Russian Airliner crashes in the Sinai desert, 224 people mati, karma for Putin

[Papsmearer]

Egypt's Prime Minister says a Russian civilian plane has crashed in central Sinai. The Airbus A-321 was carrying 224 passengers and crew.

Confusion remains over where contact was lost with the plane, which was traveling from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheik to St Petersburg in Russia.

AFP reported that it went missing over Sinai, while other sources suggested contact was lost in Cypriot airspace.

The plane was carrying 217 passengers - 17 of them children - and seven crew, according to RIA news agency.

The jetliner was operated by Russian carrier Kogalymavia - which also trades by the names Kolavia and Metrojet - and most of the passengers were believed to be Russian tourists.

The office of Egyptian Prime Minister Ismail Sharif confirmed the crash on Saturday. A cabinet level crisis committee has been formed to deal with the tragedy.

Within a few minutes of the announcement of the crash, Egyptian research teams found debris belonging to the plane near al-Arish airport in the Sinai Peninsula, reported the dpa news agency, citing an Egyptian aviation official.

Egyptian security sources told Reuters there were no early indications that the plane had been shot down. The news agency quoted a security officer at the scene saying that the plane was completely destroyed.

 

[JHolmesJr]

Karma…..for ukraine no doubt.

 

[Viper]

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.

 

[Viper]

‘I don’t understand what’s happening’: Shock and denial at Russia airport after Egypt plane crash

Relatives of passengers on ill-fated flight left reeling at airport in St Petersburg

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 31 October, 2015, 9:30pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 31 October, 2015, 10:14pm

Agence France-Presse in St Petersburg

Relatives react at Pulkovo international airport outside Saint Petersburg after a Russian plane with 224 people on board crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Photo: AFP

Irina Semyonova said her friend Natasha last called her from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to say she’d bought her a present of perfume from the airport’s duty-free shop.

“She was vacationing there with a friend,” Semyonova said blankly, showing a picture on her phone of a smiling swimsuit-clad young woman, her blonde hair in a long plait.

Semyonova was one of a crowd of people gathered in Pulkovo airport in Saint-Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, who were left reeling after news broke that the plane they had been waiting for had crashed shortly after takeoff in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday.

Like many Russians, Semyonova’s friend had gone on holiday to one of Egypt’s Red Sea resorts which are especially popular during the winter when people try to escape the long months of cold and dark in search of warmer climes.

A couple embraces next to a flight information board at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg. Photo: Reuters

Many of those who came to pick up friends or relatives were in denial as reports trickled about the fate of the 224 people who had been onboard the Airbus 321 operated by the Russian carrier Kogalymavia.

Airport officials tried to keep things calm with a tannoy announcement asking all those waiting to meet those on board the ill-fated Sharm el-Sheikh flight to “come to the information stand.”

They were then ushered onto buses and taken to a hotel where psychologists and doctors were waiting. Six ambulances were waiting at the airport.

“I don’t understand what is happening,” said 20-year-old Anna, as two emergency workers gently led her away.

Confusion and fear also gripped passengers who had been due to fly out to Egypt on holiday as their plane, operated by Kogalymavia but chartered by a Moscow-based tour operator Brisco, failed to show up.

“Nobody came out to talk to us yet, we don’t know what plane we’ll be on,” a passenger called Anzhelika told the Rossiya-24 channel.

“If it’s Kogalymavia, we don’t want to fly,” she said.

A woman reacts next to Russian Emergencies Ministry members at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg. Photo: Reuters

Russia has a dismal air safety record, with charter flights often under pressure to book to capacity on ageing jets in a bid to cut costs. Kogalymavia is a small regional carrier which flies mostly international charter services.

Regional airlines in Russia are especially notorious and the crash is likely to raise renewed concerns about the safety of air travel in a country where experts have sounded the alarm over the nation’s ageing fleet of passenger jets.

Two years ago, Russian lawmakers called for a ban on planes built more than 20 years ago after a 23-year-old Boeing 737 operated by a regional airline crashed, killing all 50 people on board.

Russia has already announced a probe into possible safety violations in Saturday’s crash and a high-level delegation of rescue workers and investigators, including two ministers, was slated to fly out to the crash site.

The Kremlin has designated November 1 as a day of national mourning.

“I am meeting my parents,” said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova, a tall young woman with a shock-induced smile on her face, waiting by Pulkovo’s information stand.

“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,” she said.

Shortly afterwards, the Russian embassy in Egypt issued a statement saying there were no survivors.

 

[Viper]

Russia sceptical of IS claim that it shot down airliner over Egypt

AFP
November 1, 2015, 3:43 am

Moscow (AFP) - Moscow cast doubt Saturday on claims by the Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate to have downed a Russian passenger jet that crashed in the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people onboard.

"This information cannot be considered accurate," transport minister Maksim Sokolov said in comments cited by Russian news agencies.

"We are in close contact with our Egyptian colleagues and aviation authorities in the country. At present, they have no information that would confirm such insinuations," he added.

The IS affiliate, which is waging a deadly insurgency in the Sinai, had circulated a statement on social media claiming responsibility for the crash, saying it brought down the aircraft in revenge for Russian air strikes against militants in Syria.

"The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai," its statement said.

Several military experts contacted by AFP said it was unlikely that IS militants in Sinai would have missiles capable of shooting down a plane flying at 30,000 feet.

But they did not discount the possibility that a bomb may have been planted on the plane, or that it could have been hit by a rocket or missile as it lost height due to technical problems.

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

October 31st is a particularly bad day to fly.

Remember the year 2000, SQ006 in Taipei? Egyptair 990 off Long Island,NY in 1999?

 

[Papsmearer]

Russia sceptical of IS claim that it shot down airliner over Egypt

AFP
November 1, 2015, 3:43 am

Several military experts contacted by AFP said it was unlikely that IS militants in Sinai would have missiles capable of shooting down a plane flying at 30,000 feet.

But they did not discount the possibility that a bomb may have been planted on the plane, or that it could have been hit by a rocket or missile as it lost height due to technical problems.

The plane is already at 30,000 ft only 23 mins into the flight? i thought the climb would be more gradual.

 

[nkfnkfnkf]

Egypt's Prime Minister says a Russian civilian plane has crashed in central Sinai. The Airbus A-321 was carrying 224 passengers and crew.

Confusion remains over where contact was lost with the plane, which was traveling from Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheik to St Petersburg in Russia.

AFP reported that it went missing over Sinai, while other sources suggested contact was lost in Cypriot airspace.

The plane was carrying 217 passengers - 17 of them children - and seven crew, according to RIA news agency.

The jetliner was operated by Russian carrier Kogalymavia - which also trades by the names Kolavia and Metrojet - and most of the passengers were believed to be Russian tourists.

The office of Egyptian Prime Minister Ismail Sharif confirmed the crash on Saturday. A cabinet level crisis committee has been formed to deal with the tragedy.

Within a few minutes of the announcement of the crash, Egyptian research teams found debris belonging to the plane near al-Arish airport in the Sinai Peninsula, reported the dpa news agency, citing an Egyptian aviation official.

Egyptian security sources told Reuters there were no early indications that the plane had been shot down. The news agency quoted a security officer at the scene saying that the plane was completely destroyed.

Sap Sap Soy lah.

What is 200~300 lives? Up the stake 50X and play bigger and longer. So winning and so lucrative profits. Die 200K lives also considered as NOTHING AT ALL. Build more missile factories and Sukhoil

 

[virus]

if najibee can take down 1 mongolian model

follow by dumping 1 guy in concrete barrel

and crashing 1 helicopter

guess an airbus would complete the full circle.

 

[virus]

The plane is already at 30,000 ft only 23 mins into the flight? i thought the climb would be more gradual.

never gradual lah... even from changi, the climb to high altitude in short time is common.

 

[harimau]

Why do you think 17 children should perish for Putin sins?

Karma is full of shit.

 

[Viper]

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

 

[Viper]

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.

 

[Viper]

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.

 

[Viper]

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."

 

[Viper]

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.

 

[Kuailan]

Karma…..for ukraine no doubt.

Just like Karma for Ah Jib for killing Mongolian girl she took revenge!!

 

[Viper]

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.

 

[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]

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.