The collapse of the Russian liner in Egypt: new details (updated)

Airplanes of the Egyptian Air Force discovered the crash site of a Russian passenger liner on the Sinai Peninsula. On board A-321, heading to St. Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh, there were 224 people.

The network has the first video from the crash site.

The plane crashed in a mountainous area south of the city of El Arish. The link disappeared at an altitude of 9,4 thousands of meters through 23 minutes after takeoff.

“On October 31 at 6:51 a.m., aircraft A-321 flight 9268 took off from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. At 7:14 near Larnaca, according to preliminary data, communication with the plane was lost, and the aircraft's mark disappeared from the radar screens. Since then, it has not been in touch and has not appeared on radars,” Sergei Izvolsky, a representative of Rosaviatsia, told Interfax.

Three versions of the A321 crash

Dead

Among the passengers were 214 Russians and three Ukrainians, Reuters reported, citing a statement by the Egyptian government. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister reported four. “The loss of life is painful. The death of compatriots is twice as painful. There were four Ukrainian citizens on board: V. Savchuk, L. Molchanova, I. Usatova, K. Usatov,” Pavel Klimkin wrote on his Twitter.

In total, there were 9268 people on board flight 224, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg - 217 passengers, including 17 children, and seven crew members.

Ministry of Emergency Situations published passenger list Crashed liner in Egypt.

Referring to data from the Egyptian side, the Russian Embassy tweeted that the cause of the plane crash could have been technical problems.

More than 110 documents and personal belongings of the victims were found at the crash site. Among them are passports of citizens of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin decreed on November 1 a national day of mourning for those killed in the plane crash.

"The plane disappeared suddenly"

The pilot of the crashed Russian aircraft in Egypt did not seek the help of air traffic controllers at Sharm el-Sheikh airport before the crash. About this, as reported RIA News, said Egyptian Minister of Civil Aviation of Egypt Hussam Kamal.

“Communication between air traffic controllers and the Russian aircraft was carried out normally until the moment of the crash,” he said. According to him, “the Russian pilot did not ask for help, the plane suddenly disappeared from radar.”

"Islamic State". Version about the terrorist attack

Agence France-Presse on Twitter, as well as the Reuters news agency, reported that the group controlled by the Islamic State, took responsibility for the catastrophe of the Russian liner in Egypt.

"The caliphate soldiers successfully attacked the Russian plane at Sinai," a statement quoted by social networks quoted Yahoo News.

In turn, representatives of the security services of Egypt said that there was no indication that the plane was shot down.

The Russian Ministry of Transport also denies reports that the crashed plane was allegedly shot down by an anti-aircraft missile fired by terrorists, reports TASS.

“Various information is now appearing in various media that a Russian passenger airliner flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg was allegedly shot down by an anti-aircraft missile fired by terrorists. This information cannot be considered reliable,” said Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov.

“We are in close contact with our Egyptian colleagues, the aviation authorities of this country. And at the moment they do not have any information that would confirm such fabrications,” he noted.

According to the minister, specialists are already working at the crash site. “In addition, an international commission will work there in the near future, which, based on all the collected materials and a scrupulous analysis of all available information, will draw conclusions about the causes of the tragedy,” the minister said.

This photo was published on her page on the social network Olga Sheina before boarding the plane. Photo: vk.com/o.sheina85

“But I want to repeat once again that according to the currently available data, based on our working contacts with the Egyptian side, the information that the plane was shot down cannot be considered reliable,” Sokolov emphasized.

According to experts, the version of the defeat of an aircraft from the ground using air defense systems should be considered untenable. According to experts, militants in the region, including groups of radical Islamists, do not have systems capable of hitting aerial targets at altitudes of more than three or four thousand meters.

At the same time, as the executive director of the Interstate Aviation Commission, Viktor Sorochenko, said after inspecting the crash site of the airliner, “the destruction occurred in the air, and the fragments were scattered over a large area (about 20 square kilometers).”

Black box

The first data obtained during the decoding of the flight recorders of the A-321 aircraft crashed in Egypt suggests that the crew did not send a distress signal to the ground before hitting the ground, reports Reuters, citing sources in the Egyptian investigation team.

According to the interlocutors of Reuters, the flight recorders also do not contain information that the plane was exposed to external influences, writes «Medusa».

Investigation of the crash involved: the Government of Egypt, Rosaviatsia and the Interstate Aviation Committee.

Flowers to the Russian Embassy

Residents of Kyiv bring flowers to the Russian Embassy in Ukraine all day as a sign of grief for the 224 people killed in a plane crash in Egypt.

Ukrainians express condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

In New York, no one came to the representation of Russia at the UN.

Relatives of passengers will pay two million rubles.

Insurance payments to the relatives of those killed in the crash will be more than two million rubles for each passenger.

“Payments to the relatives of the victims are a priority and will be made as a matter of priority, as soon as possible,” said Ingosstrakh press secretary Karen Asoyan.

Also, the governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko said that the city authorities will soon decide to provide material assistance to the families of those killed in the A-321 crash. Assistance, he stressed, will be provided not only to residents of St. Petersburg, but also to relatives of those killed from other regions.

Day of mourning. Thousands of people around the world remembered the victims of the plane crash

Incidents with Kogalymavia aircraft

The Kogalymavia company, later renamed Metrojet, was created in 1993. According to the Aviation Safety Network website, which collects information on all aircraft accidents, two incidents have previously occurred with the airline's aircraft.

1 January 2011 of the airline Tu-154 B-2 almost completely burned at Surgut airport within 10 minutes, before it could take off. The fire occurred during the taxiing of the aircraft to the runway, fuel tanks exploded. Three people were killed, 42 suffered, of which 32 people suffered severe burns.