There were no survivors.
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Egyptian rescue teams looking for victims of the crash have widened the search area after finding bodies scattered across eight square kilometres a day after the incident. All on board were killed.
The plane came down in an area that has witnessed fierce fighting between Egyptian soldiers and Islamist insurgents.
Russian officials say the flight’s crew had all undergone medical testing recently and no problems were detected, the country’s Interfax news agency reported Sunday, citing prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Air France and Lufthansa said on Saturday they have made a decision to stop flying over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. There were seven crew members on board.
An investigation is under way after a Russian airliner crashed in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board.
An Egyptian ground service official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press Sunday that the plane – an Airbus A321 operated by Russian company Kogalymavia – appeared to be in good condition when it was examined prior to takeoff. But Egyptian officials and aviation experts said on Saturday that there was no indication the Russian airliner had been shot down. A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group claimed it “brought down” the aircraft, but Russia’s transport minister dismissed the claim.
A north Sinai security source said initial examination suggested the crash could have been caused by a technical fault but it was too early to draw any firm conclusions. Russia’s transport minister, Maksim Sokolov, immediately said the claim “can’t be considered accurate”.
He says the age of the aircraft, which was built in 1997, and the fact it’d had four different owners in recent times posed questions about its maintenance record.
In the meantime it will continue operating flights to and from the popular holiday resort Sharm el-Sheikh “as planned”, the spokesman said.
Both black boxes of the plane had been found, Mohamed Hossam Kemal, the civil aviation minister, told a news conference.
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As the Russian investigators moved slowly across the site, Egyptian military helicopters buzzed overhead, combing the wider area for debris – or bodies – not yet found. 23 minutes later, while flying at an altitude of over 30,000 feet (9144 meters) and after the flight captain was complaining to a technical failure of communications equipment, radar he disappeared.
