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CNN Live At Daybreak

Over 50 Children Killed in Plane Collision

Aired July 02, 2002 - 05:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to that airline disaster near the German-Swiss border. The incident involved a Russian jetliner and a cargo plane, and many of the dead are believed to be children who were on board the Russian plane.

CNN's Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty is live on the phone with us this morning -- Jill, good morning.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: What happened exactly, do we know?

DOUGHERTY: Well, we know that both planes collided. One plane was a Tupolev 154, a passenger plane from Russia. It was carrying these children, actually 69, we believe, were aboard total. That includes the crew. And it was apparently either not able to respond or did not respond to instructions from the ground to change altitude. And it crashed or was crashed into by another plane, a 757 run by DHL, the courier service. They collided. There were two aboard the DHL plane and again, about 69, we believe, aboard the Tupolev 154.

And, Carol, as you were mentioning, it's a very sad story because the total that we have at this point coming from Bashkirian Airlines is that 52 children died in that crash.

President Putin, the Russian president, has sent his condolences. And in the area of Bashkortostan, which is, oh, it's about a two hour plane ride from Moscow in the Ural Mountains, they are having a regional day of mourning.

These children were on their way from Moscow to a holiday in Spain. They were actually traveling to Barcelona and then on to the vacation.

The families are still back in Bashkortostan, in the city of Ufa. They're waiting at the airport to get more information, and the government has set up a hotline for them -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jill, you know, in these times you always wonder if it was something more. This is considered just an accident and not something terror related?

DOUGHERTY: Yes, at this point everything points to the fact that it was just a tragic accident. And the question will be why the pilot either was not able to hear or not able to respond to the instructions from the ground.

COSTELLO: All right, Jill Dougherty reporting live for us from Moscow this morning. We sure appreciate it.

As more details become available in the midair collision, you can find them on our Web site. You can also check out video from the scene and a time line of recent crashes. Our address, cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.

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