Egyptian investigators probing what caused a Russian passenger plane to crash in the Sinai Peninsula last month are almost certain it was a bomb, a member of the team said Sunday.
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By the “end of today”, he said there should be around 5,000 people returned home.
But Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday the Egyptian-led inquiry into disaster had yet to establish any theory about the cause.
The USA and the United Kingdom, meanwhile, have both said intelligence reports indicate that a bomb on board the flight has caused it to go down, with Shoukry complaining that foreign intelligence on the cause of the crash has not been shared with his country.
Britain and several airlines have stopped normally scheduled flights to the resort, while Russian Federation has suspended all travel to Egypt because of security concerns.
The crisis risks dealing a huge blow to Egypt’s tourism industry, but also to Russian tour operators. “We expected that the information provided on a technical level would be provided to us on a technical level, instead of it being released to the media in this public manner”.
The decision to suspend flights with immediate effect came after a team of British security experts made an initial security assessment in Sharm el-Sheikh, but the government has yet to identify IS as the perpetrators. Russia will send 44 planes to repatriate its nationals, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said.
“What we’ve got to do is ensure that… airport security reflects local conditions”, Philip Hammond told the BBC on Sunday.
Mr Casson said he understood the frustrations of stranded holidaymakers and reassured them that British government officials were at the airport and in hotels in the resort to offer people advice around the clock.
The man known as Masri claimed responsibility for the Russian plane crash in an audio statement last Wednesday the same day that David Cameron announced the suspension of British holiday flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.
Earlier, French aviation officials close to the investigation have said that the onboard flight data recorder showed a violent sudden explosion.
A missile that came within 1,000ft of a plane carrying British tourists to Sharm el-Sheikh was “probably a flare”, investigators have found.
The Russian airliner broke apart over the Sinai Peninsula about 20 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh.
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“Tourists will be returning from Egypt to Russian Federation when they planned to”, said Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who heads a task force established to oversee their return.
