Russian plane crash in Sinai kills 224 passengers

An Egyptian military helicopter flies over debris of a Russian passenger airplane which crashed at the Hassana area in Arish city, north Egypt, on November 1, 2015. Egyptian and international investigators on Sunday have begun probing the reasons of the Russian plane that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on Saturday which killed all 224 on board. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

Russian and Egyptian investigators are investigating the crash of a Russian airliner in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board. The plane crashed 23 minutes into its flight from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg on Saturday 31st of October.

The Kogalymavia Airbus A321 came down early on Saturday, shortly after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the Russian city of St Petersburg, with most of its passengers being Russian tourists with more than 20 children. Russian and French investigators have joined the Egyptian-led investigation, along with experts from Airbus, which is headquartered in France.

Egyptian officials said some bodies had been recovered within a radius of 5km on Saturday, but that of a three-year-old girl was found 8km from the scene. One unnamed official told Reuters the plane appeared to have split in two in midair, with one part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.

remains of a crashed passenger jet in Hassana, Egypt on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015. The Russian aircraft carrying 224 people crashed Saturday in a remote mountainous region in the Sinai Peninsula about 20 minutes after taking off from a Red Sea resort popular with Russian tourists, the Egyptian government said. There were no survivors. (Suliman el-Oteify/Egyptian Prime Minister’s Office via AP)

The head of Russia’s Air Transport Agency, Aleksandr Neradko, said that “all signs attest to the fact that the aircraft disintegrated in the air at a high altitude”. While ISIS militants claimed their responsibility of the attack, officials dismissed that claim and said nothing is certain until we make sure of the flight’s records that were recovered.

Egypt’s civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight, contradicting earlier reports that the pilot had asked to make an emergency landing.

An Egyptian ground service official who carried out a pre-flight inspection of the plane said the aircraft appeared to be in good shape. “We are all shocked. It was a good plane. Everything checked out in 35 minutes,” the official told AP.

However, the widow of the plane’s co-pilot told Russian TV her husband had complained about the aircraft’s technical condition in a phone call before the plane took off. Local media reported that the A321 had flown 16 times in the week before the tragedy and had suffered one previous accident, when the tail struck the runway on landing in Cairo in 2001, after which it underwent extensive repairs.

Egyptian security forces stand guard by debris of a Russian airplane at the site a day after the passenger jet bound for St. Petersburg, Russia crashed in Hassana, Egypt, on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015. The Metrojet plane, bound for St. Petersburg in Russia, crashed 23 minutes after it took off from Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday morning. The 224 people on board, all Russian except for four Ukrainians and one Belarusian, died. (AP Photo)

At least 163 bodies have been recovered and transported to various hospitals and morgues, including the Zeinhom morgue in Cairo before flying them back to Russia, according to a cabinet statement.

BBC reported that a number of major airlines – Emirates, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, and Qatar Airways – have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until more information is available. Two smaller carriers, flydubai and Air Arabia, also said they would re-route flights, while Etihad Airways said it would avoid only “certain areas of airspace” over Sinai.

People light candles during a day of national mourning for the plane crash victims at Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015. The Metrojet charter crashed Saturday morning 23 minutes after taking off from Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, a top destination for Russian tourists. All 224 people on board died. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a mourning day as Russian people gather to mourn the death of their families. While efforts made by Egypt’s president Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi were highly apperciated by Russian news outlets.