Russia says terrorism is unlikely in a passenger jet crash in the Black Sea that killed 92. Via NY Times:
The transportation minister, Maxim Sokolov, who is leading a commission looking into the crash, said that terrorism had not been ruled out, but that it was unlikely to be the cause of the crash of the Tupolev 154, which was flying members of the choir and others to Syria for a New Year’s Eve concert for troops stationed at an air base near Latakia.
“In order to organize our work, we need to understand what happened,” Mr. Sokolov said at the news conference. “As far as we know, the main versions do not include the terrorist act, so we base our work on the premise that technical malfunction or pilot’s error caused the catastrophe.”
Some analysts have pointed to the possibility of terrorism, citing the sudden disappearance of the airplane from radar screens and the lack of an emergency call from the pilot.
At the same time, officials emphasized that the airplane should have been technically sound, because it underwent repairs and resumed service in December 2014, and the pilot was experienced and had 1,900 hours of flying time at the control of Tupolev 154s.