A Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed early Saturday in Sinai, Egypt, currently with no survivors reported now, while the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility.
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“We will keep that measure in place as long as we are not sure of the circumstances and the reasons of the Metrojet crash”, Lufthansa spokeswoman Bettina Rittberger said. Russian authorities say it was carrying 217 passengers, 17 of them children aged between 2 and 17, and seven crew.
A “Russian civilian plane… crashed in the central Sinai”, the office of Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said in a statement.
Fifteen bodies had been recovered and were being airlifted to Zeinhom Morgue in Cairo. In the background, heaps of smoldering debris dotted the barren terrain. Russian investigators were expected to arrive in Egypt on Sunday.
BBC reports that the wife of the plane’s co-pilot said her husband had complained about the plane’s condition.
She said a daughter “called him up before he flew out”. The aircraft had clocked up around 56,000 flight hours over the course of almost 21,000 flights, it said. About 20 minutes after take-off, the pilot reported technical difficulties, before losing contact with air traffic control.
The Saint Petersburg-bound Airbus A321 crashed in Egypt on Saturday, leaving 224 people dead and becoming Russia’s deadliest air disaster since 1985.
Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said officials from Moscow and Cairo were in touch over the incident.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday condemned the alleged attack on a Russian plane in “the strongest terms” and voiced his deep sadness for the victims of the crash in Egypt’s Sinai earlier the day. The militants did not offer any evidence to back up their claim.
Officials and the state MENA news agency later said the “casualties” were being transferred to nearby hospitals. By late morning, the soldiers had spotted the wreckage of the Metrojet KGL9268 Airbus A321 in al-Hassana, in the middle of a mountainous area in North Sinai province. These missiles, however, are only effective against low-flying aircraft or helicopters. Egyptian authorities said the plane was in the air for about 25 minutes and had reached 31,000 feet before it went down just after sunrise.
The investigators are focusing on the possibility of the technical failure that caused the plane to crash. On Saturday evening, Air France-KLM and Emirates said they were following suit.
Separately, Egypt’s top prosecutor ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash.
Germany’s transport ministry has warned the country’s airlines to avoid flying over both the northern and southeastern parts of the Sinai Peninsula following the crash of a Russian passenger plane. “That will impact the Egyptian economy and lead to damages”.
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At Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, where the aircraft was supposed to end its journey, mourners paid their respects to victims at a makeshift memorial. “God be with me.’ And that was it”, he said. “To lose such a friend is like having your hand cut off”, Zaitseva said, adding that Rodina’s parents feel “like their lives are over”.
