Concerns have been raised over the use of bomb detectors in Sharm el-Sheikh which it is claimed offer “no protection” against terrorism.
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“He ordered that the flight turn to the left to avoid the rocket, which was about 1,000ft away”.
He said he planned a $5 million public relations campaign to promote Egypt in Britain and Russian Federation and win back tourism from those countries.
However, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that the allegations are “completely inaccurate”.
“We’ve got nearly a moral imperative to travel to Egypt”, he said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged a transparent probe into the Russian plane crash and cautioned against hasty conclusions, during a visit Wednesday to the airport from where the doomed aircraft took off.
US and British officials have cited intelligence reports as indicating the passenger plane was likely downed by a bomb on board.
After initially signalling normal air traffic would proceed, Russia late last week suspended passenger flights to Egypt. Over the weekend, Russia mounted an airlift to repatriate thousands of Russian vacationers who had been stranded in Sinai after regular flights were cancelled. Officials had hoped for modest growth this year but the Sinai plane crash, coming at the start of the peak Red Sea winter holiday season, is likely to reverse that.
The intercepts are among pieces of evidence leading United States officials to suspect that a device planted on Metrojet Flight 9268 exploded shortly after the Airbus A321 took off from the resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh, the sources said.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has warned that airport security around the world would have to be overhauled if it was confirmed the crash in the Sinai was caused by an Islamic State (IS) bomb.
This warning does not include the coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the area within the Sharm el-Sheikh perimeter barrier, the Sharm el-Sheikh global Airport and the areas of Hadaba, Naama Bay, Nabq, Sharks Bay and Sharm el Maya, the department said.
That restriction has prompted Egypt to limit the number of daily repatriation flights because it says there is only so much baggage its airports can accommodate. They will tell us. Russian Federation suspended all flights to Egypt ast Friday amid airport security concerns a move that threatened to further devastate the Egyptian tourism industry, already suffering after years of political turmoil.
British Airways said it would not operate flights up to 23 November.
Since the crash, the Egyptian government has been playing down the bomb theory, saying it was too early for “hypothesis”.
Egyptian officials, who are leading the investigation, have been hesitant to comment on the possibility of a bomb on board the plane, although officials told reporters that they still considering “all the scenarios”.
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The extremists have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, mostly in the Sinai Peninsula.
