Russian Flight Recorders Reveal Little

[RamboLiberal]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040826_890.html

A top Russian official said Thursday that flight recorders failed to provide reliable information about what brought down two jetliners just minutes apart, but for the first time a government leader conceded that terrorism was considered the leading possibility.

A day after officials spoke cautiously about terrorism and stressed that other causes were being considered, presidential envoy Vladimir Yakovlev said that despite the lack of data, the main theory about the catastrophe "all the same remains terrorism," the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

The apparent failure of the recorders to provide significant information was sure to fuel what appeared to be rising suspicion among Russians over the crashes that killed 89 people, a view embodied by a headline in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta proclaiming "Russia now has a Sept. 11."

"There are too many coincidences," said a Moscow pensioner, Ruven Suryaninov. Physicist Natalia Kozhelupova said, "It's too suspicious."