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Wreckage of the Russian Tu-154 airliner that went missing Tuesday night and remains of its passengers have been discovered in southern Russia's Rostov, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman said in Moscow on Wednesday.
The wreckage and body parts were discovered at 8:14 a.m. Moscow time (0414 GMT) nine km south of the village of Gluboky in the Kaminsk-Shakhtinsky district, Interfax news agency cited the spokesman as saying.
Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said one of the crashed Tu-154 jet's flight recorders has been found.
The plane, with 38 passengers and eight crew members on board, went missing from radar screens en route Moscow to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
Interfax reported earlier the plane sent a distress signal indicating an attack or hijacking just before it disappeared in southern Russia.
Almost at the same time, another passenger jet Tu-134 crashed in the Tula region south of Moscow, killing all the 35 passengers and eight crew on board, the ministry confirmed Wednesday.
The Tupolev aircraft was en route from Moscow to Russia's southern city of Volgograd when it disappeared from radar screens at about 23:00 Moscow time (1900 GMT) Tuesday.
Airport official said Wednesday there were no foreign citizens onboard the two planes.
"There were no foreign citizens on the lists of passengers of the two airliners that flew out to Volgograd and Sochi from Domodedovo on Tuesday evening," said Igor Tikhomirov, spokesman for the Domodedovo airport.
A Russian aviation security expert said he does not rule out terrorism behind the air disasters.
"Both planes took off from the same Moscow airport and disappeared from radar screens at about the same time, all of which suggested that terrorist attacks, planned in advance, may have been involved," Interfax cited the unnamed expert as saying.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Federal Security Service to launch a probe into the air disasters, presidential spokesman Alexei Gromov said.
Security has been tightened at all of Russia's airports.
(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2004)
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