Investigations are on to find out the causes leading up to the crash of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 carrying 224 people on board, mostly Russians, which went down over the Sinai peninsula on the way to St. Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.
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Investigators are examining all possible causes as they comb the remote crash site as part of an Egyptian-led probe into the disaster that also involves experts from Russian Federation, Airbus, and Ireland, where the aircraft was registered.
The Egyptian source’s comments also appear to undermine assertions by Metrojet executives that only an “external” influence on the aircraft could have brought it down.
Russia’s Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov said in televised remarks that Russian experts already had conducted a preliminary inspection of the recorders and had seen information from Egypt’s flight control radars, but he wouldn’t give further details.
“We say to the deniers and the doubters: Die from your frustration”.
“He (her husband Sergey) complained before the flight that the technical condition of the aircraft left much to be desired…” Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that, according to a source working on the investigation, that an “emergency situation occurred on board unexpectedly”.
The devices are expected to shed a few light on what caused the plane to break up.
Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate dismissed in an audio message on Wednesday doubts that it had downed a Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all aboard, and said it would tell the world how did so in its own time.
On Monday, the government’s tone slightly changed when Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they can not rule out anything.
On Monday night, USA officials said an American spy satellite had spotted a large “heat flash” emanating from the location of the plane at the time, but the lack of a heat trail from the ground suggested a ground-to-air missile was not responsible. U.S. intelligence analysts believed the flash could have been a bomb exploding or a fuel tank detonating after an explosive blast, according to the reports. Russian officials have said it’s too early to jump to that conclusion. He spoke after visiting the crash site.
A Reuters photographer saw a white lorry leaving the airport, escorted by police cars, heading for a St Petersburg morgue, where the bodies were to be identified.
Nineteen victims had been identified by relatives yesterday evening, officials said in a briefing. That included 17 children.
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The remains have been sent to the morgue at the city’s main crematorium for identification and examination by forensic pathologists before being released to families for burial.
