The Russian source said the aircraft was an Airbus A-321 jet, and was operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia.
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The plane was carrying 217 passengers, 17 of them children, and seven crew.
According to Egyptian media, the pilot reported a technical failure shortly after take off and requested to land at a nearby airport, Sky’s Middle East Correspondent Sherine Tadros reported.
A flight radar search of flight KGL9268 shows it suddenly dropping to a speed of 62 knots (115 km/h) after, minutes earlier, the plane was travelling at up to 400km/h.
Flintoff adds that the Russian Aviation Agency says this was a charter flight carrying tourists back from the popular Russian tourist destination spot.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian security officer who had recently arrived at the scene told Reuters the plane was completely destroyed and most of those on board are likely to have died.
The crash site was discovered hours later in a desolate mountainous area of central Sinai.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal probe into any possible violation of air safety rules, a standard procedure when air crashes involving Russian planes occur.
North Sinai has been the epicenter of a violent insurgency – which has mainly targeted Egyptian security personnel – since the ouster in mid-2013 of democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi by the army. But in a conflicting statement, Egypt’s air accident chief had said that the missing passenger plane on its way to Russian Federation had safely left Egyptian airspace and made contact with Turkish air traffic control.
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Reuters reported officials at the scene as saying voices of trapped passengers could be heard in a section of the plane.
The Russian emergency ministry will send three planes to the area to help with possible rescues and the investigation.
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Spokespeople for the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency confirmed the crash of the aircraft.
