“I’m sad about the crashed Russian military jet. The TU-154 could have carried up to 180 military personnel instead of just 92!” Ayloush tweeted, before later deleting the tweet.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) December 26, 2016
Ayloush later wrote that he took down the tweets after learning civilians were aboard the Tu-154. “I regret that my anger and emotions over the tragic situation in Syria got the best of me,” he said in a Facebook post.
The plane’s passengers included the Red Army Choir, the Alexandrov Ensemble, nine Russian journalists, and humanitarian activist Elizaveta Glinka. The plane was en route to Syria where the Alexandrov Ensemble was to perform a New Year’s concert for Russian troops stationed in the region.
The Kremlin has issued a statement saying that terrorism is not suspected to have played a role in the crash outside of Sochi. The investigation is considering pilot error, technical malfunction, bad fuel, or a foreign object in the engine as the most plausible causes for the crash.
