Despite the public claims that a misguided Ukrainian missile was responsible for downing of Siberian Airlines 1812, DEBKAfile has claimed in an unconfirmed report that Russian and Israeli investigators have ruled out the Ukrainian missile theory in favor of a previously unmentioned terrorist scenario. "They are coming to believe that an explosive charge attached to a handheld radio was planted in the ceiling of the passengers cabin before it left Novosibirsk for Tel Aviv." The bomb is believed to have been planted, most probably, on the day before the fatal flight by a terrorist attached to a Siberian airport technical crew. One such "electrician" reportedly removed several ceiling tiles and checked the wiring before the jet took off for Tel Aviv. Reportedly he was not seen again. If this report is confirmed, it would mean that the doomed plane carried the bomb from Novosibirsk to Tel Aviv and took off again, without security inspectors - Israeli or Russian - checking the interior of the plane's fuselage.

DEBKAfile reports that an American attempt to cover up the terrorist link to the downing of the Russian jet, and to squelch a joint announcement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Russian President Vladimir Putin was "the real cause" for Sharon's angry outburst that same night. "In several hours on the phone with Putin, the two agreed to announce that terrorists had brought down the Siberian airliner. When this was reported in Washington, the Americans asked both the Russians and the Israelis to hold off on the announcement. They feared Moscow would exploit it to launch a general offensive in Chechnya before the American campaign in Afghanistan was properly launched. They also wanted to prevent Israel taking the opportunity of hitting the Palestinians or the Lebanese Hizbullah. Sharon blew his top -- not over US Middle East or anti-terror coalition policies, but over this particular episode," DEBKAfile claimed.

Interfax reported that experts deciphering the tapes of conversations aboard the Tu-154 that crashed in the Black Sea heard a pilot cry out, reported Russia's Deputy Transportation Minister Alexander Neradko at a press conference on Sunday. He said a ground-based tape recorder fixed this cry at 1:45 p.m. Specialists were studying this recording is being studied by specialists, and Neradko said the pilot's cry might have coincided with the moment of an explosion aboard the plane.

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