Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303 The first to crash was
Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303, a
Tupolev Tu-134, registered RA-65080, which had been in service since 1977. The plane was flying from Moscow to
Volgograd. It left Domodedovo International Airport at 22:30 on 24 August 2004. Communication with the plane was lost at 22:56 while it was flying over
Tula Oblast, south of Moscow. The remains of the aircraft were found on the ground several hours later. Thirty-four passengers and 9 crew members were on board the plane. All of them died in the crash. The flight recorders were recovered from the crash site. The flight data recorder showed that the plane was cruising uneventfully at , before indicating some type of high energy event likely originating near the right hand side of the aircraft at seat row 19. Both recorders stopped recording within 2–3 seconds of this event. This was followed by the separation of the fuselage at that location an undetermined amount of time afterward.
Siberia Airlines Flight 1047 Just minutes after the first crash,
Siberia Airlines Flight 1047, which had left Domodedovo International Airport at 21:35 on 24 August 2004, disappeared from the radar screens and crashed. The
Tu-154 aircraft, registered RA-85556, which had been in service since 1982, was flying from Moscow to
Sochi. According to an unnamed government source of the Russian news agency
Interfax, the plane had broadcast a
hijack warning while flying over
Rostov Oblast at 22:59. However, it was later determined that this was the aircraft's
Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), and that the crew of Flight 1047 were not aware of any danger prior to the aircraft disappearing from radar. The plane disappeared from radar screens shortly after that and crashed. 38 passengers and 8 crew members were on board the plane, and there were no survivors. The debris of the aircraft was found on the morning of 25 August 2004, from the
work settlement of
Gluboky in
Kamensky District of
Rostov Oblast. The flight recorders were also recovered in this case; the flight data recorder along with wreckage analysis suggested an almost identical high-energy event to the one seen on Flight 1303 took place near the right hand side of the aircraft at seat row 25, while the aircraft was cruising at . The blast resulted in a rapid decompression of the cabin, damage to the elevator and rudder controls, a substantial loss of electrical power, and severe damage to the fuselage and tail components. The
ELT was triggered half a second after the event, either by a crew member or automatically. The data recorder stopped working shortly after the explosion, but the cockpit voice recorder continued recording until impact with the ground, during which most of the crew discussions were about the loss of cabin pressure and electrical systems. The crew were caught completely off guard by the event, and there is no evidence that the crew was aware of the detonation of an explosive device on board. == Responsibility ==