Investigators have begun looking into the mysterious crash that killed all 224 people on board and a report from the Interfax news agency said it had seen a transcript of the cockpit recordings from the black boxes being examined by Egyptian officials. The overwhelming majority of the passengers were Russian holidaymakers flying home. “Today at 7 a.m., emergency services units started the third stage of the operation, in which the search will expand to 12 square miles”.
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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.
US officials have said they believe that the jetliner was flying too high to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile.
A militant group affiliated with Islamic State has claimed it brought down the plane.
Just before a Russian passenger airliner crashed in Egypt’s Sinai on Saturday, a USA infrared satellite reportedly detected a heat flash in the same vicinity, indicating that an explosion may have happened on board.
The Irish Aviation Authority said that the plane was registered in Ireland to Wilmington Trust SP Services (Dublin) Ltd, which leased the aircraft to Kogalymavia.
Officials representing the Moscow-based airline, Metrojet, said Monday that only “external impact” could have caused the Airbus A321 to break up mid-air as it did.
The airline says technical faults or human errors couldn’t have caused Metrojet Flight 9268 to crash.
The Russian aircraft, which crashed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, reportedly disintegrated in midair and Russia has held a series of mourning events for victims of the disaster.
Egyptian media, quoting unnamed investigators working with a Russian forensic team examining the retrieved black box flight recorders, said that the Airbus 321 jet pilot did not make a distress call requesting an emergency landing – as a few social media accounts have alleged.
On Monday, Kogalymavia, which operates flights under the name Metrojet, insisted that there wasn’t any technical failure and the plane tragedy was due to “external” factors.
One US intelligence official said, “It’s unlikely”. Putin has also ordered Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to open an investigation into the crash, the Kremlin said.
Mr Cameron said security officials were “looking very carefully” at whether there was any ongoing safety risk posed by the incident.
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Asked if the plane could have been brought down by a terror attack, he said only that “anything was possible”.
