The UK and the United States, as well as global investigators, suspect a bomb exploded on board the Russian Airbus after it took off from the Red Sea resort last Saturday en route to Saint Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.
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Clark said he had ordered a security review but was not suspending any flights as a result of the disaster. Emirates does not operate regular flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.
Investigators are understood to be 90% sure a noise picked up by the cockpit voice recorder in the final seconds of the flight was the sound of the explosion caused by a bomb.
As tourists abandon the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, government and aviation officials warned that global airport security will need to be reviewed if suspicions are confirmed that a bomb brought down a Russian jetliner over Sinai.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has since announced new security enhancements for commercial flights bound for the USA from certain foreign airports Friday, including expanded screening to items on planes and offering assistance to certain foreign airports, though further details weren’t released. Islamic State militants fighting Egyptian security forces in Sinai said they brought it down. The British government and USA officials have said intelligence suggests the plane was downed by a bomb, but Egypt says there’s still no confirmation of what caused the crash. All passengers, 224, died in the incident and now Russian authorities are flying home the remains of victims for identification.
The head of Egypt’s investigation team said Saturday that the noise was inconclusive and may have been caused by lithium batteries in the luggage of a passenger or an explosion in the fuel tank.
Zaazou said Russian and British holidaymakers accounted for two-thirds of tourist traffic to Sharm al-Sheikh, while Russians alone made up half the tourists in Egypt’s other main Red Sea destination, Hurghada.
Sisi, who has dismissed the claim as “propaganda”, said on his surprise visit to Sharm el-Sheikh that only the official probe could determine the cause.
Russian Federation has sent specialists to conduct a safety audit of Egypt’s airports and to provide recommendations on additional measures, said deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
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Ivanov said a terror attack is one of several possible explanations, but added that the probe into the crash will involve complex chemical and other tests and will likely drag into the next year.
