But the Egyptian official said foreign airliners at Sharm el-Sheikh airport were never boarded by Egyptian personnel unless requested by the airline.
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“Clearly, on weekdays there are fewer flights, and the next weekend will be hot again”, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told Russian news agency TASS on Sunday (9 November).
“All scenarios are being considered…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 told reporters at Cairo press conference.
“What we have got to do is ensure that airport security everywhere is at the level of the best and that airport security reflects the local conditions and where there is a higher local threat level that will mean higher levels of security are required”.
A retired senior official from Egypt’s Tourism Ministry, Magdy Salim, said airport guards regularly skip security checks for friends and co-workers and often don’t search people “out of respect to save their time if they look chic or if they come out of a fancy auto”.
“We don’t know what happened exactly”, he said.
“The information we have heard about has not been shared with Egyptian security agencies in detail”, Shoukry said.
Mokadem said the flight data recorder stopped around 23 minutes after takeoff, while the aircraft was over 30,000 feet in altitude and moving at about 323 miles per hour.
Muqaddam, however, was more circumspect in his comments Saturday on the contents of the flight recorders.
A weird noise was heard on the recording from the black box of the Russian airliner just seconds before it crashed over Egypt. But he offered no description of the sound, saying a specialized analysis would be carried out to identify it.
Egypt and Russian Federation have yet to formally announce the cause of the crash.
It is the most specific confirmation made so far about the crash of the Metrojet flight bound for Russian Federation.
In Moscow, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement that the authorities will also be bringing over 130 tons of the tourists’ luggage on four cargo planes on Monday.
Phillip Hammond, British Foreign Secretary, said Sunday his government believes it is “more likely than not” that an explosive device brought down the plane.
“If it was a terrorist act, I don’t think it was directed exactly against Russian Federation”.
The United Kingdom halted flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh last Wednesday, citing intelligence concerns.
It could also mark a new strategy by the hardline Islamic State group which holds large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Nearly 5300 holidaymakers have returned home since flights recommenced on Friday, with 1936 departing from the Red Sea resort on eight flights on Sunday.
Meanwhile, The Mideast’s biggest airline – Emirates – said it was reviewing its security procedures in Egypt, but remains committed to maintaining flights to Egypt, calling it “an enormously important market”.
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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has said British officials sent a security team to evaluate the airport 10 months ago, in cooperation with Egyptian officials, and were satisfied with the results.
