Click here

China's Exports Hit Record of US$56.2 Billion in July ( 36 Messages)

China's On-going Reform Calls for Better Economic Illumination ( 31 Messages)

Fourth Unmanned Spaceship Set to Roar by Yearend ( 46 Messages)

FM Spokesman Rejects Al-Qaida Contacts Allegation ( 48 Messages)

Commentary: Taiwan Independence No Easy Thing ( 57 Messages)