In July 2009, why did Russian physicists begin trying to synthesize Ununseptium?

Question

Why did Aeroflot Flight 593, a "Russian Airlines" Airbus A310 passenger airliner, crash into a hillside in Kemerovo Oblast on 23 March 1994, killing all 75 passengers and crew?

Answer 1

It was an undiscovered chemical element
A group of scientists from the Research Institute of Nuclear Reactors in Dimitrovgrad of the Ulianovsk Region in Central Russia were trying to make the chemical element which would fill in the gap in Mendeleev’s Periodic Table of Elements, pertaining to the atomic number 117. It was announced on 7 April 2010 that 6 atoms had been detected.