clearing away the snow on the roads there's already been a lot of speculation a lot of discussion as to the potential possible causes of this crash good thing there's the gaiters say they'll be looking at everything from possible technical malfunction stick human error to weather conditions and it's probably best to let the men and women digging through the wreckage do their job and to give us the definitive conclusive answers to what caused this tragedy. the plane was on route to a city close to the russian border with kazakstan it took off from comedy out of a port in the russian capital four minutes later the plane came down near a village about sixty kilometers southeast of moscow. memorials have been set up across the orenburg region where sixty of the passengers came from some of the victims' relatives and friends learned of the tragedy while waiting for their loved ones to arrive but in a cotton of a report from moscow's domodedovo airport. the aircraft that crashed just outside

moscow departed from this very airport the why did the lease one of the three major air transport hubs in the capital and after the tragedy remains fully operational but over in the small city of or sq the airport there it tells a very different story the shock has paralyzed it most of the sixty five passengers on board of that plane were from that region dozens of family and friends were waiting for them there are scenes of absolute grief a speak will come to terms with what has happened emergency crews are present at the airport and psychologists are ready to help those trying to cope with their loss the passengers who were due to fly back to moscow on the crashed aircraft are handing back their tickets and even the here at this fast paced airport which is forced to keep moving this tragedy has hit hard. a woman did have luck on his side he counseled his take it just days

before that fateful flight. was due to fly back to book the company plant the body that wasn't ready so he changed his plans he says he still called grow up what's happened. that would surely school yes it would be good as i turned thirty seven today i wanted to celebrate my birthday with my family my friends and my girlfriend in all my friends who would have met me at the airport called me today and told me what happened first i didn't believe him later when i saw the news what can i say i felt a chill down my spine i want to express my service deepest sympathies to the relatives of those who died it's horrifying. the plane was a russian made antonov one four eight by serato airlines that have been in operation for eight years the aircraft have a maximum speed of eight hundred twenty kilometers per hour and they're capable of carrying up to eighty passengers the airline itself is now being investigated by the authorities but the company claims that it did carry out all necessary technical maintenance however this particular plane was previously involved in

several safety incidents including engine and fuselage problems. and investigation under way we've been talking to aviation experts about the possible causes of the crash. like to extend my thoughts and prayers to all the families of the passengers and crew and the airline staff in the wake of this tragedy the weather is probably the primary factor that depends a lot on the rate of the snowfall or precipitation and how long the airplane had been sitting on the ground collecting all that material so if the airplane had only been on the ground maybe thirty minutes maybe not so much accumulated that had been there a couple of hours obviously a lot more could have accumulated in that case if the airplane was not sprayed with the icing fluid there would be a more serious. result you know so the fact that the airplane became airborne and climbed to six thousand feet tells me that probably the airplane was in pretty good shape at the time of the takeoff we're dealing with

a great great tragedy i feel very bad that we're communicating in such a context with the traction there are common protocol for an investigation through various aspects of security and safety factor. a few things really briefly would be the structural integrity of the aircraft if you use a line which the engines and so on then you look at various energies whether we're talking electrical systems. for the engine things the facts that are. going to really anomaly external to an aircraft can include anything from up bird strike a missile strike a collision with another aircraft interaction with unusual weather phenomena and then last you have to look at human issues. to other news now nearly four months after it's an aberration from islamic state people from the syrian city of rocket

a slowly returning to what's left of their homes but many buildings in the city remain riddled with land mines and booby traps and locals say that they've been left to take on the reconstruction by themselves. it was still a thirty year we were forced to leave our homes because weisel when we returned we found everything which used to rubble look at all the devastation wreckage is a ghost city. we're living in the midst of destruction we feel completely abandoned everything around has been destroyed. the city and rubble that we have to be to remove the debris with all money there's no running water so we have to buy in. the u.s. coalition cause the destruction of records and has

a responsibility to rebuild the city we need to help with restoring the water supply in clearing the rubble. i found a mine on the streets near my house my friend and i tried to detonate it from a distance but it didn't go off we thought the mine didn't work and walked towards it it's exploded my friend was killed survived. across the border in iraq civilians they're also struggling to rebuild their homes with the country's second largest city almost completely reduced to rubble mosul was liberated by the u.s. led coalition and iraqi forces back in july after months of fierce fighting and airstrikes some forty thousand homes need to be rebuilt they're all repaired according to the u.n. the government says it needs up to one hundred billion dollars in reconstruction funds for areas devastated by war some that it aims to raise at an upcoming conference in kuwait however the u.s. which is expected to attend that says it has no plans to contribute any money. but

you the u.s. government and. i'm not aware of any announcements that we will be making and i can tell you overall. oh. the past few years we have spent the united states government has one point seven billion dollars in humanitarian aid in iraq alone. so let's expand on this now with three run child who's professor and dean of the jindal school of international affairs dr charlie welcome back to r.t. international thanks for coming on we mentioned the figure one hundred billion dollars how urgent is that money needed according to the iraqi government. well and spear that was to our long term reconstruction required significant of financial support from abroad for a country that is just recovering from what has been a horrific go on c.d.'s of loss starting with the it was invasion of two thousand and three so i think it smacks of historical irresponsibility on the part of the

united states which began with this slight border state of collapse and state for you and by overthrowing saddam hussein in two thousand and three to now wash their hands of it and say you know we're going to just leave it to private sector and we'll ask our allies like saudi arabia to get a covenant between the money i think needs to own up for the some of the destruction that it is done in the process of these cities or wars and secondly i think that's showing a lot of mean spiritedness on the part of crime by restriction because this war tight fisted attitude they have thinking that other countries are exploiting them to get one to dump them and then the u.s. has been fleeced is company wrong because that's one where the united states maintains influence around the world to civilian aid but they are i mean what i mean from the strategy of they're not focused only on a military stick abroad where their current aid far on iraq in palestine now they want to say they won't give any money toward iraq probably with a nest of c.d.'s one for reconstruction and hysteric finance militias the us navy

is going to have thirty thousand kurdish armed groups are in the north of c.d.o. who they want to maintain for so unstable to be but it's more like a military base for the long term presence strategy that they have but i think it's the wrong and good and frankly if they leave it to the allies like saudi arabia for reconstruction of iraq i think there will be sectarian and it is going to increase the pressure on iran and it would exacerbate he said to right what is in the region the united states i think should be rethinking its strategy and should be looking at supporting peaceful long term of the speech of the bones of on economic reconstruction lightly in order we're building surrogate. biggish and the only looking good i did as a business owner can be so that companies are as if you want to do the strategy really bombed the hell out of lives and did not take a response if you go through the big unfortunate talk to charlie i mean even if the will was there one hundred billion dollars is an astonishing amount of money even for a wealthy country like the united states i mean presumably others do have to play

their part in trying to help rebuild iraq. of course of course i mean there's no doubt but you see the u.s. has some convening power and they have an ability to bring together i don't know just and they should be using all these leaders in front of their concern but i think they have more strategic goals that you simply do not force all european companies on in the region so they're not seeking you know very long term vision for iraq itself on four c.d.'s or to see these as battlefields not as an opportunity used to rebuild you know and that is the unfortunate myopic view which is going to need to long term suffering because these are times when cities have been so devastated that they need to all support including united states ok for now dr charlie thanks very much for joining us on our to appreciate your time. the medals board is filling up at the winter olympics in south korea will bring you the tally after this quick break.

but it. still seems wrong why don't we all just don't call. me the ball yet to stamp out this day become active. and engaged because the trail.

when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. oh again day three of the winter olympics in south korea has seen seven sets of medals handed out figure skating and snowboarding have winners and there's still ski jumping biathlon and speed skating among the other disciplines ahead today russian athletes got their second medal a silver in the figure skating as canada wins gold in the u.s. came third as well as the competitive side there's also the social aspect to the games with most nations hosting their own hospitality houses as they're called russia of course isn't officially represented at the olympics this time but there's still a corner of pyongyang that feels very much russian as art if you're trying to found a. as usual there are all kinds of national houses at the olympics and young chang

the likes of the hall and house near the coast the countries like austria and switzerland naturally settled a bit higher in the mountains and since team russia doesn't officially exist here the traditional russian house doesn't either or isn't that a mature orsha. to make sure russian fans have a home in korea it took a few tricks after all the i.o.c. must be respected the place is called the sports house obviously you find wide blue and red in the design but never specifically and the recognizable pattern like here's white and black in between what could appear to be flag stripes no official russian symbols the mentors because i haven't become official right other than that pure i ration fun and spirit.

among the attractions here are these hostie jerseys from every year at the olympics that russia one goes but this one from nine hundred ninety two like here in korea you won't find the letters russia or the u.s.s.r. also ask the guest if they know why and why did russia compete under a neutral flag at the olympics twenty six years ago and see money going on old boys you see with these you. will see increased. and i don't know sorry. i don't know just i got some clues for you countries take turns with that will hey look i'm

going to respect you the i.o.c. was saying it was essential you know why not i think it's. funny i meant i going for that patton as in the same reason. that. told me i don't think so no i think it's. the third russia let's just establish is a country so being unique left russia was just established as a country that's when the soviet union. had its break up so neutral flags weren't always down to the i.o.c. sanctions. have a drink go our tea chang. even traveling to see one of the world's largest sporting events can prove challenging especially with similar sounding korean cities on ever .