The parts closest to the explosive device will have sustained damage and could be “bent, perforated, petaled, spalled, sheared, frayed, charred (especially fibers), melded by impact, and otherwise characteristically damaged”, Owen said. Looking at the long security line, he said that he “can understand why they have this situation here but personally, we’ve had no problems at all”.
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There were only “a few dozen” French citizens now in Sharm el-Sheikh and there had not been any requests for repatriation, according to the union of French travel agencies.
– Flight 9268 dropped off radar about 23 minutes into the flight and tracking data showed abrupt changes in speed and altitude before the signal was lost, Egyptian officials say.
– Air traffic controllers received no distress calls – suggesting that whatever happened, happened suddenly.
Egypt is leading the crash investigation. “It suddenly disappeared from the radar”. “If, in fact, only one was detected, that in a few respects might steer one away from a missile launch and onto a few idea of an explosion onboard the aircraft”.
British airline easyJet says its plans to fly hundreds of stranded Britons back from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh have been disrupted by Egyptian authorities. The group is known to have bomb-making capabilities, though there are questions about the extent of those capabilities. Those messages are separate from public ISIS claims of responsibility, the official said.
Metrojet has ruled out pilot error or a technical fault as a possible cause of the crash, drawing criticism from Russian officials for speaking with such certainty too soon.
It follows a similar announcement from Britain, whose tourists are allowed to only take carry-on luggage as they start leaving the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. British security experts have expressed concern that procedures there are “poorly supervised” and “lack consistency”, a British national security expert. Egyptian intelligence officials said the Islamic State branch suspected in the downing of the aeroplane had eluded a security dragnet by operating in secretive cells inspired by a leader who was once a clothing importer.
“This airport has lax security”.
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday it was increasingly likely a bomb brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt with the loss of 224 lives, and U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was taking that possibility “very seriously”. He said Cairo had been asked 10 months ago to check security at the airport in Sharm al-Sheikh.
“The additional security measures will include permitting passengers to carry hand baggage only and transporting hold luggage separately”, a spokeswoman for Cameron’s office said. Not enough time had passed for major cracks to develop to a critical size since then, he said. That, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said, could be a sign of botched fix work conducted on the plane after a 2001 tail strike incident.
“To me, it says (the tail) exited the plane before the explosive event and before the fire engulfed the plane”, Schiavo said.
– Egyptian authorities have maintained there’s no evidence of a terrorist attack.
At the Sinai crash site, forensic evidence including the airplane’s black box was still being analyzed.
Numerous countries have scrambled to find out the cause of the crash, with Egypt and Russian Federation taking the lead.
Flights that were due to return British travellers home from Sharm el-Sheikh today have had to be suspended as the Egyptian government was accused of restricting United Kingdom airlines from flying into the resort.
Then UK Prime Minister David Cameron said it was “more likely than not” that a bomb brought the plane down.
Meanwhile an agency that oversees civil aviation in Russia said it was suspending the certification of Boeing 737 planes used by Russian airlines, citing safety concerns. Sharm el-Sheikh became particularly popular among tourists after the 1997 terror attacks in Luxor in central Egypt.
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While British authorities reassured travelers that they were working on a solution to bring a few of them home as early as Friday, the situation grew tense.
