U.S. Sources: Suicide Bombers Struck Russian Planes

Aug. 27, 2004 -- Suicide bombers destroyed two Russian domestic airliners Tuesday in precision attacks that killed 90 people, U.S. sources told ABC News.

Traces of explosives found in one of two downed Tupolev planes match explosives used in the 1999 bombing attacks of Moscow apartments by Chechen separatists, according to Russian officials.

"The results of the investigation have found hexogen," said Nikolai Zakharov, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB.

Hexogen, a highly sophisticated explosive also known as RDX and cyclonite, is a clear, easily concealed, military explosive with very limited commercial use. Less than a pound can bring down a plane.

In what Russian sources are calling "Russia's 9/11," Sibir Airlines' Tu-154 and Tu-134 jets went down within 20 minutes of each other after taking off from the same Moscow airport Tuesday night.

Unidentified Chechen Women on Board

Russian officials suspect two female passengers of being the bombers. They seem to have been Chechen and are the only bodies not claimed by relatives or friends.

The ITAR-TASS news agency reported today that, according to air traffic controller sources, the Tu-154 signaled three times that it had been hijacked before it crashed.

According to the prestigious Kommersant newspaper, there were also irregularities about how the women got tickets on the doomed flights.

Sibir officials told the Kommersant the woman on the Tu-154 had originally bought a ticket for a flight the following day. But at the last minute, as the jet was boarding, she asked to change her ticket for a seat on the earlier flight, the newspaper reported.

She paid an extra 500 rubles ($16) to change her flight, the officials said.