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CNN Live At Daybreak

Russian Plane: Cabin May Have Bullet Holes

Aired October 05, 2001 - 08:33   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the Russian plane crash, investigators are taking a close look at fragments found in the pilots cabin, after hearing the cabin appeared to have bullet holes.

CNN's Jill Dougherty has the latest from Moscow. Jill?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, there is a lot of caution about that report. The captain of that ship that is working in the region, on this recovery effort, is not a specialist. That's what they are saying right now, that they really need specialists to very, very carefully look at all of this evidence. They are saying that those holes that the captain says might look like bullet holes, could actually be caused by fragments or other projectiles; after all this plane was exploded in midair and then hit the water.

That is one of the real difficulties right now in trying to get the evidence. A lot of it is very, very deep in the Black Sea, very hard to get to. In fact, the black boxes are so deep that Russia is asking the United States and Israel to help them with that salvage operation, to those get black boxes.

Now, meanwhile the Russians have given permission to the Israelis, to the military, to bring in Israeli military planes to take part in this operation. And the Russian prosecutor general has launched an investigation, a criminal investigation, based on the laws that govern terrorism. He is not saying definitively that it is terrorism, but that gives him a lot of latitude in terms of how to deal with this investigation.

And then finally, what are the theories? Well, of course the first one is terrorism, but there is also that lingering report coming from U.S. sources, that perhaps a missile that was launched during military operations, Ukrainian military exercises in the region, might have hit the plane. No confirmation on that either. In fact, Ukrainian officials continue to vehemently say that there's not any possibility that that happened, but that is still appears to be an open question, Paula.

ZAHN: Are any of those theories being more heavily weighted than others this morning?

DOUGHERTY: Well, the initial one about terrorism was the first one that President Vladimir Putin came up with, and the atmosphere certainly would lead one to think in those terms. But these reports that initially were coming from the states did not go away. And the -- in spite of all of the protestations by the Ukrainians, there is still some people who think that that is a possibility.

So, what all sides are saying right now, especially the Russians, is that is they have to get specialists in there and look at evidence. And the problem is the evidence is very far down, most of it in the Black Sea. And it's going to be a difficult recovery effort to get that.

ZAHN: All right. Jill Dougherty, thanks so much for that report.

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