Russian plane TU-154 crashed over the Black Sea at 1.45 p.m. Thursday, CNN reported. The plane took off from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv today at 10.00 a.m. heading for Novosibirsk, Russia. Sixty-six passengers and 12-member crew were on board a plane, property of `Siberian Airlines`. Almost all passengers were Israeli citizens, CNN broadcast from Jerusalem. Flight 1812 was a charter, flying every week on Thursday from Israel to Siberia. The plane crashed 190 km south of the Russian Black-Sea town of Adler, near the border with Georgia. The airliner was downed by a `ground-to-air` missile, launched by terrorists from the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, announced correspondent of the CBS news-agency David Martin quoting an anonymous US governmen source. In this way, either a Chechen or Iranian trace might be detected in the attack on the Russian plane, MIGnews reported. According to Israeli experts, it is not very likely since that the airliner had been hit by a missile as it was flying too high. However, the experts assume that the missile might have been launched from another plane. The russian aircraft stopped over in Burgas and probably took more passengers, said Vladimir Kofman from the State Aviation Committee of Russia before Associated Press. Zdravko Velitchkov, Deputy Minister of Transport, told `Standart` that he knows about the incident, but this plane has never even crossed the air space of Bulgaria. The chiefs of the anti-aircraft service and air force learnt about the incident from `Standart`. Gen. Dimitar Georgiev and Gen. Stefan Popov were found in the province. They explained that the Bulgarian anti-aircraft and air forces are monitoring the sky only over the Bulgarian aquatory of the Black Sea. The Russian security services, FSB, do not rule out the possibility of a terrorist act, CNN said. Interfax news-agency reported that the pilot of the plane belonging to Armenian Airlines flew over the region at this moment and saw how the aircraft exploded in the air. President of Russia, Vladimir Putin was immediately informed about the incident and he appointed an emergency team to take over the investigation. MIGNews agency said that the plane had not landed on Burgass airport, quoting Israeli authorities.

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