Investigation into two plane crashes underway

According to updated information from Moscow's Domodedovo airport, the two planes that crashed on Tuesday night near Tula and Rostov carried a total of 89 people, the airport's press secretary Igor Tikhomirov told the Interfax news agency.

A Volga-Aviaexpress company Tu-134 airliner traveling from Moscow to Volgograd was carrying 43 people, including 35 passengers and 8 crew members. The plane left Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Tuesday at about 10:00 p.m. Moscow time and vanished from radar screens at 10:56 p.m. Moscow time.

A Siberia Airlines Tu-154 flying from Moscow to Sochi carried 46 people, including 38 passengers and 8 crewmembers. The jet disappeared from radar screens at 11:00 p.m. Moscow time.

No evidence pointing to terrorism as the cause of the Tu-134 and Tu-154 plane crashes has been found yet, the chief of the federal security service FSB public relations department, Sergey Ignatchenko has said.

"As follows from preliminary conclusions by the teams of investigators studying both crash sites, no traces of terrorist attacks or explosions were found. Examination of wreckage fragments identified no traces or terrorism explosives."

According to the official the investigators are considering several versions of the disasters, however, the main one is "illegal interference in the operation of civil aviation or abuse of aircraft operation rules."

A special commission has been created to investigate the plane crashes. A joint team of investigators from the FSB, the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General's Office has been formed.