Thursday October 4 8:25 AM ET
MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian airliner flying from Tel Aviv to Siberia exploded in flight Thursday and crashed off the Black Sea coast with at least 77 people on board, Russian officials said.
Deputy Transport Minister Karl Ruppel told The Associated Press that a crew of an Armenian airliner in the area informed Russian air traffic controllers in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia they saw an explosion aboard a plane flying nearby. Ruppel could not immediately say what the cause of the explosion was.
Ivan Teterian, chief of the local Ministry of Emergency Situations branch in southern Russia, said ``we cannot exclude a terrorist attack.'' Speaking live on Russia's NTV television, he added that only a further investigation would determine the cause.
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