A few were disappointed, but appeared to be trying to take the news in stride.
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The Airbus A321 operatd by Russian airline Kogalymavia was conducting flight 9268 between the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and Saint Petersburg when it crashed in North Sinai shortly after take-off on October 31.
NBC Nightly also cited another source close to US intelligence as saying that the call was between the operatives of Wilayat Sinai, also known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, who were referred to as one of the “most potent” branches of ISIS, by a USA official.
But a US official has said intercepted communications point to the extremists and that someone inside the Sharm el-Sheikh airport helped plant the bomb.
Confirmation that militants brought down the airliner could have a devastating impact on Egypt’s lucrative tourist industry, which has suffered from years of political turmoil and was hit last week when Russian Federation, Turkey and several European countries suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh and other destinations.
“After reviewing the details of the case, the investigation concluded that there was no cause for concern and that it was safe to continue our flying programme to Sharm el-Sheikh”, a DfT spokesperson said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the halt to flights after Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s FSB security service, recommended Russia suspend all passenger flights to Egypt until it knew exactly what caused the crash.
Oleg Safonov, the head of Rostourism, said most Russians in Egypt had been holidaying in the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm al-Sheikh and that 1,200 had already been returned home.
Instead, intelligence has emerged suggesting a bomb was smuggled into the hold of the plane.
The Islamic State-affiliated Sinai Province, which claimed it brought the plane down, said it acted in revenge for Russian air strikes against Islamist fighters in Syria, where Islamic State controls large areas in the east and north of the country.
A government source also told Reuters the rocket was not thought to have come as close as the report suggested.
“Tourists will be returning from Egypt to Russian Federation when they planned to”, said Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who is in a charge of a task force established to oversee the return of tourists.
They include “expanded screening applied to certain items carried onto an aircraft; airport assessment in conjunction with our global partners; and offers of other assistance to certain foreign airports related to aviation and airport security, as well as additional measures, both seen and unseen”, Johnson said.
Hold luggage will be flown to Britain at a later date.
Another investigator told French TV station France 2 that the sound of an explosion could be heard on the black boxes, stressing that the blast was not consistent with an engine failure.
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Russia’s state tourism agency, Rosturism, said it had set-up an emergency headquarters to coordinate evacuations, and it was reported that Aeroflot had begun sending empty planes to bring back Russian citizens.
