RUSSIA: Mikhail Degtaryev (56), a Volgograd businessman, was jubilant when he boarded the Tupolev-134 in Moscow. He had left his hometown to catch the 6.40 a.m. shuttle to the capital, where he would, during the day-trip, sign a contract that was the big break for the family export business he had run for 15 years.
As he sat back in his seat, he rang the younger of his two daughters, Yevgenia (36), on his mobile phone to wish her happy birthday. She said goodbye to her father, saying she would see him soon at the airport.
"It was his last call," said his secretary, Tatiana, by telephone yesterday. "I spoke to him yesterday. He was very happy after he signed the contract and said he would tell me all about it. But what does it mean now?"
An hour later, Mr Degtaryev's plane fell from 10,000 metres to the ground near the town of Tula. Witnesses heard explosions, but the authorities still say there is no evidence yet of terrorism. For his secretary and Mr Degtaryev's export firm, the uncertainty only compounds their loss.
The businessman had travelled to Moscow with the firm's accountant, Ms Valentina Miglinskaya. The flight was full of the elite of the southern town: a top oil executive, a government bank manager, the six-year-old daughter and mother of television anchorwoman Aida Starikova (24).
The plane was being piloted by Yuri Balchkin, the general director of the airline, Volga Avia Express, a small regional company. A company spokesman said the aircraft had been well maintained and that Mr Balchkin was an experienced pilot.
Ms Miglinskaya's husband went to the airport with Yevgenia and her sister to meet the pair. "It was there the terrible news hit them," said Tatiana. She said Ms Miglinskaya's husband returned to the firm's office and sat in his wife's chair, silently, for six hours, trying to conjure her presence one last time.
Mr Degtaryev's daughters were too distraught to comment yesterday. "Mikhail was like a father to all of us," said Tatiana.
Three minutes later and 800km south, another tragedy unfolded. A Tupolev-154 that had left Domodyedovo airport 40 minutes before the Volgograd plane also fell out of the sky. Eyewitnesses reported hearing an explosion before the crash, yet the authorities say they, too, have not found evidence the plane was attacked by terrorists. Its owner, the second largest airline in Russia, Sibir, said it received a hijack alert from the plane, but officials have disputed the nature of the warning.
Whatever its cause, the loss is great to the Armenian community of Sochi, said Stepan Pogosian. He was a friend of Sarkis Organesian (43), a Sochi businessman who died on the Tupolev-154. He said, by telephone: "I, like many in Sochi who knew Sarkis, are in shock. He has two sons and a widow. We don't know if it was a terrorist act or something else. The first information was that it is, and now it seems this is being denied. We are all in a state of shock."