Siberean Airlines flight 1812, flying from Ben Gurion International Airport to Novosibirsk in Siberia, exploded early this afternoon in mid-air and crashed into the Black Sea. The plane was carrying 66 passengers, most of them Israelis, and 11 crewmembers.

The plane was reportedly flying at an altitude of 11,000 meters (over 35,000 feet or more than 6 miles) when the explosion occurred. The Interfax news agency said a pilot of an Armenian plane flying in the area saw a passenger plane exploding in the air and disintegrating into the sea.

Garik Ovanisian, the pilot of the Armenian plane, was reported by The Associated Press as saying: "I saw the explosion on the plane… The plane fell into the sea, and there was another explosion in the sea."

Unnamed U.S. defense sources say that missiles fired during Ukrainian naval exercises off the shore of that country brought down the plane. CBS News correspondent David Martin reported earlier this afternoon that U.S. government sources claimed that the Russian jet was downed by one or two surface-to-air missiles fired from the Crimean Peninsula, possibly by terrorists.

Later Martin updated his report, reporting that a U.S. Defense Department satellite detected a missile launch from the Crimean Peninsula at about the same time the Russian plane went down. "The initial indication," his report said, "is that this missile was launched accidentally in connection with a military training exercise, and not as a result of an act of terrorism." Other U.S. sources quoted by Israeli Television said that there was photographic proof of this.

Israeli aviation experts indicated indicate that the usual flight path of that flight would have been further to the east. There was speculation that such a deviation may have brought the jet into a military training area. There was no information as to whether the pilot requested or received authorization for such a flight path.

However, other sources expressed doubt about the claim that Ukrainian navy missiles brought the jet down. The Defense Minister of Ukraine reportedly denied that his forces could have downed the plane.

"Neither the direction nor the range (of the missiles) correspond to the practical or theoretical point at which the plane exploded. So the Ukrainian military has no involvement, either practical or theoretical, in this accident," Defense Ministry spokesman Konstantin Khivrenko said.

Yediot Ahronot correspondent Dimitri Prokofiev said that Russian media reports indicate that the plane was more than 100 kilometers from the training exercise and therefore was not in range of a possible land-to-air missile launch.

There were conflicting reports on which type of missile was fired in the Ukrainian exercise. David Martin of CBS quotes sources as saying a long-range Russian-built SA-5 missile is suspected in the downing of the jet. The SA-5 flies faster than three times the speed of sound, has a range of up to 185 miles and can hit targets above 100,000 feet altitude. Haaretz reported that a U.S. Defense Department official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted that it was a long-range SA-2000 anti-aircraft missile, with a similar speed and range.

A senior Ukrainian navy official stationed in the Black Sea, Igor Laricev, suggested that the plane may have been shot down by a Ukrainian missile. "Missiles with a range of 400 kilometers were launched as part of an anti-aircraft exercise in the southern part of the Ukraine," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, publicly expressed his belief that the weaponry used by Ukrainian air defense units in the Crimean exercise on Thursday has an insufficient range to reach the area where the Tu-154 was flying. He said that it would be premature to make any statements before experts complete their analysis.

U.S. President George W. Bush said he was deeply saddened, sending his "heartfelt sympathies, and those of the American people," to the people of Israel and Russia. While he did not address Putin's claim that the crash may have been the work of terrorists, Haaretz quotes a senior Bush adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying that the U.S. government had also not ruled out terrorism.

There had been speculation that terrorists located in other locations of the Former Soviet Union could have launched a missile attack. Israel Television this evening cited a report by the Interfax claiming that Siberia Airlines had received warnings of a possible terror attack and had therefore heightened security in recent days.

The chartered plane departed from Tel Aviv this morning shortly before 10 a.m. on a regular weekly direct flight to Novosibirsk in Siberia. The plane's passengers included many new immigrants to Israel, tourists and businesspeople. According to officials at Ben Gurion, 51 of the passengers have been identified as Israelis.

A spokeswoman for Russia's Emergencies Ministry said that the three-engine aircraft crashed into the Black Sea some 110 miles off the Russian coastal city of Adler and 300 miles northwest of Tblisi, the Georgian capital. She said that crews of two other planes saw the aircraft crash, but could not immediately confirm that the plane had exploded.

The Russian Federal Security Service initially suggested the crash might have been caused by a terrorist act. "All information from the crash scene is being analyzed," a representative of the Federal Security Service's public relations center told Interfax. "The version that it is a terrorist act has been given priority, bearing in mind the recent international developments," he added.

Speaking live on Russia's NTV television, Ivan Teterian, chief of the local Ministry of Emergency Situations branch in southern Russia, said, "We cannot exclude a terrorist attack." He added that only a further investigation could confirm it.

All outgoing flights from Ben Gurion were temporarily suspended pending further security investigation of the aircraft's crash. Flights resumed around 6 pm under even an heavier security inspection regimen than usual.

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