ROSTOV-ON-DON. Sept 1 (Interfax-AVN) - Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force Vladimir Mikhailov said he believes the explosive devices that went off aboard two Russian airliners over a week ago were planted well beforehand, and said all the suicide bombers had to do was activate them.
"It is my personal opinion that the passengers did not bring explosive devices aboard the planes. The explosive devices were brought well beforehand and planted somewhere near the rear toilets by some employees, and the suicide-bombers only had to activate them while they were aboard the planes," Mikhailov told journalists in Rostov-on-Don.
"The planes were not hijacked," he said.
"Our services monitoring the airspace saw at once that there were explosions aboard the planes. Detailed analyses of the shots taken by radar showed pieces of planes that came apart to such distances that the radar stations could identify them as different parts of the planes," Mikhailov said.