The Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday killing all 224 people on board, had passed a safety review carried out by the Irish Aviation Authority earlier this year.
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British military analyst Paul Beaver said he thought the crash was most likely caused by a bomb on board, saying he was certain IS does not possess a missile system – such as the Russian BUK – capable of hitting the plane.
“The speculation that this plane was brought down by a missile is off the table”, the official said.
The Islamic State affiliate in Egypt claimed responsibility downing the jet, circulating a statement on social media declaring, “The soldiers of the caliphate succeeded in bringing down a Russian plane in Sinai”.
“We rule out a technical fault of the plane or a pilot error”, Kogalymavia airline executive Alexander Smirnov said in a press conference in Moscow on Monday, as quoted by The Guardian.
“Believe me, the situation in Sinai – especially in this limited area – is under our full control”, he said.
READ ALSO:Mystery deepens over Russian airliner crash in EgyptThey reported that after a period of routine discussions between crew members, “the recordings show sounds uncharacteristic of a standard flight precede the moment of the airliner’s disappearance”.
“We don’t have any direct evidence of any terrorist involvement yet”, Clapper said in Washington.
“We have seen no reports that would support that”, Trudeau said when asked whether the United States is concerned about ISIS claims that it shot down the plane.
He said there had been no emergency call from the pilots to services on the ground during the flight, which took off from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and was bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.
Additionally, 140 bodies and more than 100 body parts were transported by two planes to St. Petersburg, with a third to follow Tuesday night.
But the head of Russia’s Federal Aviation Agency, Aleksandr Neradko, told Russian TV that such talk was premature and “not based on any proper facts”.
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A woman cries near a “memorial” to the victims of the Airbus A321 crash at the Pulkovo Airport on November 1, 2015 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
