Russian plane crash: Egypt says it has found both black boxes of plane that crashed with 224 people on board - latest
A commercial plane with 17 children and 207 adults on board travelling from
Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg crashes in northern Sinai
Debris from crashed Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash, Sinai, Egypt Photo: EPA
By
Rob Crilly, New York, Patrick Sawer, Richard Spencer, Magdy Samaan, David Millward,
Danielle Cahill and Raf Sanchez
11:33PM GMT 31 Oct 2015
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• Russian airliner was travelling from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg
• All 224 people on board died when it crashed on Sinai peninsula
• Egyptian prime minister visits site of crash • Isil claims it 'succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai' • 'No SOS call, no faults with plane' aviation authority says
• Archive video shows take-off of Russian airliner which crashed
• Was it terrorism or a mechanical fault - and what else do we know?
Emirates airlines has announced it has stopped flying over Egypt's
Sinai peninsula after the Russian passenger plane went down in the area.
"Emirates is currently avoiding
flying over the Sinai peninsula until more information is available," a
spokesman said in a statement.
"We are currently monitoring the situation."
Summary
A Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed in a mountainous area of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, killing everyone on board. It was one of the deadliest incidents involving Airbus aircraft over the past decade.
The Islamic State (Isil) group affiliate in Egypt claimed it downed the plane, without saying how. But Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail expressed doubt about the claim, saying experts confirmed that a plane cannot be downed at such an altitude, and Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said the claim "cannot be considered accurate".
Germany's Lufthansa and Air France said they would halt flights over Sinai until the reasons behind the crash became clear.
Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight.
Initially reports suggested it had asked to land early because of a
technical failure but Mr Kamal told a press conference on Saturday that
this was not the case.
"Up until the crash happened, we were never informed of any faults in the plane, nor did we receive any SOS calls," he said.
All contact with air traffic control had been normal, and pre-flight checks showed no problems, he added.
Debris from crashed Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash, Sinai, Egypt Photo: EPA
The Airbus A321 with 214 Russian and three Ukranian passengers and
seven crew, had taken off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in
south Sinai bound for Saint Petersburg. It lost contact with air traffic
control 23 minutes later.
"Unfortunately, all passengers of
Kogalymavia flight 9268 Sharm el-Sheikh-Saint Petersburg have died. We
issue condolences to family and friends," the Russian embassy in Cairo
said.
The wreckage was found roughly 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the North Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian officials said.
Debris and bodies was spread over an area of between two and a half to
just over three square miles. The aircraft's black box had been
retrieved and sent for analysis, Mr Ismail said.
The Isil
affiliate waging an insurgency in the Sinai claimed that "the soldiers
of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane". It said
this was in revenge for Russian air strikes against Isil in Syria.
Debris from crashed Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash, Sinai, Egypt Photo: EPA
Three military experts said Isil in Sinai does not have surface-to-air
missiles capable of hitting a plane at high altitude. But they could not
exclude the possibility of a bomb on board or a surface-to-air missile
strike if the aircraft had been descending to make an emergency landing.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin ordered rescue teams
dispatched to Egypt. Russian experts would take part in the Egyptian-led
investigation, Mr Ismail said.
After not answering its phones
for much of the day, Kogalymavia, which operates under the name
Metrojet, broke its silence with a statement offering condolences to the
families of the victims.
"We will all need great courage to overcome these losses," it said.
It also defended the pilot, saying he had "more than 12,000 hours" of
flight experience, "including 3,860 hours with Airbus A321".
Debris from crashed Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash, Sinai, Egypt Photo: EPA
Russia's emergency ministry published a list of the passengers, ranging
in age from a 10-month-old girl to a 77-year-old woman. A senior
Egyptian aviation official said the charter flight was flying at 30,000
feet when communication was lost.
At Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo
airport, family members awaited news. Ella Smirnova, 25, said she had
been there to meet her parents.
"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."
A senior Egyptian air traffic control official said the pilot told him in their last communication that he had radio trouble.
Russian aviation official Sergei Izvolsky told Interfax news agency the
aircraft took off from Sharm el-Sheikh at 5:51 am (0351 GMT).
He said it did not make contact as expected with Cyprus air traffic control.
"Communication was lost today with the Airbus 321 of Kogalymavia which
was carrying out flight 9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg,"
Izvolsky told Russian television networks.
"The plane departed
Sharm el-Sheikh with 217 passengers and seven crew members. At 7:14
Moscow time the crew was scheduled to make contact with... Larnaca
(Cyprus). However, this did not happen and the plane disappeared from
the radar screens."
Metrojet, says it has two A320s and seven
A321s, and that it carried 779,626 passengers in the first nine months
of 2015, according to the Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia.
Russia has a dismal air safety record, with charter operators often
under pressure to book to capacity on ageing jets in an attempt to cut
costs.
Kogalymavia is a small regional carrier that flies mostly international charter services.
The crash is likely to raise renewed concerns about the safety of air travel in a country with an ageing fleet of airliners.
The last major air crash in Egypt was in 2004, when a Flash Airlines
Boeing 737 plunged into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm
el-Sheikh. All 148 people on board, most of them French, died.
Millions of tourists, including many Russians, visit the resort, one of
Egypt's major attractions for its pristine beaches and scuba diving.
It and other resorts dotting the Red Sea coast are heavily secured by
the military and police, as an Islamist insurgency rages in north Sinai
bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip since the army ousted president
Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
21.12
20.33
20.06
AFP has heartbreaking details of how friends and relatives at Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, were told the news of the crash:
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 on to buses and taken to a hotel where psychologists and
doctors were waiting at an impromptu crisis centre which has already
asked family members to provide DNA samples for identifying remains.
19.51
We have some of the latest pictures from the crash site:
Debris from crashed Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash, Sinai, Egypt Photo: EPA
19.33
Eliot Higgins, citizen journalist and founder of bellingcat, has a satirical take on Isil claims of responsibility...
19.30
Video grab from 2013 shows an Airbus A321, with registration number EI-ETJ, taking off from Salzburg Photo: Storyful Pro/YouTube/Daniel Rinner
This is believed to be the plane, captured on video in 2013 taking off from Salzburg.
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 that crashed was built in 1997 and had been operated by Metrojet
since 2012. It had flown 56,000 hours in nearly 21,000 flights and was
powered by engines from International Aero Engines consortium, which
includes United Technologies unit Pratt & Whitney and Germany's MTU
Aero Engines .
19.15
Russia's Investigative Committee
says it is checking fuel samples from the aircraft's last refueling
stop, in the southern Russian city of Samara, according to RIA news
agency. Searches are also being carried out at Moscow's Domodedovo
airport where the airline that operated the plane is based.
19.05
David Millward, our former transport editor, has details of warnings issued to airlines flying over Sinai:
David Millward Last summer the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington issued a safety warning, known as a Notice to Airmen, saying airlines should not fly below 26,000 feet when passing over the north of the Sinai peninsula.
It advised “extreme caution during flight operations due to ongoing
violence, unrest security operations and the risk to safety from small
arms, rocket propelled grenades, mortars, anti-aircraft fire and
shoulder fired, man portable air defence systems".
Debris from crashed Russian jet lies strewn across the sand at the site of the crash, Sinai, Egypt Photo: EPA
However, airlines said they would be well above this altitude when passing over the region.
The FAA warning was repeated by the European Aviation Safety Agency.
18.50
Air France
is the latest airline to say it will avoid flying over the Sinai
Peninsula for safety reasons. A spokeswoman for the company that Air
France flights will avoid the area pending the investigation "as a
precaution, until further notice".
18.35
Here's what Sharif Ismail, the Egyptian prime minister, said earlier
about the possibility that an Isil affiliate had shot down the plane,
according to the state news agency Mena:
Experts have affirmed that technically planes at this altitude cannot
be shot down, and the black box will be the one that will reveal the
reasons for the crash.
18.27
Egypt has now recovered both black boxes, the civil aviation minister told a news conference. Egyptian authorities had earlier said they had found one.
18.26
18.20
Reuters is reporting that France's civil aviation safety agency (BEA)
will be sending a team of two safety investigators to Egypt along with
six technical advisers from Airbus. They will be joined by two
investigators from Germany's Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation and four from the Russian equivalent, the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK).
18.15
Mt Sinai, Sinai Desert, Egypt Photo: Alamy
Mike O’Kane, a pilot who has flown out of Sharm el Sheikh, gives a sense of the area's challenging terrain.
The terrain rises to around 9,000 feet very quickly and you are at 10,500 feet within about 25 miles of the airport.
You
have to be certain of your navigation and the performance of the
aeroplane. One of the things I emphasise is you have to know which way
to turn if an engine fails.
Normally an engine failure
is not a problem, but flying out of Sharm does require more planning and
awareness of what you are going to turn into.
18.04
17.30
Lufthansa is one of the airlines that says it will now avoid the area. However, British Airways says it will continue to fly over Sinai.
The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top
priority, and we would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do
so.
Our safety team continually liaises with the
appropriate authorities around the world, and we conduct very detailed
risk assessments into every route we operate.
17.25
There's a lot of scepticism that Isil would have been able to shoot down an airliner at close to cruising altitude.
17.15
The Russian airline whose plane crashed in the Sinai region on Saturday
says the aircraft was in good shape and the pilot was experienced.
In a statement on its website, Moscow-based Metrojet says the A321 received required factory maintenance in 2014.
The statement identified the captain of the plane as Valery Nemov and said he had 12,000 air hours of experience, including 3,860 in A321s.
15.08
AFP is reporting more details on the Islamic State (IS) group affiliate
in Egypt that claimed that it downed the plane, without saying how, but
there has been no official word on the cause of the crash.
The
IS affiliate, which is waging a deadly insurgency in the Sinai, claimed
that "the soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian
plane" there.
It said this was in revenge for Russian air
strikes against militants in Syria, where IS controls territories that
straddle Iraq.
Three military experts said IS in Sinai does not have surface-to-air missiles capable of hitting a plane at high altitude.
Interactive:
Russian airline crash
14.53
14.19
AFP reports that the Islamic State group's affiliate in Egypt has
claimed it had downed the Russian passenger plane that crashed Saturday
in the Sinai Peninsula, where the jihadists are waging an insurgency,
killing all on board.
"The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded
in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai," said the statement
circulated on social media.
14.12
14.02
David Cameron says his thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims:
13.54 What caused the crash?
David Learmount, consulting editor with Flight Global, said it was too
early to rule anything out during the early stages of an investigation.
“Flight radar data makes clear there was a flight upset, but we have no
idea why. There are loads of terrorist factions operating in the area
and many affiliated to Islamic State. The Egyptians work very hard on
security at Sharm El Sheik because if you wanted to destroy the tourist
economy that would be the likewise target. However the plane was too
high for a shoulder launched missile, but it was 2,000 feet lower than
MH17.”
However, sounding a note of caution about terrorism, he
added: "In this case the aircraft appears to have come down in one
piece, unlike MH17.”
13.50
Pilot Adel Mahjoub, the chairman of the Egyptian Company of Airports,
which run Sharm el-Shiekh Airport, said that the Russian plane was
checked before taking off and it was valid for flying.
He told
press that a technical team was sent to Sharma el-Shiekh Airport to
collect all available data about the plane before it took off, including
the surveillance cameras of the security check and technical check,
supplying the plane with fuel and meals before taking off. He added that
all that data will be handed to the ministry of civil aviation and the
air crashes accidents committee.
13.40
A statement from Egypt's President Abdulfattah al-Sisi:
The
Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt offers its sincere condolences
to the leadership, government and people of Russia as well as the
families of the victims of the Russian plane crash that took place near
Al-Hasana City in Sinai.
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is
following developments and is in contact with Prime Minister Sherif
Ismail and other senior officials, who have headed to the crash site.
The President instructed the investigation committee, formed by the
Ministry of Civil Aviation, to swiftly carry out its mission and
identify the reasons that led to the accident. This is in addition to
coordinating efforts with the relevant Russian authorities.
The
Presidency is closely following the situation with members of the crisis
management team, headed by the prime minister and that includes the
ministers of civil aviation, tourism, interior, social solidarity,
health and population, local development, and representatives from the
ministry of defense and foreign affairs. The Presidency receives regular
reports on the latest developments.
13.30
Ahmed Abu Draa, a well-known journalist based in El Arish for the Masry
al-Youm (Egypt Today) newspaper, has told the Telegraph he has tried to
get to the scene of the crash, about 60 miles south of El Arish, but
been turned back by the military authorities, who have sealed off the
area.
The plane came down in mountainous central Sinai, a remote
and barren spot even before large areas became inaccessible because of
the militant insurgency.
13.20
Police raided the Moscow offices of the Siberian-based airline
Kogalymavia, whose planes are branded as Metrojet, on Saturday, the
Interfax news agency reported. Police were reportedly seizing computers
and documents.
Kogalymavia spokeswoman Oksana Golovina said that
there was no reason to blame the pilots for the crash and that the
captain of the plane had over 12,000 hours of flying experience, NTV
television station reported.
13.17
According to the pilots’ online chatroom, Prune the pilot did report an
engine malfunction. But at the same time pilots have also been warned
of a potential terrorist threat in a Notice to Airmen:
SECURITY EGYPT, NORTHERN SINAI PENINSULA, POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS
SITUATION CONTENT: GERMANY ADVISES ALL GERMAN OPERATORS NOT TO PLAN AND
CONDUCT FLIGHTS BELOW FL260 DUE TO HAZARDOUS SITUATION IN THE AIRSPACE
OF EGYPT, REGION NORTHERN SINAI (FIR CAIRO). POTENTIAL RISK TO AVIATION
OVERFLYING THIS AREA BELOW FL260 AND TAKE OFF / LANDING AT ALL AIRPORTS
FROM DEDICATED ANTI-AVIATION AND GROUND TO GROUND WEAPONRY. OPERATORS
ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO TAKE POTENTIAL RISK INTO ACCOUNT IN THEIR RISK
ASSESSMENT AND ROUTEING DECISION. AFFECTED AREA: AREA WITHIN
N311400E322200 - N294000E324000 - N293000E345400 N312000E341200 -
N311400E322200 EMERGENCY SITUATIONS: IN AN EMERGENCY THAT REQUIRES
IMMEDIATE DECISION AND ACTION FOR THE SAFETY OF THE FLIGHT, THE PILOT IN
COMMAND MAY DEVIATE FROM THIS NOTAM TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY THAT
EMERGENCY.
13.13
12.50
Airbus has already set up a crisis room in Toulouse to gather
information about the crash. The disaster will be investigated by
experts from Russian and Egyptian aviation agencies. They will be joined
by a team from the European Aviation Safety Agency, because the Airbus
was made in Europe and the US National Transportation Safety Board
because the engines were manufactured in America.
There are
around 1,2000 Airbus 321s in service. The plane is best described as a
medium haul workhorse used by airlines around the world. It has a range
of 3,000 nautical miles - or 3,452 miles.
The A321 has been in
the air since 1993. In July 2010 152 people died when an Airblue crashed
into the Margalla hills while trying to land at Bhutto International
Airport (ISB) in Pakistan. The accident was attributed to pilot error.
In 2003 an aircraft operated by TransAsia Airways had to be written off
when it crashed a utility vehicle on the runway. There were no
fatalities.
There have also been 17 other accidents in which a
plane has sustained serious, but not catastrophic damage, the most
recent being last month when an Air Berlin flight had to be diverted to
Munich after suffering tire damage after taking off from Dusseldorf for
Kos.
12.27
Egyptian officials say that all 224 passengers and crew have died.
12.15
This GIF shows where the crash site is thought to be:
12.10
Video footage has emerged of anxious relatives who were earlier today waiting at the airport in St Petersburg for more news:
Officials have since moved them to a nearby hotel.
11.41
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order making tomorrow - November 1 - a national day of mourning.
All Russian flags on state buildings will be at half-mast and there
will be special programmes on state-owned media outlets, according to
the decree that was posted on the Kremlin website.
11.10
As investigators examine the plane's black box, we look at what this small item can tell us about a crash:
11.08
A security source has told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur(DPA) that the black box of the Russian plane has been found.
He added that from the primary examination of the wreckage and tail of
the plane, there are no indications that the plane suffered a terrorist
operation and at this stage the crash is thought to be caused by a
technical error.
"There are no survivals among its passengers," the source told DPA.
11.02
Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt's civilian
airports, said all passengers and crew were Russian citizens.
Roughly three million Russian tourists, or nearly a third of all
visitors in 2014, come to Egypt every year, mostly to Red Sea resorts in
Sinai or in mainland Egypt.
"It is too premature to detect the
impact this will have on tourism. We need to know what happened first,"
Tourism Ministry spokeswoman Rasha Azazi told The Associated Press.
10.40
Pictures have now emerged of distressed relatives waiting earlier today
at the airport in St Petersburg for news of their loved ones.
Authorities have since moved relatives to a nearby hotel:
For some the wait is just too much Photo: EPA
Relatives seek more information from staff at the airport Photo: AP
Relatives wait for more news Photo: EPA
10.35
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered officials to coordinate
with their Egyptian counterparts to organize the dispatch of Russian
planes to Egypt with rescuers and investigators able to work at the site
of the crash.
The Russian leader also ordered the country’s
Emergency Situations ministry to work closely with relatives of the
victims of those on board the plane. Relatives and friends who gathered
at Saint Petersburg airport, where the downed plane was due to land,
have now been removed in buses to a nearby hotel.
The Russian
focus appears to now be on possible technical faults that could have
brought down the plane. The Airbus that came down was built in 1994 but
had been used intensively in recent years, according to Russian
state-owned television. Sunday’s flight was reportedly its 17th of this
week.
Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the crash, according a spokesman for the country’s Investigative Committee.
10.24
Rescuers claim they have heard voices in the wreckage of the Russian
plane that has crashed in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, according to Sky
News.
10.20
Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed government departments
to begin organising official assistance for the families of those on
board the Kogalymavia flight, according to Russian news service RIA
Novosti.
10.10
An official in the Egyptian Air traffic control has told local
reporters that the last communication with the pilot of the Russian
plane was while he was flying at 30 thousand feet. The pilot complained
of malfunction in the wireless devices and he asked for an emergency
landing at the nearest airport.
10.13
The crew of the downed plane had made recent complaints about engine
trouble, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti, that cites
security sources at Sharm el-Sheikh airport.
"Several times in
the last week this plane had requested assistance from technical support
because the engine would not start," the source was quoted as saying by
RIA Novosti.
The plane was an Airbus A320, the first of which were produced in the 1980s. The first flight of an Airbus A320 was in 1988.
9.57
The Egyptian prime minister Sherif Ismail said that an investigation will be opened into the crash of the Russian plane.
He added in a statement before heading to the location of the crash,
that a team from the Ministry of Aviation will go to the crash location
and that there is coordination with the Russians in this regard.
9.49
The Israeli military says it is assisting Egypt with aerial surveillance as the recovery operation in the Sinai begins.
Israel has the most sophisticated military in the region and its spy
planes and satellites could be useful to Egyptian authorities. The
Israeli military says it has offered continuing help to both Russia and
Egypt if needed.
9.48
A Russian website with close links to the security services has published a complete list of passengers.
Many of the surnames are the same, indicating dozens of families were
on the plane. Egypt is a traditionally very popular area for Russian
tourists.
9.47
The Ministry of Tourism has just released a statement saying the Prime
Minister, Sherif Ismail, and Hisham Zazou, have come out of an emergency
cabinet meeting in Cairo and are now on their way to the crash scene
with a number of other ministers.
9.40
Richard Spencer reports:
The
area where the wreckage has been reported is just off the road between
El Arish to some of the villages at the heart of the current insurgency
just a couple of miles away, and has been sealed off by the military for
all non-locals for more than a year.
Mohammed Sabry, a
reporter based in El Arish, has told us the area of the crash is firmly
sealed off. He quotes a government spokesman telling him that any
injured survivors will be taken to the Nasser Institute Hospital in
Cairo and the dead to the Zeinhom morgue, also in the capital.
9.33
This map shows the town of Hasna, near Arish, close to the crash site:
9.27
Our correspondent Magdy Samaan reports:
The
rescue teams have found the wreckage of the plane in an area South of
Arish called Hasna. Search and rescue teams have arrived to the location
of the crashed plane. The plane was flying on 31 thousand feet when it
disappeared from the radar, according to a statement issued by the
Ministry of Civil Aviation.
9.12
There are reports the plane’s captain told air traffic control shortly
after take-off that the flight was suffering a technical fault and
requested a change of route.
In an earlier statement the
Egyptian cabinet said: "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.”
Prime Minister Ismail cancelled a visit to the city of Ismailiya and formed an operations room to follow up on the situation.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her
Facebook page that Russian Embassy personnel in Egypt are working to
clarify the situation.
9.06
AFP reports: Egyptian military planes have spotted the wreckage of a
Russian passenger plane that crashed Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula
with 224 people on board, the government said.
"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," a cabinet statement said.
9.02
8.58
Our Middle East correspondent Richard Spencer reports:
El
Arish, the town near the spot apparently located by rescuers as the
crash scene, is the main city on the north, Mediterranean coast of the
Sinai. It is also the main government base in the fight against the
insurgents whose uprising has been based in the towns and villages to
the south and east such as Sheikh Zuweid.
On a visit to
the area two years ago, before the military sealed it off, The Telegraph
witnessed the army sending in Apache helicopters and blowing up houses
it believed belonged to the insurgents, who then went by the name Ansar
Beit al-Maqdis. Since then they have renamed themselves "Wilayat Sinai" -
the Province of Sinai, of Isil's "Caliphate".
In return, scores of police and soldiers have been killed by shootings, ambushes and mines - roadside IEDS - around El Arish.
8.50
The remains of the plane have been found in the desolate mountainous area of Southern Arish, Sinai.
Rescue workers said the airbus KGL-9268, had been almost completely destroyed and there were unlikely to be any survivors.
8.48
8.37
On board the plane were 17 children, along with 200 adults and seven crew, said aviation authorities.
Meanwhile Egyptian security sources said there were no indications that the airbus had been shot down.
8.24
Our Middle East correspondent Richard Spencer reports:
Online
flight tracking websites show the plane came down in an area of
northern Sinai close to the Israeli border. Perhaps more significantly
close to the area where the Egyptian army is fighting an insurgency by
militants loyal to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
8.15
Sharm el Sheikh airport Egypt Photo: Alamy
The Airbus A-321 had just taken off from the Red Sea resort on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg when it crashed.
Most of the passengers were understood to be tourists.
The Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said in a statement that
flight 9268 left Sharm el-Sheikh at 06:51 Moscow time (03:51 GMT) and
was due into St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport at 12:10.
The
authority added that the aircraft failed to make scheduled contact with
Cyprus air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off and disappeared
from the radar.
8.06
A Russian plane carrying more than 200 people has crashed after taking off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The Egyptian government confirmed on Saturday morning that the passenger plane had gone down in central Sinai.
A statement from prime minister Sherif Ismail’s office said he had
formed a cabinet level crisis committee to deal with the crash.
Prime minister Ismail’s office stated: “A Russian civilian plane... crashed in the central Sinai."
Egyptian air traffic control lost contact with the civilian airliner,
carrying 224 people, shortly after it took off from the popular resort
Sharm el-Sheikh to head to Russia, aviation sources said.
The sources said the passenger plane was mainly carrying Russian tourists and that a search was underway.
There was confusion earlier after one report said the plane had reappeared over Turkey.
Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the central air traffic accident
authority in Egypt, initially said: "The ... Russian airline had told us
that the Russian plane we lost contact with is safe and that it has
contacted Turkish air traffic control and is passing through Turkish
skies now,"
But security sources in the Sinai Peninsula also confirmed reports that the aircraft was missing.
A senior aviation official said it was a charter flight operated by a
Russian company and had on board 217 passengers and seven crew members.
Communication with the aircraft was lost, he added.