MOSCOW. Aug 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Vice President of the Russian Aviators Trade Union Vladimir Bochkarev said on Wednesday that the crashes of TU-154 Careless and TU-134 Crusty passenger airliners the night before were unlikely to be caused by the human factor or equipment failure.
"If the situation caused by equipment had developed aboard, the crew would have definitely had some time to contact the air traffic controller and report on the incident. This never happened. Thus, everything happened in a second," Bochkarev said live on Ekho Moskvy radio.
"Sudden exterior factors" could have caused the nearly simultaneous crashes of the two planes, he said. He did not rule out terrorist acts aboard the aircraft.
Bochkarev said the crashes could have been caused by explosive devices fitted with clockworks. "Communication with the aircraft broke off nearly simultaneously. Explosive devices with clockworks set for the same time apparently went off. Some terrorists could have been aboard and could have contacted their accomplices in the air, but it does not seem likely," Bochkarev said.
According to him, a great distance over which the remains are scattered also confirms that terrorist attacks occurred aboard the planes. "If a tragedy has technical reasons, the plane usually hits the ground compactly," he said. However, overnight to Wednesday the planes were falling from a high altitude and disintegrated in the air.
It is flight security services who must draw the main conclusions from the crashes, Bochkarev said. "The most important thing is not to let this tragedy happen again. The main conclusions must be made in the sphere of reinforcing the flight security service," he stressed.