Australian News Interactive reports that traces of the explosive hexogen have been found in the wreckage of Tupolev 154 which crashed in Russia on Tuesday:
AT least one of the two Russian plane crashes that killed some 90 people this week was the result of a terrorist attack, the top Russian security service spokesman said.
“According to our initial investigation, at least one of the air crashes, the one in the Rostov region, came as a result of a terror attack,” spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko told ITAR-TASS news agency.
Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds
Irina Petrakova writes in Gazeta.ru:
Adolph Mishuyev director of the Explosives Constructions Study center, informed Gazeta.ru that the explosion of the aircraft required about 400 grams of material. As conjectured by the bomb experts, the components of the explosive device may have been carried on board nearly in plain view. And if the detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs didn’t detect it, the detonator may have been carried on by hand or in carry-on luggage. Once in flight the bomb could have been assembled in a restroom.
I’ve only been able to find this in the Russian language version.
Either they’ve been reading the Jacobsen accounts or this is an eerie reminder of them.
Update: This has been tracked back to the Beltway Traffic Jam.
