In 2014, about three million Russian nationals stayed at Egypt’s resorts.
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The statement also stressed that the British ambassador discussed with Egyptian officials the permanent procedures that can allow British tourists to return once again to the Sharm El-Sheikh as soon as possible.
An Egyptian official said Saturday that the incident involved a ground to ground military fire exercise at a military base a few kilometers from the Sharm el-Sheikh airport and that the plane was in no danger.
On Friday, Moscow suspended flights to Egypt, leaving almost 80,000 Russians stranded, mainly in the Red Sea resorts of Hurghada and Sharm al-Sheikh, and adding to the growing chaos facing many tourists.
Islamic State extremists are claiming they brought down the Metrojet flight, without offering proof.
Egyptian investigators have said that analysis of the cockpit voice recorder revealed a “noise” in the final second of the recording.
“It could be lithium batteries in the luggage of one of the passengers, it could be an explosion in the fuel tank, it could be fatigue in the body of the aircraft, it could be the explosion of something”, he said. USA investigators have not been invited to visit the crash site, and while the Russian government has asked the FBI for help, it is not known how much information Moscow has shared with the bureau.
He said nothing about the theory that a terrorist bomb brought down the plane, an explanation that has been endorsed by Britain and that President Barack Obama has said he is taking “very seriously”.
Militants claiming affiliation with Islamic State claimed the attack, however the head of Egypt’s investigation team says no conclusions have been reached about what brought the airliner down.
Fears that the crash was caused by Islamist militants led several Western countries, Russian Federation and Turkey to suspend flights to Sharm al-Sheikh, stranding tens of thousands of holidaymakers and dealing a heavy blow to Egypt’s vital tourist industry. “We also should raise the security clearance of airport workers to the highest level”, he said.
The British embassy in Egypt said Saturday the United Kingdom is not evacuating its citizens early from Sharm El-Sheikh.
Nine flights carrying nearly 2,000 people flew back to Britain on Saturday, after about 1,500 had returned the previous day. “But, because our airports security is what it is, we’ve been remarkably successful for over 25 years in ensuring that nobody is able to get an explosive device on to a plane”.
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“In the near future, flights which should have flown to Egypt are being redirected to Antalya”, the Interfax news agency quoted union spokeswoman Irina Turina as saying.
