MOSCOW. Aug 30 (Interfax-AVN) - Information from flight recorders on the TU-154 Careless and TU-134 Crusty airliners that crashed last week does not support a hijack theory, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, who is heading of the state commission investigating the crashes, said in Moscow on Monday.
"We cannot say that the planes were hijacked on the basis of information from flight recorders. Nothing shows that anything but disintegration of the planes occurred," he said.
The state commission has finalized the first phase of its technical investigation, which was done by specialists from the Interstate Aviation Committee, he said.
A preliminary conclusion can be drawn that the planes disintegrated at cruising altitude, Levitin said.
The pilots acted correctly, but did not have time to report on what was happening, he said.
"Conversations between the crews and the tower show that the situation was regular. They were working as usual," Levitin said.
The mayday signal from the TU-154 came several seconds after the plane's disintegration, which may have been caused by a short circuit following the plane's breakup, Levitin said.