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.
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SHARM AL-SHEIKH, EgyptBritain’ swift suspension of flights after the Russian plane crash in Sinai has revived old grievances in Egypt, where many accuse the former colonial ruler of acting out of malice and suspect a dark plot against their country.
The Metrojet plane crashed in the Sinai peninsula shortly after take-off en route to St Petersburg on 31 October. Britain and Ireland have suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh.
The British government chose to suspend all flights to and from Sharm El Sheikh after receiving intelligence pointing to a “strong possibility” that the plane crash was caused by a bomb onboard.
Story corrected at 09:48 p.m. The original misstated that the National Transportation Safety Board received its first notification from Egyptian authorities about the probe.
“We will announce the results with absolute transparency and clarity”, he said.
“Anyone who is present here on our land should be safe and stable”, he added.
At least four luxury hotels confirmed to AFP they have asked several employees to take leave.
According to government data, tourism revenues make up around 11.3 per cent of Egypt’s GDP, while 14.4 per cent of the state’s income comes from foreign currencies.
There are a few official speculations that the plane was brought down by a bomb, suggesting lax security in Sharm el-Sheikh Airport.
Sergei Ivanov, the head of the Russian presidential administration, has said it likely to be a “long time” before flights are resumed. “I feel devastated for those who won’t be coming home and sorry for the people still stranded out in Sharm el Sheikh waiting to come home”.
United States of America air carriers for years have avoided flying into or out of Sharm al-Sheikh airport because of longstanding worries about security at the facility, U.S. officials said. People were not sure whether they were going to be on flights or not.
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Roughly 3 million Russian tourists came to Egypt in 2014, almost a third of all visitors, with most heading to the resorts in the southern Sinai Peninsula or its opposite coast, far from the insurgency being fought by Islamic militants against the army further north.
