No Sign Of Missing Russian Airliner

Search-and-rescue aircraft scoured the forested mountains of Russia’s Far East on Thursday without finding a trace of a domestic airliner that vanished with 97 people aboard.

At least eight planes and helicopters participated in the search, hampered by heavy snow and low clouds, officials said. They were set to resume at dawn today, more than 24 hours after the Russian-built Tupolev-154 disappeared from radar screens along the Pacific coast.

The plane, belonging to Khabarovsk Airlines, a regional offspring of Aeroflot, was en route from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island to Khabarovsk on the mainland when it disappeared from radio contact before dawn Thursday.

The Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow said 89 passengers - including five children - and a crew of eight were on board.