"Deceptive calm at Moscow airport"

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Deceptive calm at Moscow airport
By Artyom Liss 
The BBC


Domodedovo Airport, Moscow - Just hours after two Russian airliners
almost simultaneously disappeared from the radar screens, everything
looks like business as usual at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. 

"I only learned the news when one of the journalists asked me what I
think about it all," says Marina, 43, on her way to a resort in Turkey. 

"Everybody is so calm and collected here - and this makes you so much
more confident about flying." 

>From a huge video screen above Marina's seat in the waiting hall, a
Russian pop star beams down an aura of peace and prosperity. 

And just opposite, across the hall, shoppers are browsing in incredibly
expensive airport boutiques. 

Business as usual indeed - but the tranquillity is deceptive. 

Speculation 

Just four storeys higher, at Domodedovo's corporate headquarters, dozens
of journalists are anxiously marching up and down the long corridors,
trying to corner anybody with an airport ID. 

And rumours are flying. 

Did somebody really get on board without going through the check-in
procedure? 

Did six passengers on one of the flights really vanish into thin air
somewhere between the check-in desks and the gate? 

And what happened to their luggage? Could it be that the planes were
shot down because they got too close to nuclear power stations? 

As journalists are taken downstairs, to see how baggage is handled and
what security measures are in force in Domodedovo, it becomes obvious
that airport officials are unlikely to say anything other than express
their condolences to friends and families of the victims. 

Terror theories 

Just across the road, at the headquarters of the Sibir Airline which
operated one of the flights, there is already talk about possible causes
of the crash. 

"Just seconds before our liner hit the ground, pilots pressed the hijack
alarm button," says Ilya Novokhatsky, Sibir's PR manager. 

"And just as the controllers received this May Day message, the airplane
went off their radars". 

At the Federal Security Service, these reports are "being considered",
with the main line of inquiry a "breach of civil aviation regulations". 

But even now, as the investigation into the causes of the crashes is
just beginning, many Muscovites are already certain: whatever officials
say, the disasters were not an accident. 

"Planes don't just explode by themselves in the sky," says Andrey, 25. 

"There was a flash and an explosion. So the plane was blown up. That
means it was terrorists - and that just gives the Kremlin another excuse
for more military action in Chechnya." 

Anton, another Muscovite, thinks corruption is at the root of all
problems with Russia's airlines. 

"Money buys you anything," he says. 

"You can carry a bomb aboard an aircraft or fly an old machine which is
rusty and can fall apart any minute - it all depends on how much you are
prepared to pay." 

Attached Photo's:

The flow of air passengers has continued despite the crashes

There was little sense of disaster having occurred

Security at the airport has already been tightened

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