| Date: | Tuesday 24 August 2004 |
| Time: | 22:53 |
| Type: |  Tupolev Tu-154B-2 |
| Owner/operator: | Sibir Airlines |
| Registration: | RA-85556 |
| MSN: | 82A556 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1982 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 30751 hours |
| Engine model: | Kuznetsov NK-8-2U |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 46 / Occupants: 46 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Unlawful Interference |
| Location: | 8 km from Gluboki -
 Russia
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Moskva-Domodedovo Airport (DME/UUDD) |
| Adler/Sochi Airport (AER/URSS) | |
| Confidence Rating: |
Sibir Airlines Flight 1047, a Tupolev Tu-154, departed Moscow about 22:40 on a domestic passenger flight to Sochi, Russia. At an altitude of 12100 m an explosion occurred inside cabin on the right hand side on seat row 25. An explosive decompression followed and the aircraft entered a descent. It subsequently broke up and crashed, killing all 46 on board.
The aircraft crashed almost simultaneously with a Volga-Aviaexpress Tupolev Tu-134 which had also departed Moscow's Domodedovo Airport earlier that night. Investigations revealed traces of Hexogen, a highly sophisticated explosive also known as RDX in the wreckage. It appeared that the explosives had been carried aboard by a female passenger. Two female suicide bombers arrived at Moscow at 19:45 on the same day on a flight from Makhachkala in the company of another two Chechens. They were taken aside on arrival and were handed to a police captain in charge of antiterrorist precautions, but they were released without apparently having been searched. Both women then bought tickets on the Sibir flight to Sochi and the Volga-Aviaexpress to Volgograd from a black-market peddler. After bribing a Sibir Airlines employee in charge of check-in and boarding one of the women was able to bypass security and get on board the Tupolev Tu-154.
The cause of the crashes of Tu-154 RA 85556 and Tu-134 RA 65080 aircrafts on August 24, 2004 was the destruction of aircraft construction in flight as a result of the impact of explosive charges.
Sources:
gazeta.ru
ITAR-TASS
Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation
Location
Images:
photo (c) David Russell; Moskva-Domodedovo Airport (DME/UUDD); July 2000
Revision history:
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