On August 24th, 2004, two airliners left Moscow's Domodedovo airport. A Tu-154 assumed a course towards Sochi, while a Tu-134 headed towards Volgograd, but neither would ever arrive at their destination. Almost simultaneously, terrorists blew up both ‘iron birds’: the Tu-154 while flying over the Rostov region, and the Tu-134 over the Tula region. All 88 passengers on board both aircraft were killed. That terrible day will forever remain in the memory of many residents of Volgograd, since on one of the ill-fated aircraft were children, parents, and friends of the residents of that heroic city of WW II fame. Meanwhile, the loved ones of these terrorism victims are still unable achieve punishment of the indirect culprits of this 'heavenly catastrophe'.

The following is excerpted from the text of a letter sent last year to (Russian President) Dmitry Medvedev from members of the organization, 'Tu-134 — Blown-up Destinies':

“Mr. President,

“In 2004, we lost our nearest and dearest, yet at the time there was never any doubt that those responsible would answer for these deaths, especially since we were assured of this personally by the Transport Minister and the Attorney General. A half a year later, we met with rudeness from the Attorney General's employees, the imperfection of our laws, and with a judicial system that interprets laws in so many different ways (and rarely in favor of the victims). And still, we have also met with the worst thing — oblivion…

“They no longer write about these terrorist attacks or terrorism victims, not even on the anniversaries of these blown-up aircraft. Why? So as to not to ruin Domodedovo's image?

“Our own Calvary could be compared with a sort of moral terrorism that destroys moral values, ravages a person, and robs him of his belief in an unshakable truth. It is a terrible thing to realize that only on paper does the Constitution protect your rights, that Justice happens only in the cinema, and that human life is obscenely cheap.

“Mr. President, now you are raising the issue of tougher laws punishing terrorists and increasing the responsibilities of agencies responsible for public safety. The Prime Minister speaks of the need for surveillance and security systems for transportation and other and vital systems. Our organization has already for five years been insisting that there was never that much safety, but this falls on deaf ears.

“We were convinced of this and tried to prove in court that the deaths of our loved ones was not only the fault of the terrorists, but of Domodedovo airport security. Given the work style at the time, as well as the incompetence, irresponsibility, and level of corruption in their security, only the lazy would not attempt to bypass their checkpoints, and this is substantiated…

“The terrorist attacks on these aircraft were preceded bombings in the subway, and so the situation was already tense. All airports were warned about imminent terrorist attacks on air transport, and in this regard a number of additional measures were proposed to ensure passenger safety. There was to be personal inspection and sampling of ten percent of non-Slavic passengers, using profiling methods to identify dangerous passengers. All these measures were ignored by Domodedovo security.

“The International Aviation Committee (IAC) cited other violations by airport security. While investigating these violations, the IAC concluded that even 'in the absence of equipment (for detection of plastic explosives), conducting a personal search provides the ability to detect criminal intent in a passenger and the detection of explosives'. Thus, there still was a chance for the passengers to survive, and reach their destination…

“I would like to draw your attention to what is for us a glaring fact: the closed-circuit video that filmed the screening of the doomed passengers was either damaged, or the video surveillance system was defective. We tried to bring this to the attention of the prosecutor and the court, but to no avail. In court, the representative of Domodedovo airport called the violations identified by the IAC, as well as the damaged video, 'minor work issues', and the Volgograd regional court agreed.

“This airport's security service did not find it necessary to conduct psychological screening, as it was only recommended. Recall that no security officer had ever been trained in these techniques, and so they could not use them even had they wished. Once again, our regional court upheld Domodedovo's initiative to economize on safety.

“As for security warnings about upcoming terrorist attacks, Domodedovo's lawyer spoke with great cynicism. It turns out that airport security has no time to react to warnings such as: 'Be careful, danger!' and in order to carry out one-on-one passenger inspection, airport security needs to receive information indicating a specific flight that is going to be attacked. On August 24th, 2004, there was no telegram indicating that the Volgograd flight was specifically threatened. Government security officials were simply 'pumping up the volume' — not only did they fail to report the flight number targeted by the terrorists, they did not bring airport security 'reports that a passenger named Nagayeva had weapons and explosives' on a silver platter, and so, personal and selective screenings of non-Slavic persons were not conducted. Here, once again, the court sided with our 'vigilante fighters' for flight security.

“We note that the main working document for Domodedovo airport security — their certificate of compliance — states that the scope of this service is aviation security, and that it must organize, provide, and be responsible for such. So who will answer for the deaths of innocents?”

The last lines of their letter to the President from members of the 'Tu-134 — Blown-up Destinies' organization ask Dmitry Medvedev, in his role as “the main guarantor of the Constitution, as President, as a lawyer, and simply as a man of conscience” to support them in their struggle for justice so that the mistakes of the past years are never repeated:

“Honored Dmitry Anatolievich (Medvedev), support us in our struggle for justice. For five years we have tried to convey to officials, members of parliaments, and judges, that in our country it is not just the security problems that still exist, but also the issue of impunity — unpunished crimes — that, in turn, leads to new crimes. This was confirmed on March 29th, when terrorists killed dozens in subway stations of the Moscow Metro.”

Based on materials from the media
http://www.vlg.aif.ru/society/article/11005

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