224 killed as Russian airliner crashes in Egypt's Sinai

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[video=youtube_share;LUU5hwL4gVI]https://youtu.be/LUU5hwL4gVI[/video]


No survivors in 'tragic scene': A Russian Airliner crashes into Sinai killing all 224 people on board

The plane disappeared from radar screens earlier this morning, 20 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh headed for St Petersburg with 138 women, 62 men and 17 children.

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 31 October, 2015, 4:19pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 31 October, 2015, 11:30pm

Agencies

Relatives of passengers of Kogalymavia 9268 weep at Pulkovo II international airport in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo: EPA

Several Egyptian military and security officials say there are no survivors from the Russian passenger plane carrying 224 people that crashed into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The officials all spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Aviation experts have reached the crash site near the city of el-Arish.

Out of the total 217 passengers, 138 were women, 62 men and 17 were children, said the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement.

They also said the plane was carrying 214 Russian passengers and three Ukrainians.

Reuters earlier reported Egyptian authorities have located the plane's black box.

The Kogalymavia Russian airline took off from Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular Red Sea destination for Russian tourists, at 5.51am (Cairo time) and was bound for St. Petersburg, said Sergei Lzvolsky, an official with the Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia to Interfax news agency.

The ministry said earlier today it had lost contact with a Russian aircraft 23 minutes after takeoff when it disappeared from radar screens.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expresses his deepest condolences to the families of victims of the crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt, Russian news agencies reported today citing the Kremlin press service.

He also ordered government ministries to offer immediate assistance to relatives of those killed and is sending Russian rescue teams to the site.

An Egyptian aviation official says the pilot of the Russian airliner that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula had reported technical difficulties before losing contact with air traffic controllers.

Ayman al-Muqadem, a member of the Aviation Incidents Committee, said the pilot had reported his intention to attempt to land at the nearest airport.

The Airbus A-321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand Metrojet was registered with the flight number 7K9268. The Metrojet's Airbus A-321 is seen in this picture taken in Antalya in September. Photo: Reuters

The Airbus A-321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia, also known as Kolavia, an airline carrying out charter flights for tourism operators, and operating under the brand Metrojet and registered as 7K9268.

The charter flight was booked by Moscow-based tourist firm Brisco, a representative of the firm told AFP.

At Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, anxious family members awaited news of their loved ones.

“I am meeting my parents,” said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova, a tall young woman seemingly in shock. “I spoke to them last on the phone when they were already on the plane, and then I heard the news.”

“I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive, but perhaps I will never see them again.”

Most of the passengers are believed to be Russian.

"Military planes have discovered the wreckage of the plane ... in a mountainous area, and 45 ambulances have been directed to the site to evacuate dead and wounded,” according to a statement by the country's cabinet.

The security officer at the scene told Reuters by telephone that search and rescue teams heard voices in a section of the plane.

"I now see a tragic scene. A lot of dead on the ground and many who died whilst strapped to their seats," the officer, who requested anonymity, said.

"The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside."

Russian Emergency doctor comforts a relative of a passenger aboard the crashed Russian airlineras people gather at Pulkovo airport in St.Petersburg, Russia. Photo: AP

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against airline Kogalymavia under an article regulating "violation of rules of flights and preparations for them", Russian news agencies said, citing the committee’s spokesman.

A standard procedure for air crashes involving Russian planes, the committee is also sending investigators to the scene.

There are no indications the aircraft was shot down, Egyptian security sources said.

Egypt’s North Sinai is home to a two-year-old Islamist insurgency and militants affiliated to Islamic State have killed hundreds of soldiers and police.

Other media reported that the same airline experienced another crash in January 2011 when a fire broke out on one of the engines of a Tupolev Tu-154B-2 before taxiing.

 

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Investigators begin probe on crashed Russian airliner

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 01 November, 2015, 11:18pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 01 November, 2015, 11:18pm

Agence France-Presse

Military investigators from Russia stand near the debris of a Russian airliner at the crash site. Photo: Reuters

International investigators on Sunday yesterday began probing looking into why a Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, while the wife of the co-pilot Sergei Trukachev said in an interview with Russian state-controlled NTV that her husband had complained about the plane’s condition.

Natalya Trukhacheva, identified as the wife of Sergei Trukachev, told Russian state-controlled NTV that her daughter “called him up before he flew out. He complained before the flight that the technical condition of the aircraft left much to be desired”.

One Egyptian official, Ayman al-Muqadem of the government’s Aviation Incidents Committee, said that before the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers, the pilot had radioed and said the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and that he intended to try to land at the nearest airport.

Whie Russian’s While Russia’s transport minister and a team of high-level investigators arrived in Cairo to help Egyptian authorities determine what caused the crash, rescue workers were widening their search for missing victims.

An army officer involved in the efforts said search crews had recovered 163 bodies so far, including the body of a girl found 8km from the bulk of the wreckage from Saturday’s crash.

Flags were flying at half mast in Russia on Sunday yesterday and entertainment television programmes were cancelled as part of a national day of mourning for the victims, most of them Russians, aged from 10 months to 77 years.

The Egyptian government said there were 214 Russian and three Ukranian passengers on board, and seven crew members.

Egyptian children carrying banners in solidarity with Russian children who died in the crash. Photo: Reuters

Cairo and Moscow have both downplayed the claim from the Islamic State militant group’s Egypt branch that it brought down the aircraft flown by the Kogalymavia airline, operating under the name Metrojet, en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg.

Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed the militants could not down a plane at the 9,000 metres altitude at which the Airbus 321 was flying, while Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim “cannot be considered accurate”.

A Russian team including Sokolov and emergency minister Vladimir Puchkov arrived at the scene of the wreckage in a remote part of the restive Sinai Peninsula, Russian official media reported. Two air accident investigators from France – Airbus’s home country – were also to travel to Egypt along with six experts from the aerospace giant to help with the probe.

Germany’s Lufthansa, Emirates and Air France all said they would halt flights over Sinai until the reasons behind the crash became clear.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday morning.

Wreckage and dead bodies were found scattered over an area of 6-8 sq km, around 100km south of the town of el-Arish, Egyptian officials said.

An Egyptian military officer said on Sunday yesterday the search perimeter would be widened to 15km.

“We found a three-year-old girl eight kilometres from the scene” of the main wreckage, he said from a military base in el-Hassna, about 60km from the crash site.

Many of the bodies were missing limbs, the officer said.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

 

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Russian jet broke up in mid air but too early to draw conclusions, official says

PUBLISHED : Monday, 02 November, 2015, 12:47am
UPDATED : Monday, 02 November, 2015, 12:55am

Reuters

Egyptian investigators check debris from crashed Russian jet at the site of the crash in Sinai, Egypt. Photo: EPA

A Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula broke up in mid-air, an official of a Moscow-based aviation agency said on Sunday after visiting the disaster site, but stressed it was too early to draw conclusions from this.

Russian authorities also ordered Kogalymavia airline, operator of the Airbus A321 which came down on Saturday killing all 224 people on board, not to fly its jets of the same model until the causes of the crash are known.

The jet, which Kogalymavia flew under the brand name Metrojet, was carrying holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg when it crashed into a mountainous area of central Sinai shortly after losing radar contact near cruising altitude.

"The destruction happened in the air, and fragments were scattered over a large area of around 20 square kilometres," said Viktor Sorochenko, director of the Intergovernmental Aviation Committee. However, he warned against reading anything into this information. "It's too early to talk about conclusions," he said on Russian television from Cairo.

The Moscow-based committee represents governments of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which groups Russia and other former Soviet republics.

Egyptian analysts began examining the contents of the two "black box" recorders recovered from the airliner although the process, according to a civil aviation source, could take days. However, Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told Russia 24 television that this work had not yet started.

MONTHS OF INQUIRIES

A militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt said in a statement that it brought down the plane "in response to Russian airstrikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land", but Sokolov told Interfax news agency the claim "can't be considered accurate".

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said it could take months to establish the truth behind the crash though his country was cooperating with Russia to aid investigations.

"This is a complicated matter and requires advanced technologies and broad investigations that could take months," Sisi said in a televised speech on Sunday.

The wreckage was found in a desolate area of stony ground.

Rescuers had collected the colourful suitcases of the passengers into a pile. A pink child's sandal decorated with white flowers lay among the debris, a reminder that 17 children were among those killed as they headed home from their holidays.

Parts of the wreckage were blackened and charred, with one section forming heaps of twisted metal, although the blue Metrojet logo was still visible on its broken tail fin.

As the Russian investigators moved slowly across the site, Egyptian military helicopters buzzed overhead, combing the wider area for debris - or bodies - not yet found.

The remains of a Russian airliner are inspected by military investigators at the crash site. Photo: Reuters

MORGUE

At least 163 bodies had already been recovered and transported to various hospitals including Zeinhom morgue in Cairo, according to a cabinet statement.

Airport security sources said Russian experts who arrived on Saturday brought with them refrigerators and DNA samples to help identify and take home the dead.

Russian experts had already visited the morgue on Saturday night and Moscow's ambassador to Cairo said the first 130 bodies were due to leave on Sunday evening bound for St Petersburg.

A source inside the morgue said the bodies had been numbered using bracelets, ready to be received by the Russians, and empty ambulances were arriving to pick them up.

Those on board the doomed flight included 214 Russians, at least three Ukrainians and one Belarusian, most returning from the Red Sea, popular with Russians seeking winter sun.

The Russian flag was flying at half-mast over the country's embassy in Cairo on Sunday morning. President Vladimir Putin has declared a day of national mourning in Russia.

Russia's transport regulator said in a statement that it had grounded Kogalymavia's Airbus A321s until the reasons for the crash became clear.

Russian transport prosecutors have already examined the quality of the fuel used by the airliner and found that it met necessary requirements, Russia's state-run RIA news agency said.

The crew had also undergone medical tests recently and no problems were detected, Interfax reported.

Experts from Airbus have begun arriving in Egypt to assist in the investigation, the civil aviation ministry said.

SEARCH RESUMES

Emergency services and aviation specialists resumed early on Sunday their search at the crash site which is spread over more than 15 square km, with 100 Russian emergency workers helping them recover bodies and gather evidence.

Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, launched air raids against opposition groups in Syria including Islamic State on Sept. 30.

Islamic State, the ultra-hardline group that controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, has called for a holy war against both Russia and the United States in response to airstrikes on its fighters in Syria.

Sinai is the scene of an insurgency by militants close to Islamic State, who have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police and have also attacked Western targets in recent months. Much of the Sinai is a restricted military zone.

Militants in the area are not believed to have missiles capable of hitting a plane at 30,000 feet.

Islamic State websites have in the past claimed responsibility for actions that have not been conclusively attributed to them. Officials say there is no evidence to suggest so far that a bomb could have brought down the plane.

Three carriers based in the United Arab Emirates airlines - Emirates, Air Arabia and flydubai - said on Sunday they were re-routing flights to avoid flying over Sinai. Two of Europe's largest carriers, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, have already said they would avoid flying over peninsula while awaiting an explanation of the cause.

Sherif Fathy, Chairman of EgyptAir, said the national carrier had taken no such action. "I heard some other companies may be doing this, but I don't think it's justified," he said.

The A321 is a medium-haul jet in service since 1994, with over 1,100 in operation worldwide and a good safety record. It is a highly automated aircraft relying on computers to help pilots stay within safe flying limits.

Airbus said the A321 was built in 1997 and had been operated by Metrojet since 2012. It had flown 56,000 hours in nearly 21,000 flights.

The aircraft took off at 5:51 a.m. Cairo time (0351 GMT) and disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes later, Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement. It was at an altitude of 31,000 feet (9,400 metres) when it vanished from radar screens.

According to FlightRadar24, an authoritative Sweden-based flight tracking service, the aircraft was descending rapidly at about 6,000 feet (1,800 metres) per minute when the signal was lost to air traffic control.

 

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Emirates and European airlines avoid Sinai after Russian jet crash

Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the Metrojet flight to crash in Egypt

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 01 November, 2015, 5:03pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 01 November, 2015, 7:38pm

Bloomberg

Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail (right) inspects the crash site of a Russian passenger plane in Sinai. Photo: Xinhua

Emirates Airlines said it would avoid flying over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, where a Russian-operated jet went down on Saturday, becoming the third carrier to shun that route until more is known on the cause of the crash, which killed all 224 passengers and crew.

Dubai-based Emirates said on Sunday that it was “closely monitoring” the situation. Air France, the French unit of Air France-KLM Group, and Deutsche Lufthansa AG said on Saturday that they would be diverting planes.

Preliminary investigations indicate the plane, an Airbus 321 operated by Russia’s Metrojet, went down because of a technical problem, the state-run Ahram Gate website said, citing Egyptian security officials.
Watch: Relatives grieve Russian plane crash as investigators examine mystery surrounds the disaster

Flight paths became an issue of public debate after a Boeing Co. 777 wide-body jet came down last year over eastern Ukraine, an area some airlines were already avoiding because of fighting there between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists.

The July 2014 crash that killed 298 people was later described as having been caused by a missile launched from rebel-held territory.

Egyptian paramedics load the corpses of Russian victims of a Russian passenger plane crash in the Sinai Peninsula, into a military plane at Kabret military air base by the Suez Canal yesterday. Photo: AFP

While Ukraine had blocked air traffic below a certain threshold, it had allowed airlines to fly at cruising altitude above conflict zones.

More recently, the launch of air strikes in Syria by Russia prompted Cathay Pacifc to reroute its flights away from the Caspian Sea and Iran.

“It makes sense now for airlines to display an abundance of caution,” said Robert Mann, an aviation consultant in Port Washington, New York. “But I’m not aware of anything suggesting a ground-to-air missile.”

The Russian plane crashed 23 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular Red Sea resort. The airliner, which took off at 5.51am Cairo time heading for St. Petersburg, had reached a cruising altitude of 9,400 metres, Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said.

Debris found at the crash site of chartered Russian Metrojet plane in Hassana, a mountainous area 35 km south of Arish City, Egypt. Photo: Xinhua/Egypt's PM Office

Airlines propose their own flight routes, which have to be approved by air-traffic control authorities or air-navigation services providers.

A Qatar Airways spokesman said there were no changes to Egyptian airspace rules and therefore no changes in the airline’s flight schedules.

At KLM, a spokeswoman said the airline had no flights scheduled in that area on Sunday so there was no need to review flight paths. She said the airline would exercise caution in any future flights in the area.

At British Airways, a spokeswoman said the airline “would never operate a flight until it was safe to do so,” declining to discuss specific routes, citing company practice.

 

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Russia mourns victims of crashed Egypt plane

AFP
November 1, 2015, 11:42 pm

Saint Petersburg (AFP) - Flags flew at half-mast in Russia Sunday as the country mourned its biggest ever air disaster after a passenger jet full of Russian tourists crashed in Egypt's Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.

The flight was bringing holidaymakers back to Russia's second largest city Saint Petersburg when it went down in Egypt's Sinai, with international experts now at the scene trying to discover the cause of the tragedy.

"Can you imagine, people came (here) to pick up their children, grandchildren, only to find out that they no longer exist," said Galina Grigoryeva, 34, one of many people who brought flowers to a makeshift memorial near the arrivals area at Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport.

"When I found out about this, I just cried," she told AFP, her five-year-old in tow with a cuddly toy for the memorial to honour the children who died, some as young as 10 months.

Flags were at half mast on the parliament building, in the Kremlin, and on other official buildings in honour of the victims, most of whom were from Saint Petersburg and its surrounding region.

Authorities set up a crisis centre at a hotel near the airport where relatives of the victims were invited to provide DNA samples and psychologists were on call.

Russia's state-owned rolling news channel Rossiya 24 periodically interrupted coverage with moments of silence and flashed photos of smiling crash victims apparently taken on their holiday and posted on social networks.

Some people had been on their first foreign holiday, some had never flown before, and one couple was on their honeymoon, the channel said.

"Many of us could have been on this plane, and this tragedy cannot leave any of us indifferent," Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church said as he led one of religious services held Sunday in the victims' memory.

- 'Fit to fly' -

Russian investigators searched the offices of Kogalymavia airline and the country's transportation watchdog said it will continue checking it until November 30.

The charter carrier was still operating services Sunday.

Kogalymavia said Saturday that the pilot flying the Airbus 321 was very experienced, while authorities at the last fuel stop said there had not been any red flags.

"The plane did not undergo a technical check in Samara (in southeastern Russia), but the crew went through a health check and it was found fit to fly," said a regional transport prosecutor's office representative Maya Ivanova.

"There was a probe of the plane's fuel and the quality of fuel at that time and it met all of the requirements," she said in televised remarks.

Many entertainment venues in Moscow cancelled their programmes, and companies planning Halloween events overnight had dropped the festivities. Media organisations turned their social network icons monochrome as a mark of respect.

President Vladimir Putin, whose office announced a day of national mourning, was however absent from the screens, and some Russians criticised him for failing to speak to the nation about the tragedy.

The plane also had four Ukrainians and one Belarussian national on board, according to Russian officials.

"It is tragic when people die. It is twice as painful when compatriots die," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter, listing the four Ukrainian names.

In the Ukrainian capital Kiev, people piled flowers outside Moscow's embassy in a gesture of moral support for Russians despite political tensions between the countries over the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

"Grief has no nationality," one Kiev native, 32-year-old Lyudmila, said at the scene. "The most important thing is to stay a human being and not lose compassion."

 

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ISIS release video showing final moments of jet

Published on Nov 1, 2015

ISLAMIC STATE have released a chilling video, which may be proof that the terror group did shoot down the Russian plane causing it to crash and kill all 224 people on board. The barbaric terrorists last night claimed to have downed the Airbus A-321 jet in revenge for Russian air strikes in Syria - but how they could have carried out the deadly act remains a mystery.

However dramatic footage has now emerged online, which purports to show the final moments of the doomed airliner as it falls through the air, before it appears to explode and engulfs into a ball of smoke and flames.

Egypt’s North Sinai is home to a two-year-old Islamist insurgency and militants who support Islamic State have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police in recent months.
But officials in Cairo and Moscow were quick to quash any possible link to terrorism in the tragedy, which was one of the deadliest plane crashes in the past decade.

 

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Airline official says only 'external impact' could have caused Egypt crash

Dmitry Lovetsky And Nataliya Vasilyeva, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Monday, November 02, 2015 11:08 AM EST | Updated: Monday, November 02, 2015 12:09 PM EST

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Only an external impact could have caused a Russian plane to dive into the Egyptian desert, killing all 224 people on board, its Russian operator said Monday, adding to a series of confusing statements from investigators that left unclear why the plane broke up in mid-flight.

In Washington, James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said that while there is no direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet, it couldn't be excluded that the plane was brought down by Islamic State extremists in Sinai.

"It's unlikely, but I wouldn't rule it out," he told reporters in Washington.

Metrojet, the Russian carrier that operated the crashed jet, firmly denied that the crash could have been caused by either equipment failure or pilot error.

"The only possible explanation could be an external impact on the airplane," Metrojet's deputy director Alexander Smirnov told a news conference in Moscow.

When pressed for more details about the type of impact and what could have caused it, Smirnov insisted that he was not at liberty to discuss details because the investigation was ongoing. He also did not explain whether he meant something had hit the plane or that some external factor had caused the crash.

Asked if the plane could have been brought down by a terror attack, he said only that "anything was possible."

Russia's top aviation official, Alexander Neradko, chided the company for jumping the gun on the investigation.

Neradko, speaking in televised comments from Egypt, decried Metrojet's comments as "premature and not based on any real facts." He said it would only be possible to draw firm conclusions about the crash after experts have studied the scattered fragments of the plane in Sinai and the content of its black boxes.

The Airbus A321-200 was flying at 31,000 feet over the Sinai Peninsula when it crashed just 23 minutes after taking off from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St. Petersburg.

Smirnov described the A321-200 as a reliable aircraft that would not fall into a spin even if the pilots made a grave error because its automatic systems would correct crew mistakes.

Viktor Yung, another deputy director general of Metrojet, said the crew did not send a distress call and they did not contact traffic controllers before the crash.

Egyptian officials have offered conflicting accounts on whether or not the plane issued any distress calls.

Neradko said the large area over which the plane's debris were scattered indicated that it had broken up at high altitude, but he refrained from comment on any possible reason for the crash pending the probe.

The flight recorders will provide key information about the plane's flight parameters and the operation of its key systems.

Experts say that planes could break up in midair usually because of one of three factors: a catastrophic weather event, a midair collision or an external threat, such as a bomb or a missile.

A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group has claimed it brought down the aircraft, which crashed in the northern Sinai where the Egyptian military and security forces have battled militants for years. Russian officials have dismissed that claim as not credible.

Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, noted that the Islamic State group has a significant presence in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

British military analyst Paul Beaver said he thought the crash was most likely caused by a bomb on board as the IS hasn't been known to possess missile systems capable of striking passenger planes at cruising altitude.

"I'm pretty convinced that ISIS doesn't have a 'double-digit' SAM (surface-to-air missile) that is necessary to go up as far as 31,000 feet," he told The Associated Press, using an alternative acronym for the terror group. "That's a very serious piece of equipment, and I don't think they have that sophistication."

He also said the Sinai desert is well-scrutinized by intelligence agencies, so a missile system would have been seen.

Robert Galan, a French aviation expert, says that Metrojet's claim of an "external impact" pointed to two possibilities: a bomb or sabotage. Sabotage would require familiarity with the electrical or fuel systems of the A321-200, but hiding a bomb would need less knowledge, he added.

Galan said analysis of the plane's black boxes will not confirm either a bomb or sabotage, as it records only the pilots' communications and technical readings. But he said investigators could know within 48 hours whether a bomb downed the jet, because the debris would show traces of explosives.

The Irish Aviation Authority says the plane that crashed was registered in Ireland, and regulators there found its safety documentation in order earlier this year.

A Russian government plane early Monday brought 130 bodies and 40 body parts of the victims to St. Petersburg, the destination of the crashed flight. The city, awash in grief for its missing residents, is holding three days of mourning through Tuesday.

Family members of crash victims have already given DNA samples to speed up the identification process.

At the crash site in Sinai, emergency workers and aviation experts from Russia and Egypt swept across the barren terrain Monday, searching for more victims and examining the debris for more clues as to the cause of the crash.

Teams finished combing a 20-square kilometre (7.7-square mile) area for bodies by the afternoon and expanded their search to a 30-square kilometre (11.6 square mile) area. Russian Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov promised they will not rest until all the remains of the victims are found.

In his first public appearance since Saturday's crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the crash in the Sinai as an "enormous tragedy" and said his thoughts are with the families of the victims.

Mourners have been coming to St. Petersburg's airport since Saturday with flowers, pictures of the victims, stuffed animals and paper planes. Others went to churches and lit candles in memory of the dead.

Russia held a nationwide day of mourning Sunday and flags flew at half-staff across the country.

 

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'External factors' blamed for Sinai crash as theories fly, but the truth remains elusive while Russians mourn victims in St Petersburg

External impact blamed as Russian authorities hose down theories as to why a plane crashed in Egypt

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 03 November, 2015, 10:08pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 03 November, 2015, 10:51pm

The Washington Post

Egyptian Military cars approach the tail wreckage of the Metrojet Airbus A321 which crashed in the Sinai desert. Photo: AP

Scraps of tantalizing but inconclusive evidence surfaced Tuesday in the fourth day of a tense investigation into the Russian plane that crashed over Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula last weekend, killing all 224 aboard.

Investigators have not yet officially said whether the plane disintegrated in mid-air over the Sinai, scattering debris over seven square miles of desert, due to a technical malfunction, act of terror, or another reason.

A couple at an entrance of Pulkovo airport during a day of national mourning for the victims of the plane crash, outside St. Petersburg. Photo: AP

A public quarrel erupted Monday after Metrojet, the small Russian airline scrambling to protect its reputation after the devastating crash, said that external factors were the cause of the plane's disintegration rather than technical issues or pilot error.

Russian government officials responded with a swift rebuke that it was both premature and without foundation to speculate on what caused the crash, wanting to contain speculation - and potential embarassment - over what led to the deadliest civil aviation disaster in Russia's history.

On Tuesday morning, Russia's Interfax news service, citing a source in the investigation, said there were no signs of a malfunction with the plane and that pilots were chatting normally with air-traffic controllers until four minutes before an “emergency situation occurred on board unexpectedly.”

Victims of a Metrojet plane crash in Egypt are represented in tributes laid at Dvortsovaya Square in St. Petersburg, Russia Photo: AP

“In the recordings, sounds uncharacteristic of a standard flight precede the moment of the airliner's disappearance from radar screens,” the news service reported without elaboration. “The pilots had no time to send out a distress signal.”

Metrojet said Monday there were no signs of an“external impact,” however, meaning a missile or other projectile.

Russia continued Tuesday to repatriate the remains of its citizens who died aboard the Airbus 320-200 Saturday shortly after take-off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on its way to St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city.

What happened in those last four minutes of flight remains a mystery.

A devastated scene, but still unclear outcomes from the mysterious crash in the Sinai peninsula. Photo: Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations via AP

Several American television stations reported Monday evening that U.S. intelligence satellites had captured a “heat flash” over the Sinai Peninsula at the moment of the crash, signalling some sort of explosion either from a bomb, missile, or from the fuel on board the aircraft.

The answer to the crash is fraught with consequences for both Russia and Egypt.

If it was a technical malfunction of the aircraft, it implicates Russia's troubled airline industry. If it was the result of a sophisticated terrorist attack, it implies that aircraft are not safe over Egyptian soil.

“When there is propaganda that it [the plane] crashed because of ISIS, this is one way to damage the stability and security of Egypt and the image of Egypt,” Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi told the British Broadcasting Corporation in an interview, in a reference to the Islamic State militant group. “Believe me, the situation in Sinai - especially in this limited area - is under our full control.”

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employees pass a truck loading the bodies of the victims in St.Petersburg. Photo: EPA

Russia began launching airstrikes in Syria a little over one month ago, and is concerned about blowback. The suggestion that the airline was targeted by terrorists, possibly because of the country's intervention in Syria's civil war, is fraught with consequences for Russia.

The U.S. embassy in Cairo instructed its staff Tuesday not to travel anywhere in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as a “precautionary measure,” pending the outcome of the investigation, the Associated Press reported from Egypt.

An Egyptian government spokesman said Monday it would take two to four weeks to study the black boxes retrieved from the plane and provide a full report on what caused the jetliner to crash.

The head of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Neradko, said in a television interview from Egypt that investigators have not reviewed the black boxes yet.

Pictures of wreckage from the crashed Airbus show a violent end to the flight. Photo: Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations via AP

“Yes, we know that components of the plane have been thrown over a wide area. That says that the breakup took place in the air, at a high altitude,” he said. “But it is very premature to talk about the reasons. I would like to call on the aviation community to abstain from premature statements,” Neradko said.

While an Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State seized the opportunity to claim responsibility for the plane crash Saturday, Russian officials remained sceptical.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the accident “a great tragedy” Monday.

“Everything must be done to create an objective picture of what happened so that we know what happened and react accordingly,” Putin told Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov during a televised briefing on the investigation.

An Egyptian soldier stands on a road after ambulances carrying the bodies of Russian victims left the crash site. Photo: Xinhua

The claim by the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State led some international carriers to re-route flights away from the Sinai, though defence experts have raised strong doubts about whether the Islamic State could have missile systems capable of hitting an airliner at 31,000 feet.

In Washington, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, said that there was no “direct evidence of terrorist involvement yet” but that it cannot be disregarded. “It's unlikely, but I wouldn't rule it out,” Clapper told reporters.

Prevailing wisdom holds that once an aeroplane reaches cruising altitude, it's clear sailing, but there have been at least half a dozen times when a commercial jetliner has fallen to pieces without help from a bomb or a missile.

As the investigation continues, there are unmistakable signs that Metrojet is in the crosshairs.

Investigators this weekend opened a probe for criminal negligence in the crash and searched Metrojet's offices. Russia's Federal Labor Agency announced Monday that the airline had not paid its employees in the past two months, indicating financial problems in the company. And a state-owned television channel broadcast an interview with the pilot's wife, who said her husband had complained about poor maintenance on the plane.

Kogalymavia, the airline trading as Metrojet, faced media scrutiny after its plane crashed. Pictured (L-R) are deputy general director for flight operation Alexander Smirnov, Kogalymavia airline deputy general director for engineering Andrei Averyanov and Tourism Holding & Consulting chairwoman Oxana Golovina. Photo: EPA

Metrojet's embattled leadership mounted a public defense Monday at a news conference in Moscow.

Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of the airline, said no combination of factors, including bad fuel or engine failure, could have led the plane to break up in mid-air. Metrojet officials also said that the plane was regularly reviewed for signs of structural weakening and argued that although the company had withheld wages recently, that did not affect safety standards.

“The only explanation could be a mechanical impact on the aircraft,” Smirnov said. He declined to elaborate as to what such an impact could have been.

Though Smirnov discounted the possibility that the Metrojet plane could have fatally malfunctioned, it would not be unprecedented.

Planes climb to a cruising altitude of six to seven miles above the Earth's surface because there, the air is far thinner, and against that lessened resistance they can fly faster and use less fuel.

When they reach that altitude, however, they must maximise the air pressure in the cockpit and cabin - and that puts stress on any component that has weakened over time.

“Typically, if there was that type of defect, you would expect it to manifest just as it reached the peak” altitude, said Steve Wallace, a former crash investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration.

In 1988, a hole opened in the fuselage of an Aloha Airlines plane in Hawaii, sucking out a flight attendant. Metal fatigue was blamed in 2002 when China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrated after take-off from a Taiwan airport, killing all 225 people on board.

“That aeroplane had an improper repair after a tail strike,” Wallace said, “and I think this Russian aeroplane that was in the accident had had a tail strike.”

The Aviation Safety Network reported that the Metrojet plane suffered a “tail strike” in 2001, a type of incident in which an airplane's tail hits the runway. The damage took three months to repair, but the jet was certified as airworthy this year by regulators in Ireland, where it was registered.

The Metrojet crash comes as Russian airlines are facing an economic crunch that has forced Transaero, the country's second-largest airline, to file for bankruptcy. Russia's aviation authorities grounded Transaero flights recently over concerns that the airline could not maintain safety standards.

 

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Experts examine black boxes of crashed Russian jet

AFP
November 4, 2015, 3:49 am

Cairo (AFP) - Investigators on Tuesday began examining the two black boxes from the Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the probe would take time.

Sisi described a claim by the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State jihadist group that it downed the Airbus A321 that crashed on Saturday killing all 224 people on board as "propaganda".

The examination of the black boxes -- one which recorded on-board conversations and the other flight data -- started at around midday (1000 GMT), an Egyptian civil aviation ministry official told AFP.

The probe could last several weeks or months if the recordings in the black boxes have been damaged, sources said. Russia's government commission overseeing the investigation was also due to meet on Tuesday.

The Saint Petersburg-bound plane operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Most of the passengers were Russian tourists.

Kogalymavia said the plane crashed due to "external action," and that there was no technical fault or human error. It insisted the aircraft was in an "excellent technical condition".

- IS claim 'propaganda' -

Within hours of the crash, the Egyptian affiliate of IS based in the Sinai claimed it had downed the jet in retaliation for Russian air strikes targeting fellow jihadists in Syria.

"When there is propaganda that it crashed because of ISIS, this is one way to damage the stability and security of Egypt and the image of Egypt," Sisi told the BBC, using an alternative acronym for IS.

"The plane was at 35,000 feet (10,668 metres) altitude. Believe me, the situation in Sinai -- especially in this limited area -- is under our full control."

Sisi warned the probe could take years as in the case of Pan-Am flight 103 from London to New York that was brought down by a bomb and crashed into the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

"It takes time to clarify the incidents. You had the Pan-American that crashed over Europe. It took years before you reached the truth about the real reasons why it crashed," Sisi said.

On Monday, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said it was "unlikely" that IS was involved in the Kogalymavia plane crash but did not rule out the povssibility.

Alexander Neradko, head of Russia's aviation authority, criticised the airline's comments ruling out technical fault or human error, saying they were "premature and not based on any real facts".

Cairo, Moscow and Washington have downplayed the IS claim, although analysts have not ruled out that a bomb may have been planted on board.

Experts say the fact that debris and bodies were strewn over a wide area points to a mid-air disintegration of the aircraft.

IS militants in the Sinai are not thought to have missiles capable of shooting down a plane at the altitude at which the Airbus was flying.

That leaves two possibilities -- a technical fault that caused the plane to disintegrate, or an explosion caused by a bomb smuggled on board, according to experts.

US officials told CNN and other US television networks that a military satellite had detected a heat flash at the time of the crash, which could point to a catastrophic event during flight, possibly a bomb explosion although analysts were considering a range of potential causes.

Among other possibilities cited by CNN were the explosion of a malfunctioning engine or a structural problem with the plane, or wreckage hitting the ground.

Search operations have been extended to a radius of 40 kilometres (25 miles).

"Every centimetre of the crash site should be inspected" to look for buried corpses and parts of the plane, Russian Emergency Minister Vladimir Puchkov said in a video conference with the Russian teams at the site, adding that drones and satellites could also be used if necessary.

- 'Huge tragedy' -

President Vladimir Putin has described the crash -- Russia's worst air disaster -- as a "huge tragedy".

"Without any doubt everything must be done to create an objective picture of events so that we know what happened and can react accordingly," he said.

Relatives of the victims have begun the process of identifying the bodies after two planes delivered the remains of many of them to Saint Petersburg.

Family members had already been providing DNA samples at a crisis centre set up near Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, now the site of an impromptu memorial where people have brought flowers and cuddly toys to commemorate the victims, many of them children.

 

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Spotlight on IS after claim it downed Russian jet

AFP
November 3, 2015, 6:25 am

Cairo (AFP) - Despite a lack of evidence for the claim, the Islamic State group has stepped into the spotlight by saying it downed a Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt killing 224 people.

Experts say the jihadist group, whose local affiliate is waging an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, has managed to instil doubt about the cause of the crash in the rugged desert terrain.

Both Cairo and Moscow have downplayed the suggestion that an attack brought down the Kogalymavia Airbus A-321, and US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he knew of no "direct evidence" that terrorism was to blame but did not rule out the possibility.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has urged patience until the results of a "complicated" investigation into the cause of the tragedy.

Experts say the fact that debris and bodies were strewn over such a wide area points to mid-air disintegration of the aircraft.

On Saturday, the Airbus took off at dawn from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh bound for Saint Petersburg, but disappeared from radar screens over Sinai after just 23 minutes into the flight.

Kogalymavia said on Monday that the crew "totally lost control" of the plane.

Analysts have dismissed claims the jet could have been shot down by IS-affiliated groups if it was flying at its cruising height of 30,000 feet (9,000 metres).

That left two possibilities -- a technical fault that caused the plane to disintegrate, or an explosion caused by a bomb smuggled on board.

- Propaganda victory -

Kogalymavia that operated the charter flight insisted on Monday the disaster was caused by "external" factors, raising the possibility of a bomb.

"What the Egyptian affiliate of IS has achieved is that it has shaped the narrative about what happened to the plane," said Professor Fawaz Gerges from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"That's what matters to IS -- to show its capability, its invincibility when it comes to convince its support base that it is powerful to get vengeance against its enemies, particularly Russia."

The "Sinai Province" group, the Egyptian affiliate of IS, claimed that it brought down the jet in revenge for Russian air strikes against its jihadists in Syria.

Analysts said the longer it takes for investigators to determine the cause of the crash, the more it helps IS propaganda.

"In terms of perception, it's certainly a temporary win for ISIS, in that they managed to control the public discussion for a while," said HA Hellyer, Arab affairs specialist at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

IS could not have shot down the plane, he said, but did not rule out a bomb on board.

"The possibility that ISIS managed to get down the plane with an explosive device on board is theoretically possible, but that would raise other questions about security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport," Hellyer said.

"But to bring down a plane at that altitude you need a physical support base and ISIS does not have such a base -? at least in that area where the plane came down."

- IS claim 'credible' -

The arid peninsula bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip has long been a breeding ground for militancy, which swelled into an insurgency led by IS after Egypt's army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The claim by Sinai Province "is credible", said Mathieu Guidere, a terrorism expert at the University of Toulouse in France.

"The Twitter account and the other sites that have published the claim have never published anything false. The statement also carries the same style as other statements from the group."

Whatever the cause of the crash, the hardest blow could be to Egypt's economy, which depends heavily on tourism revenues.

Millions of tourists, including many Russians, flock to Sharm el-Sheikh, a major attraction famed for its pristine beaches and scuba diving.

"It's here that the IS story has a direct impact on the tourism industry, which is already burdened from four years of complications and instability," said Gerges.

Russian tour operators believe the impact of the tragedy will be not be long-term as Egypt remains their main destination.

"If the version about a terrorist attack is confirmed, that will raise more concern," said Yury Barzykin, vice president of the Russian Tour Industry Union.

"But even then, if security measures are taken and widely announced, then there won't be a critical drop."

 

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U.S. detects heat around doomed Russian jet before it crashed in Egyptian desert

Dmitry Lovetsky, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Tuesday, November 03, 2015 10:47 AM EST | Updated: Tuesday, November 03, 2015 02:17 PM EST

The Russian airplane crash site on the Sinai Peninsula is pictured in this handout photo satellite image provided by Russian Emergencies Ministry on November 1, 2015. An Airbus A321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet, carrying 224 passengers crashed into a mountainous area of Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Saturday shortly after losing radar contact near cruising altitude, killing all aboard. The fact that fragments of the Russian airplane were scattered over a wide area suggests that the Airbus A321 broke up in the air at a great altitude, Alexander Neradko, head of Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia told Russia 24 television, Interfax reported on Sunday. REUTERS/Press Service of Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via Reuters

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- U.S. satellite systems detected heat around a Russian passenger jet before it crashed in Egypt and killed all 224 people aboard, two U.S. officials said Tuesday.

One of the officials said they ruled out a missile striking the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 because neither a launch nor an engine burn had been detected.

The infrared activity that was detected could mean many things, including a bomb or that an engine on the plane exploded because of a malfunction.

Aviation analyst Paul Beaver said the heat picked up by the satellite "indicates that there was a catastrophic explosion or disintegration of the airplane," but doesn't reveal what caused it.

"It doesn't tell us if it was a bomb ... or if somebody had a fight in the airplane with a gun -- there is a whole raft of things that could happen in this regard," he said.

He said it also could indicate a fuel tank or engine exploding, although "engines are designed so that if something malfunctions or breaks off it is contained within the engine."

Both U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the information publicly.

Some aviation experts earlier suggested a bomb was the most likely cause of Saturday's crash, while some others pointed at a 2001 incident in which the jet damaged its tail during landing.

In Egypt, an international team of experts prepared to analyze the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

The joint investigation committee, which includes Egyptian and Russian experts as well as representatives from Ireland, where the plane was registered, will conclude its last field inspection at the crash site by the end of the day Tuesday and start working on the black boxes, said Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal.

Kamal says it "will take some time" to produce the final report and that the committee "has all the tools and experts to deal with the investigation."

Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said in televised remarks that Russian experts already had conducted a preliminary inspection of the two "black boxes" and had seen information from Egypt's flight control radars, but he wouldn't mention any further details.

The Metrojet flight was en route from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg when it crashed in the Sinai Peninsula after breaking up at high altitude, Russian aviation officials said. All of the victims, except for four Ukrainians and one Belarusian citizen, were Russian vacationers flying home.

Islamic State militants said shortly after the crash that they had "brought down" the Russian plane because of Moscow's recent military intervention in Syria against the extremist group. But the group did not provide any evidence to back up its claim, and militants in northern Sinai have not shot down any commercial airliners or fighter jets.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi insisted that the security situation in the Sinai Peninsula is under "full control" and that claims by the Islamic State group that it downed the plane were "propaganda" aimed at damaging the country's image.

In an interview broadcast Tuesday by the BBC, el-Sissi also reiterated his assertion that the cause of the crash may not be known for months and that, until then, there should be no speculation about it.

Alexei Smirnov of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said 140 bodies and more than 100 body parts were delivered to St. Petersburg on two government planes on Monday and Tuesday and that a third plane is expected to bring more remains later on Tuesday. Families on Tuesday identified the first 10 victims.

Mourners continued to come to St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport to lay flowers, toys and other tributes to the dead. On the outskirts of town, tearful families of the victims left a crematorium where the identification procedures are taking place.

Alexander Agafonov, head of the Russian rescue mission in Egypt, said in a televised conference with other officials that searchers have not found a single additional body Tuesday after combing a 28 square-kilometre (10.8 square-mile) area. Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov said the site "should be studied centimetre by centimetre."

"If you need to sift through the sand where the remains or pieces of the fuselage could be, do it," he said.

 

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UK says bomb may have downed Russian jet

AAP
November 5, 2015, 6:31 am

Britain says it's concerned that a Russian airliner which crashed in Sinai may have been downed by a bomb, prompting it to temporarily suspend flights from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"While the investigation is still ongoing we cannot say categorically why the Russian jet crashed," Prime Minister David Cameron's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

"But as more information has come to light, we have become concerned that the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device."

A Russian aviation source has told Reuters an investigation into the crash is looking into the possibility of an object stowed on board causing the disaster.

"There are two versions now under consideration: something stowed inside (the plane) and a technical fault," the source said on Wednesday.

The UK's announcement came during a visit to Britain by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and four days after the Russian Airbus crashed in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, shortly after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh.

Militants from the Islamic State group have said they were responsible for downing the plane but provided no details, prompting scepticism about the claim.

IS's Egyptian affiliate on Wednesday said in a Twitter audio message "we will disclose the mechanism of its demise at the time that we want".

British aviation experts have been dispatched to Sharm el-Sheikh to assess the security situation and flights back to Britain from the resort are being held until the assessment is completed as expected later on Wednesday, the statement said.

"We recognise that this information may cause concern for those in Sharm and indeed for those planning to travel to Sharm in the coming days," Downing Street said.

"We have deployed extra consular staff to Sharm who will be on hand at the airport, working with the airlines, to assist British holidaymakers there."

"We would underline that this is a precautionary step and we are working closely with the airlines on this approach."

Cameron will also hold an emergency cabinet meeting on the issue on Wednesday.

The statement did not mention if any restrictions would be made on flights to Sharm, as compared to flights from the resort.

Around 900,000 Britons travel to Egypt every year and at least two flights had been due to leave Sharm el-Sheikh for British airports later on Wednesday.

There were no more scheduled flights from Britain to the resort on Wednesday.

The BBC estimated there were around 2000 British holidaymakers currently in Sharm el-Sheikh.

 

[Viper]

Russian plane crash: US intelligence says bomb was planted by Islamic State as Britain suspends Sharm el-Sheikh flights

It is believed there are 20,000 Brits in Sharm El-Sheikh who may have to be evacuated, as pressure placed on Egypt and Russian authorities following No 10 announcement

By David Lawler, and Isabelle Fraser with Raf Sanchez in Cairo, Magdy Samaan in Sharm El Sheikh, and Roland Oliphant in St Petersburg
10:43PM GMT 04 Nov 2015

• US intelligence: Isil bomb 'most likely' explanation for crash
• Isil-affiliated group releases new message claiming responsibility
• UK tourists stranded as all flights to Sharm are cancelled
• Bodies of those killed did not have explosive residue on them
• Egyptian doctor claims one in five of the corpses had been badly burned
• Crew did not have time to send a distress signal, reports suggest

Hammond: "only essential travel" to Sharm as "significant possibility" crash caused by bomb

Following the Cobra meeting today, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said there was a "significant possibility that that crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft".

"Unfortunately and very reluctantly we have concluded we have to change our travel advice and are now advising against all but essential travel by air through Sharm el-Sheikh airport," he said. "That means there will be no UK passenger flights out to Sharm el-Sheikh from now."

Mr Hammond said the UK would help passengers currently in Sharm el-Sheikh return to the UK, and that the UK would work work Egyptian authorties to improve airport security.

Below is a partial transcript of his remarks:

I recognise that this action will cause immense disruption and inconvenience to many people and I apologise for the people this evening who have gone out to the airport and now have to go back to their hotels.

Phillip Hammond speaks following the emergency government meeting to discuss the Sharm el Sheikh plane crashPhillip Hammond speaks following the emergency government meeting to discuss the Sharm el Sheikh plane crash Photo: BBC

I also recognise the immense impact this will have on the Egyptian economy but we have to put the safety and security of British nationals above all other considerations. When we are in possession of information we will not hesitate to act on it to protect the security of British nationals.

We don't talk about specific intelligence. We have looked at the broad picture available to us and concluded that there is a significant possibility that the Russian aircraft was brought down by an explosive on board.

 

[Viper]

'External factors' blamed for Sinai crash as theories fly, but the truth remains elusive while Russians mourn victims in St Petersburg

External impact blamed as Russian authorities hose down theories as to why a plane crashed in Egypt

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 03 November, 2015, 10:08pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 03 November, 2015, 10:51pm

The Washington Post

Egyptian Military cars approach the tail wreckage of the Metrojet Airbus A321 which crashed in the Sinai desert. Photo: AP

Scraps of tantalizing but inconclusive evidence surfaced Tuesday in the fourth day of a tense investigation into the Russian plane that crashed over Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula last weekend, killing all 224 aboard.

Investigators have not yet officially said whether the plane disintegrated in mid-air over the Sinai, scattering debris over seven square miles of desert, due to a technical malfunction, act of terror, or another reason.

A couple at an entrance of Pulkovo airport during a day of national mourning for the victims of the plane crash, outside St. Petersburg. Photo: AP

A public quarrel erupted Monday after Metrojet, the small Russian airline scrambling to protect its reputation after the devastating crash, said that external factors were the cause of the plane's disintegration rather than technical issues or pilot error.

Russian government officials responded with a swift rebuke that it was both premature and without foundation to speculate on what caused the crash, wanting to contain speculation - and potential embarassment - over what led to the deadliest civil aviation disaster in Russia's history.

On Tuesday morning, Russia's Interfax news service, citing a source in the investigation, said there were no signs of a malfunction with the plane and that pilots were chatting normally with air-traffic controllers until four minutes before an “emergency situation occurred on board unexpectedly.”

Victims of a Metrojet plane crash in Egypt are represented in tributes laid at Dvortsovaya Square in St. Petersburg, Russia Photo: AP

“In the recordings, sounds uncharacteristic of a standard flight precede the moment of the airliner's disappearance from radar screens,” the news service reported without elaboration. “The pilots had no time to send out a distress signal.”

Metrojet said Monday there were no signs of an“external impact,” however, meaning a missile or other projectile.

Russia continued Tuesday to repatriate the remains of its citizens who died aboard the Airbus 320-200 Saturday shortly after take-off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on its way to St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city.

What happened in those last four minutes of flight remains a mystery.

A devastated scene, but still unclear outcomes from the mysterious crash in the Sinai peninsula. Photo: Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations via AP

Several American television stations reported Monday evening that U.S. intelligence satellites had captured a “heat flash” over the Sinai Peninsula at the moment of the crash, signalling some sort of explosion either from a bomb, missile, or from the fuel on board the aircraft.

The answer to the crash is fraught with consequences for both Russia and Egypt.

If it was a technical malfunction of the aircraft, it implicates Russia's troubled airline industry. If it was the result of a sophisticated terrorist attack, it implies that aircraft are not safe over Egyptian soil.

“When there is propaganda that it [the plane] crashed because of ISIS, this is one way to damage the stability and security of Egypt and the image of Egypt,” Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi told the British Broadcasting Corporation in an interview, in a reference to the Islamic State militant group. “Believe me, the situation in Sinai - especially in this limited area - is under our full control.”

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry employees pass a truck loading the bodies of the victims in St.Petersburg. Photo: EPA

Russia began launching airstrikes in Syria a little over one month ago, and is concerned about blowback. The suggestion that the airline was targeted by terrorists, possibly because of the country's intervention in Syria's civil war, is fraught with consequences for Russia.

The U.S. embassy in Cairo instructed its staff Tuesday not to travel anywhere in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as a “precautionary measure,” pending the outcome of the investigation, the Associated Press reported from Egypt.

An Egyptian government spokesman said Monday it would take two to four weeks to study the black boxes retrieved from the plane and provide a full report on what caused the jetliner to crash.

The head of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Neradko, said in a television interview from Egypt that investigators have not reviewed the black boxes yet.

Pictures of wreckage from the crashed Airbus show a violent end to the flight. Photo: Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations via AP

“Yes, we know that components of the plane have been thrown over a wide area. That says that the breakup took place in the air, at a high altitude,” he said. “But it is very premature to talk about the reasons. I would like to call on the aviation community to abstain from premature statements,” Neradko said.

While an Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State seized the opportunity to claim responsibility for the plane crash Saturday, Russian officials remained sceptical.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the accident “a great tragedy” Monday.

“Everything must be done to create an objective picture of what happened so that we know what happened and react accordingly,” Putin told Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov during a televised briefing on the investigation.

An Egyptian soldier stands on a road after ambulances carrying the bodies of Russian victims left the crash site. Photo: Xinhua

The claim by the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State led some international carriers to re-route flights away from the Sinai, though defence experts have raised strong doubts about whether the Islamic State could have missile systems capable of hitting an airliner at 31,000 feet.

In Washington, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, said that there was no “direct evidence of terrorist involvement yet” but that it cannot be disregarded. “It's unlikely, but I wouldn't rule it out,” Clapper told reporters.

Prevailing wisdom holds that once an aeroplane reaches cruising altitude, it's clear sailing, but there have been at least half a dozen times when a commercial jetliner has fallen to pieces without help from a bomb or a missile.

As the investigation continues, there are unmistakable signs that Metrojet is in the crosshairs.

Investigators this weekend opened a probe for criminal negligence in the crash and searched Metrojet's offices. Russia's Federal Labor Agency announced Monday that the airline had not paid its employees in the past two months, indicating financial problems in the company. And a state-owned television channel broadcast an interview with the pilot's wife, who said her husband had complained about poor maintenance on the plane.

Kogalymavia, the airline trading as Metrojet, faced media scrutiny after its plane crashed. Pictured (L-R) are deputy general director for flight operation Alexander Smirnov, Kogalymavia airline deputy general director for engineering Andrei Averyanov and Tourism Holding & Consulting chairwoman Oxana Golovina. Photo: EPA

Metrojet's embattled leadership mounted a public defense Monday at a news conference in Moscow.

Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of the airline, said no combination of factors, including bad fuel or engine failure, could have led the plane to break up in mid-air. Metrojet officials also said that the plane was regularly reviewed for signs of structural weakening and argued that although the company had withheld wages recently, that did not affect safety standards.

“The only explanation could be a mechanical impact on the aircraft,” Smirnov said. He declined to elaborate as to what such an impact could have been.

Though Smirnov discounted the possibility that the Metrojet plane could have fatally malfunctioned, it would not be unprecedented.

Planes climb to a cruising altitude of six to seven miles above the Earth's surface because there, the air is far thinner, and against that lessened resistance they can fly faster and use less fuel.

When they reach that altitude, however, they must maximise the air pressure in the cockpit and cabin - and that puts stress on any component that has weakened over time.

“Typically, if there was that type of defect, you would expect it to manifest just as it reached the peak” altitude, said Steve Wallace, a former crash investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration.

In 1988, a hole opened in the fuselage of an Aloha Airlines plane in Hawaii, sucking out a flight attendant. Metal fatigue was blamed in 2002 when China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrated after take-off from a Taiwan airport, killing all 225 people on board.

“That aeroplane had an improper repair after a tail strike,” Wallace said, “and I think this Russian aeroplane that was in the accident had had a tail strike.”

The Aviation Safety Network reported that the Metrojet plane suffered a “tail strike” in 2001, a type of incident in which an airplane's tail hits the runway. The damage took three months to repair, but the jet was certified as airworthy this year by regulators in Ireland, where it was registered.

The Metrojet crash comes as Russian airlines are facing an economic crunch that has forced Transaero, the country's second-largest airline, to file for bankruptcy. Russia's aviation authorities grounded Transaero flights recently over concerns that the airline could not maintain safety standards.

 

[Viper]

Obama echoes possibility that bomb could have downed Russian jet

PUBLISHED : Friday, 06 November, 2015, 5:13pm
UPDATED : Friday, 06 November, 2015, 9:01pm

Agence France-Presse in London

Obama raised the possibility of a bomb onboard and that it was too early to say for sure if the Russian airliner was indeed downed by a bomb. Photo: AP

US President Barack Obama raised the possibility on Thursday that a bomb brought down a Russian plane that crashed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, undermining efforts by Cairo and Moscow to downplay the suggestion of an attack.

With concerns over security mounting, a number of European airlines readied to bring home thousands of tourists from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the plane took off last Saturday.

The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group has claimed responsibility for the disaster, in which the Saint Petersburg-bound jet crashed minutes after taking off, killing all 224 mainly Russian tourists on board.

“I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board and we are taking that very seriously,” Obama told a US radio station, while emphasising it was too early to say for sure.

In London, where David Cameron was hosting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the British premier told reporters it was “more likely than not that it was a terrorist bomb” that caused the crash.

And The Times newspaper reported on Friday that electronic communications intercepted by British and American spies suggested a bomb may have been carried onto the plane.

“The tone and content of the messages convinced analysts that a bomb had been carried on board by a passenger or a member of the airport ground staff,” the newspaper reported, without giving a source. But Egypt’s civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there was “as yet no evidence or data confirming the theory” of an attack and the Kremlin has dismissed the notion as “speculation”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who authorised strikes against fighters including IS militants in Syria, said assessments of the crash should be based on the “ongoing official investigation”, according to the Kremlin.

Security checks at the Egyptian airport was stepped up since the incident last week. Photo: EPA

Sisi sought to use his trip to London on Thursday to allay fears over the safety of tourists in his home country after several nations suspended flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh – leaving holidaymakers stranded while officials assessed security at the airport.

There is no global or European blanket ban and some flights have continued from the airport, but France and Belgium have warned citizens against travelling to Sharm el-Sheikh and Britain has advised against all but essential travel by air to or from the resort.

Outbound flights from Britain to Sharm el-Sheikh remain suspended but the British government authorised flights to resume from the resort on Friday to bring home an estimated 20,000 British tourists – but passengers will only be allowed to carry hand luggage.

“The government has decided, in consultation with the airlines, that flights from Sharm to the UK will resume tomorrow,” a spokeswoman for Cameron said.

“The additional security measures will include permitting passengers to carry hand baggage only and transporting hold luggage separately.”

Belgian airline Jetair announced similar measures, while British airlines easyJet and Monarch said they would lay on extra flights to get customers home.

Joining a string of airlines in avoiding Sharm el-Sheikh, the Lufthansa Group announced its subsidiary Eurowings would halt flights between Germany and the Red Sea resort, while Turkish Airlines also cancelled two flights.

Russia on Thursday began burying the first victims of the crash, with several hundred people gathering in Veliky Novgorod, south of Saint Petersburg, to mourn 60-year-old Nina Lushchenko.

Flight KGL9268 was flying at altitude of 9,150 metres when it lost contact with authorities, 23 minutes after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh to Russia’s second city.

Experts say the fact that debris and bodies were strewn over a wide area indicates the aircraft disintegrated in mid-air, meaning the crash was likely caused by either a technical fault or an explosion on board.

IS, in claiming responsibility for the crash, said on Wednesday it would reveal how it had done so at a time of its choosing.

If confirmed, it would be the first time IS, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has attacked a passenger plane. It has the potential to deeply damage Egypt’s tourism industry, still struggling to recover from a turbulent few years following the revolution of 2011.

 

[Viper]

Sinai plane crash: Russia suspends flights to Egypt as British tourists left stranded

Security has been bolstered at Sharm el-Sheikh after British and US leaders suggest a bomb may have caused the tragedy

PUBLISHED : Friday, 06 November, 2015, 6:07pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 07 November, 2015, 1:29am

Associated Press

Tourists wait at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, with some flights expected to resume on Friday. Photo: EPA

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to a recommendation to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt. He has also ordered the Russian government to draft a mechanism for getting its citizens back from Egypt.

The head of the Russian intelligence agency FSB says it would be “reasonable” to suspend all Russian flights to Egypt pending the results of a probe into the cause of Saturday’s crash of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula.

Russian news agencies on Friday quoted Alexander Bortnikov as saying that investigators should take their time in establishing the cause of the crash. Bortnikov did not provide a timeline for the suggested suspension of flights but said it should cover all tourist flights.

The suspension, covering all of Egypt, is even more sweeping than that imposed by Britain, which had halted flights to Sharm el-Sheikh only.

Budget airline easyJet says two flights have taken off from Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh airport and are en route to London, carrying 359 vacationers who had been stranded at the Red Sea resort after British authorities grounded flights.

Earlier, the airline said Egyptian authorities had suspended British airlines from flying into the Sharm al-Sheikh, meaning that many of the flights planned to repatriate British tourists from the resort would no longer be able to operate.

EasyJet said that two aircraft which had already arrived in Sharm would be able to depart, but its other eight planned flights would not be able to operate.

The measures follow the crash last Saturday of Metrojet’s Airbus A321-200 that killed all 224 people on board. The plane crashed 23 minutes after take-off from Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St. Petersburg, with mostly Russian tourists aboard.

Russia and Egypt have dismissed Western suggestions that a bomb may have caused the crash, saying the speculation was a rush to judgment and insisting the investigation must run its course. The United States and British leaders have stopped short of a categorical assignment of blame in the crash, but Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday it was “more likely than not” that the cause was a bomb.

The crash prompted companies to ground flights from and to the Red Sea resort, stranding thousands of tourists this week.

Before Egypt’s decision to suspend all flights from the resort on Friday, EasyJet had said it would run nine flights from the Red Sea airport to London and one to Milan, while Monarch would have two scheduled flights and three additional flights. Neither carrier was operating passenger flights from the UK to Sharm el-Sheikh.

On Friday morning, dozens of buses waited outside the Sharm el-Sheikh airport, the line stretching up to a kilometre as police inspected each vehicle, ferrying mostly Russian and British tourists to the airport.

Britain had said that additional security measures would be in place, including only allowing passengers to carry hand baggage, while checked luggage would be transported separately. The carry-on measure applied only to those departing from Sharm el-Sheikh, British officials said.

A child plays with a toy gun in the departure area before boarding a flight from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Photo: AP

Inside the crowded airport, British tourists said on Friday they were just anxious to get home.

“We were in the first flights that were cancelled Wednesday night, we were already queuing to board,” said Amy Johnson, a 27-year-old British administrative assistant hoping to catch one of Friday's EasyJet flights out of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Standing in a crush of hundreds waiting to pass through security, Johnson said she didn't feel that British authorities had adequately supported the stranded tourists. “We’re being left to deal with this ourselves.”

Another tourist, Terrance Mathurian, a British builder travelling with his family, said they were told by hotel staff in the morning to head to the airport, following conflicting information. Looking at the long security line, he said that he “can understand why they have this situation here but personally, we’ve had no problems at all”.

Relatives attend the funeral of one of the victims of the Sinai plane crash in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo: AP

In an unusual decision, Dutch carrier KLM said it had instructed its passengers leaving from the Egyptian capital of Cairo that they could only take hand luggage on the plane departing on Friday. A statement on KLM’s website said the measure was “based on national and international information and out of precaution”.

There were no further details and it was unclear why such measures would be imposed at the Cairo airport. KLM, which has no direct flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, did not elaborate on what their measure was based and nothing had been revealed so far from the ongoing investigation.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama said the US was taking “very seriously” the possibility that a bomb brought down the plane.

The Islamic State group, which has not generally pursued “spectacular” attacks outside its base in Syria, has claimed responsibility for bringing down the plane, but Russian and Egyptian officials say the claim was not credible. Russia is conducting an air war in Syria against Islamic State militants who have promised retaliation.

Additional reporting by Reuters

 

[Viper]

Russian plane black boxes point to 'attack', Putin halts flights

AFP
November 7, 2015, 5:21 am

Paris (AFP) - An analysis of black boxes from the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt point to a bomb attack, sources close to the probe said Friday, as Moscow halted flights to the country.

The flight data and voice recorders showed "everything was normal" until both failed at 24 minutes after takeoff, pointing to "a very sudden explosive decompression," one source said.

The data "strongly favours" the theory a bomb on board had brought down the plane, he added.

Another source said the plane had gone down suddenly and violently.

Meanwhile, British airlines were scrambling to evacuate passengers in Sharm el-Sheikh after cancelling flights to the Red Sea resort from which the doomed Airbus had taken off Saturday.

One of the black boxes recovered from the crash site showed that the plane suffered "a violent, sudden" end, a source close to the case in Paris told AFP.

The flight data recorder showed that "everything was normal during the flight, absolutely normal, and suddenly there was nothing".

President Vladimir Putin ordered flights halted on the recommendation from his security chief, the Kremlin said, although Moscow had previously downplayed reports that a bomb caused the crash.

At an emergency meeting, the head of Russia's FSB security service, Alexander Bortnikov, said it would be prudent to halt flights for now.

"Until we have determined the true reasons for what happened, I consider it expedient to stop flights by Russian aviation to Egypt," he said.

With international concerns mounting, European airlines prepared to bring home thousands of tourists from the Red Sea resort, which has been a jewel in Egypt's tourism crown.

A first flight landed at London's Gatwick airport Friday afternoon, after a lengthy delay to its departure. Another plane was also headed for Britain.

There were angry scenes at the airport as thousands of anxious Britons, who had also hoped to fly home, were sent back to their hotels after Egypt blocked several other repatriation flights.

British Ambassador John Casson was heckled as he announced the news.

Egyptian Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said only eight of 29 flights would take off because the airport could not cope with all the luggage left behind.

In a sign of mounting fears about the security of baggage handling in Egypt, Dutch carrier KLM announced that it had banned check-in luggage on an early flight from Cairo, mirroring moves taken by several European airlines.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the disaster, in which all 224 on board the Saint Petersburg were killed, most of them Russian tourists.

- Bomb scenario growing -

Cairo has sought to downplay any suggestion of an attack.

But US President Barack Obama said: "I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board and we are taking that very seriously," while emphasising it was too early to say for sure.

In London, where David Cameron hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Thursday, the British prime minister told reporters it was "more likely than not that it was a terrorist bomb" that caused the crash.

And The Times newspaper reported Friday that electronic communications intercepted by British and US intelligence suggested a bomb may have been carried onto the plane.

Satellites uncovered chatter between militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria, it said.

"The tone and content of the messages convinced analysts that a bomb had been carried on board by a passenger or a member of the airport ground staff," the newspaper reported, without giving a source.

Egypt has beefed up security at airports to "give confidence to the British government, but that does not mean we concur with any scenario," foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said.

There is no global or European blanket ban and some flights, including all Russian ones before Putin's order Friday, have continued from the airport.

France and Belgium have warned citizens against travelling to Sharm el-Sheikh. and Britain has advised against all but essential travel by air to or from the resort.

- Holidaymakers turned away -

The British government authorised flights to resume from the resort on Friday to bring home an estimated 20,000 British tourists.

But thousands were turned away after Egypt blocked British tour operators from flying in empty aircraft to make up the backlog.

Those passengers who did fly out were allowed to carry hand luggage only, with their check-in bags to follow separately.

Joining a string of airlines in avoiding Sharm el-Sheikh, the Lufthansa Group announced its subsidiary Eurowings would halt flights between Germany and the Red Sea resort, while Turkish Airlines also cancelled two flights.

If it was behind the attack, it would be the first time IS, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has hit a passenger plane.

The incident has the potential to deeply damage Egypt's tourism industry, still struggling to recover from a turbulent four years following its 2011 revolution.

After hearing Putin's decision to halt flights, tourism workers in Sharm el-Sheikh reeled in shock at the possible blow to their livelihood.

"It has destroyed the homes," of those working in the industry, said Ahmed Ghobashi, who works in a resort association to promote tourism.

 

[Viper]

Britain, US intercepted bomb 'chatter'

AAP
November 7, 2015, 3:48 am

British and US spies intercepted "chatter" from suspected militants and at least one other government suggesting that a bomb, possibly hidden in luggage in the hold, downed a Russian airliner killing all 224 people on board.

British Prime Minister David Cameron halted flights to and from Sharm al-Sheikh on Wednesday after intelligence shown to him indicated it was likely that the Airbus A321 heading towards St Petersburg was brought down by a bomb.

Britain says there was a "credible threat" but has refused to comment further on the intelligence involved, citing long-standing rules about disclosing operational details about live investigations.

Western intelligence sources said some of the assessment about the bomb came from intercepted communications both from suspected militants and from one or more governments involved in the investigation.

The intelligence sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, said the evidence was not categorical and that there is still no hard forensic or scientific evidence to support the bomb theory.

"We still cannot be categorical but there is a distinct and credible possibility that there was a bomb," one source said.

Two sources with knowledge of the matter said the bomb may have been hidden in luggage in the hold of the Russian plane. They refused to give any further information.

A US official said the "chatter" intercepted about the bomb includes conflicting details about whether the bomb was placed on the plane.

Russia, which was initially critical of Britain's assessment of what it has called a crash, on Friday suspended all flights to Egypt.

President Vladimir Putin ordered the halt to flights after Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia's FSB security service, recommended that Russia suspend all passenger flights to Egypt until it knew exactly what caused the crash.

"Until we know the real reasons for what happened, I consider it expedient to stop Russian flights to Egypt," said Bortnikov.

"Above all, this concerns tourist routes."

Cameron's spokesman declined to be drawn on details.

"The evidence we received suggested there was a credible threat with regard to Sharm al-Sheikh airport which is why we have taken the actions we have.

"I am not going to get into discussions on security matters. I am not going to speculate on the intelligence."

 

[Viper]

Black box data points to bomb and ‘violent, sudden’ end on doomed Russian plane

European airlines prepared to bring home thousands of tourists from the Red Sea resort, which has been a jewel in Egypt’s tourism crown.

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 07 November, 2015, 11:08am
UPDATED : Saturday, 07 November, 2015, 9:01pm

Agence France-Presse in Paris

A devastated scene in the aftermath of the mysterious crash in the Sinai peninsula. Photo: Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations via AP

Analysis of black boxes from the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt killing 224 people points to a bomb, sources close to the probe said on Friday, as Moscow halted flights to the country.

Meanwhile, British airlines were scrambling to evacuate passengers in Sharm el-Sheikh after cancelling flights to the Red Sea resort from which the doomed Airbus took off.

The flight data and voice recorders showed “everything was normal” until both failed at 24 minutes after takeoff from the Sharm el-Sheikh resort Saturday, pointing to “a very sudden explosive decompression,” one source said.

The Islamic State group claimed it down the plane, providing no details, saying it was retaliation for Russian air strikes in Syria.

The data “strongly favours” the theory a bomb on board brought down the plane, the source added. Another source said the plane had gone down suddenly and violently.

One of the black boxes showed that the plane suffered “a violent, sudden” end, a source close to the case in Paris said.

The black box of Russian plane, MetroJet Airbus A321, showed "everything was normal' until both flight data and voice recorders failed 24 minutes after takeoff, suggesting “a very sudden explosive decompression.” Photo: Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations photo via AP

The flight data recorder showed that “everything was normal during the flight, absolutely normal, and suddenly there was nothing”.

President Vladimir Putin ordered flights halted, although Moscow had previously downplayed reports that a bomb caused the crash.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies the measure did not mean Russia believed it was an attack as the investigation continued.

Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s emergencies ministry said Russian experts had taken samples from the crashed jet and were testing it for any traces of explosives.

Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted a representative of the national Aeroflot carrier as saying a plane would be sent on Friday to pick up stranded Russians.

With international concerns mounting, European airlines prepared to bring home thousands of tourists from the Red Sea resort, which has been a jewel in Egypt’s tourism crown.

Relatives place a wreath on the grave of Nina Lushchenko, a victim of the Russian MetroJet Airbus A321 crash. Photo: AFP

A first flight landed at London’s Gatwick airport Friday afternoon, after a lengthy delay to its departure. Another plane was also headed for Britain.

There were angry scenes in Sharm el-Sheikh, as thousands of anxious Britons, who had also hoped to fly home, were sent back to their hotels after Egypt blocked several other repatriation flights. British Ambassador John Casson was heckled as he announced the news.

Egyptian Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said only eight of 29 flights would take off because the airport could not cope with all the luggage left behind.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered flights to Egypt halted, although Moscow had previously downplayed reports that a bomb caused the crash. Photo: AP

He and the head of the Egyptian-led probe into the incident are to hold a press conference on Saturday at 1500 GMT, the government’s press office said, before warning that it may be “postponed”.

In a sign of mounting fears about the security of baggage handling in Egypt, Dutch carrier KLM announced that it had banned check-in luggage on an early flight from Cairo, mirroring moves taken by several European airlines.

And American Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said the United States would step up security screenings of US-bound flights from some Middle Eastern airports.

Cairo has sought to downplay any suggestion of an attack.

But US President Barack Obama said: “I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board and we are taking that very seriously,” while emphasising it was too early to say for sure.

In London, Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters it was “more likely than not that... a terrorist bomb” caused the crash.

And The Times newspaper reported that electronic communications intercepted by British and US intelligence suggested a bomb may have been carried onto the plane.

Satellites uncovered chatter between militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Syria, it said.

“The tone and content of the messages convinced analysts that a bomb had been carried on board by a passenger or a member of the airport ground staff,” the newspaper reported, without giving a source.

Passengers line up to depart from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport. Photo: AP

Egypt has beefed up security at airports to “give confidence to the British government, but that does not mean we concur with any scenario,” foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said.

There is no global or European blanket ban and some flights have continued from the airport.

France and Belgium have warned citizens against travelling to Sharm el-Sheikh. and Britain has advised against all but essential travel by air to or from the resort.

The British government authorised flights to resume from the resort on Friday to bring home an estimated 20,000 British tourists. But thousands were turned away after Egypt blocked British tour operators from flying in empty aircraft to make up the backlog.

Those passengers who did fly out were allowed to carry hand luggage only, with their check-in bags to follow separately.

Joining a string of airlines in avoiding Sharm el-Sheikh, Lufthansa said its Eurowings subsidiary would halt flights between Germany and the Red Sea resort, while Turkish Airlines also cancelled two flights.

If it was behind the attack, it would be the first time IS, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has hit a passenger plane.

The incident has the potential to deeply damage Egypt’s tourism industry, still struggling to recover from a turbulent four years following its 2011 revolution.

 

[Viper]

Noise heard in crashed plane recording

By Asma Alsharif and Dominic Evans
November 8, 2015, 5:14 am

Flight recorder reveals noise in plane's final seconds, Egypt says

A Russian plane which crashed in Egypt was on auto-pilot and appeared to break up in mid-air after a sudden noise, the lead investigator says.

But it's too soon to conclude exactly what brought it down, he says.

Ayman al-Muqaddam, head of a team of experts looking into one of Egypt's worst air disasters, said the cockpit voice recording would be analysed to identify the nature of the noise, which Western governments have indicated may have been a bomb.

Islamic State militants fighting security forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula have said they brought down the Airbus A321, which crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the resort of Sharm al-Sheikh one week ago, killing all 224 passengers.

Ayman al-Muqaddam, head of the team of Egyptian experts, leading the operation. Photo: Reuters

Fears that the crash was caused by Islamist militants led several Western countries, Russia and Turkey to suspend flights to Sharm al-Sheikh, stranding tens of thousands of holidaymakers and dealing a heavy blow to Egypt's vital tourist industry.

Muqaddam said the auto-pilot was still engaged when the crash occurred and debris were scattered over a wide area of the Sinai desert extending for 13km, adding that was "consistent with an in-flight break-up".

The black boxes recovered from the crash site showed that a "a noise was heard in the last second of the ... recording", which will be sent to a specialist laboratory for analysis.

Scientists have used such methods to examine the signature of dying cockpit recordings in aircraft bombings. Comparing the frequencies may help determine whether the sound comes from a deliberate or accidental explosion.

The crash site in Egypt. Photo: Reuters

Muqaddam said his team, including experts from Egypt, Russia, France, Germany and Ireland had not yet reached any conclusion. He said structural fatigue, a fuel explosion and even lithium batteries carried by passengers could be a cause.

Muqaddam said no evidence had been provided to his team that the plane may have been brought down by a bomb.

Earlier on Saturday Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that foreign intelligence about the cause of the crash had not been passed on to Cairo.

"The information we have heard about has not been shared with Egyptian security agencies in detail," Shoukry said.

Officials say a 'sudden noise' was heard on the cockpit voice recorder. Photo: Reuters

Egyptian security officials on Saturday were checking video footage at Sharm al-Sheikh airport for any suspicious activity, in the clearest sign yet that they believe the Russian plane could have been deliberately targeted.

"We want to determine if, for instance, anyone sneaked past security officials or the metal detectors. We are also trying to determine if there was any unusual activity among policemen or airport staff," one of the officials told Reuters.

Western intelligence sources have said British and US spies intercepted "chatter" from suspected militants suggesting that a bomb, possibly hidden in luggage in the hold, had downed the plane.

The Islamic State-affiliated Sinai Province, which claimed it brought the plane down, said it acted in revenge for Russian air strikes against Islamist fighters in Syria.

On Friday, Moscow suspended flights to Egypt, leaving nearly 80,000 Russians stranded, mainly in the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm al-Sheikh.

British attempts to fly home thousands of holidaymakers on Friday ran into trouble when Egypt restricted the number of flights, citing capacity at Sharm al-Sheikh airport and British airliners' refusal to take passenger luggage in the hold.

A British official at Sharm al-Sheikh airport said nine flights were expected to repatriate 2000 stranded British tourists on Saturday, and the government hoped to get them all home within 10 days.