British officials have been criticized by Russian Federation and Egypt for suggesting that a bomb caused the crash before investigations are complete, but Hammond said he was speaking on the basis of intelligence he had received.
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He explained that the departure of Russian tourists may increase the negative effects on the country’s tourism industry, especially as Russians represent about 45 per cent of the total number of tourists in Egypt. Sharm El-Sheikh is considered the most important tourist destination in the country, especially for European visitors.
An Egyptian-led 47-member investigation committee, including Russian, French and German experts, said Saturday that it was attentively considering all possible scenarios for the cause of the tragic accident, yet no conclusion was reached at the moment. Reuters, which reported the unnamed team member’s feedback, stated he’d asked to not be named “sensitivities”.
Heightened security measures mean many more are still stuck in Sharm, and at least six flights are expected to operate on Monday.
There has been little mention of the incident on Egyptian state television.
A security official at the airport gates said hundreds of tourists had flown out since Monday morning, a lot of them Russians, as buses drove up with a steady flow of holiday makers.
The Islamic State’s local affiliate, which calls itself the Sinai Province of Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the crash, and indicated it was in retaliation for Russia’s military intervention in the Syrian civil war.
Thousands more Britons have returned home from Sharm el-Sheikh as airlines delayed the resumption of flights from the United Kingdom to the resort amid continuing security concerns at the Egyptian airport.
Security officials at Sharm el-Sheikh airport have told The Associated Press that it has long seen gaps in security, including a key baggage scanning device that often is not functioning and lax searches at an entry gate for food and fuel for the planes.
The plane broke up at high altitude and a few national authorities have said it may have been hit by a bomb explosion.
Tourists from the region have been stuck in Egypt following the suspected terrorist attack on October 31, as a result of which flights to and from the country were stopped.
“Everyone is on their holidays according to their packages, and when they’re done they fly home on their regular flights, but without luggage”, Dmitry Gorin of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia told the Russian News Service.
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Moscow announced on Friday that it was suspending all flights to Egypt, after initially dismissing suspicions that a bomb brought down the jet. “We halted the flights to Egypt without knowing the definitive version, we did it preventively, out of caution”, Ivanov said.
