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.
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Foreign airlines canceled a wave of flights to Egypt’s Red Sea resorts following the crash.
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. Most of the victims were Russians.
“Tourism movement will return to normal, after making sure that all the measures are taken at Egypt’s airports and shunning claims by worldwide media, which said that it is possible that the plane was brought down by a bomb”, he said.
This comes despite foreign secretary Philip Hammond expecting that stranding British holidaymakers would be home by the end of this week.
“The possibility of an act of terror is of course there as the reason for what happened”, Medvedev said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta state newspaper.
“The violence in Sinai has escalated in recent months and there’s an actual danger of terrorist attacks”.
Tourism bookings in Sharm el-Sheikh have plunged, officials said Wednesday.
“Losing 40 percent of our clients will lead to losing around 50 percent of the tourism income in Sharm al-Sheikh and South Sinai”, Guevara el-Gafy, chairman of the South Sinai Travel Agents Association, told Reuters.
Including, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a group that emerged after the ousting of Egypt’s then-President Hosni Mubarak and was later designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.
But thousands were turned away after Egypt blocked British tour operators from flying in empty aircraft to make up the backlog.
All of them – except for Corendon – then resumed their operations to the resort after the warning was downgraded a month later.
Investigators probing the Russian plane crash are quizzing maids porters and other Sharm el-Sheikh hotel staff, it has been reported. “Armenpress” reports the information referring to Egypt Independence.
Could Islamic State have bombed Flight 9268?
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi on Wednesday vowed to enhance security in the country amid suspicions that a bomb caused the crash of a Russian passenger airliner in Sinai more than a week ago.
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The plane is believed to have broken up in mid-air.
