Analysis of the noise was underway.
Advertisement
Hundreds of British holidaymakers stranded in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh were hoping to return home on Saturday after a handful of flights landed in Britain, although others were held up by logistical problems.
It is just one obstacle tourists face and there may be more as Western countries raise the possibility that a bomb planted by Islamist militants knocked the plane out of the sky.
All 224 people on board were killed in what the militants described as revenge for Russian air strikes in Syria that began more than a month ago.
The officials told The Associated Press on Saturday that authorities were questioning airport staff and ground crew who worked on the Russian flight and had placed a few employees under surveillance.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
“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.
Egypt’s past calls for assistance and coordination on terrorism issues from “the countries that are now facing the danger” had not been dealt with seriously, he said. “We were meant to fly out on Thursday”, said young holidaymaker Sheila Smith.
USA television network NBC said a few communications between Islamic State leaders in Syria and the Sinai Peninsula included boasts about bringing down the jet.
“We expected that any technical information should have been shared with us, at a technical level, before publicising it in the media”, he said. On Friday, Russian Federation also announced that it will suspend all flights to Egypt until security is improved at its airports. At least a half-dozen Western European governments told their citizens not to travel there.
USA and British officials think the Russian Metrojet plane that left the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 31 may have been blown up by a bomb. Russians comprise almost a third of all tourists who visited Egypt in the past year.
“The Egyptian authorities are directly connected to this matter”, Sameh Shoukry said, according to CNN.
The suspension, covering all of Egypt, is even more sweeping than the one previously imposed by Britain, which had halted flights to Sharm el-Sheikh only. He said he agreed with Russia’s decision to suspend flights to Egypt. “They said that we shouldn’t take any baggage with us on board, so we have to keep it somewhere, I don’t know where, put our addresses and then they will somehow transport it to Russian Federation”, said Julia Suvrova, 33. British Ambassador John Casson was heckled as he announced the news.
A British official said the government was coordinating with operators to provide more information and that officials were now visiting hotels to communicate with nationals. Empty charter planes have been flying to Sharm el-Sheikh to bring home stranded Russian and British tourists.
Although USA investigators said flight records pointed to the decisions of an Egyptian pilot, the Egyptian government blamed a malfunction in the Boeing airplane, and 17 years later the Egyptian-American dispute over the cause is still unresolved.
“I hear that not a single flight has taken off so far”.
Advertisement
This story has been corrected to show that Ayman el-Muqadem is the head of the joint investigation team, not the Egyptian investigation team.
