Russian Crash in the Sinai: 'Plane Broke Up in the Air,' Official Says

[MULTIZ321]

Russian Crash in the Sinai: 'Plane Broke Up in the Air,' Official Says - by Alexey Eremenko, Charlene Gubash, Cassandra Vinograd and The Associated Press / News/ nbcnews.com

"The Russian plane that crashed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula "broke up in the air," a Russian aviation official said on Sunday, as airlines halted flights over the region while waiting for clarity on what downed the airliner.

Viktor Sorochenko, an official with the Intergovernmental Aviation Committee, said it appeared that the Airbus A321 operated by Metrojet broke up midair before crashing Saturday with 224 people on board. Sorochenko said it was too early to make assumptions based on this finding after he made the comments following a visit to the crash site with other investigators Sunday, according to Reuters..."

Richard

 

[VacationForever]

My speculation would be.... looked at what the Russians did to that Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine, do not do to others what you would not have others done to you.

 

[Ty1on]

While Russia has missiles that can take down a plane at cruising altitude, I'm not so confident about ISIS having that capability.

 

[vacationhopeful]

While Russia has missiles that can take down a plane at cruising altitude, I'm not so confident about ISIS having that capability.

Unless Russia is MISSING a few of those missiles. Or is the US or its allies MISSING a missile or two?

 

[Ty1on]

As well as highly trained operators. If it's ISIS, I rather suspect on board explosives. Forensic tests of the wreckage will tell.

 

[pedro47]

As well as highly trained operators. If it's ISIS, I rather suspect on board explosives. Forensic tests of the wreckage will tell.

I liked your theory or a person handling luggage or food could have loaded a device onto the plane prior to departure.

 

[x3 skier]

From other aviation boards, a good guess is in flight structural failure which might be related to a significant damaging incident when the aircraft was previously operated by a Turkish airline.

Cheers

 

[easyrider]

ISIS gas a video of the plane going down. They are claiming they did this.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...gypt-Fears-aircraft-crashed-Sinai-desert.html

ISIS has released a video purporting to show the final moments of the Russian jet that crashed in Egypt, killing all 224 people on board.
The terror group has claimed it downed the aircraft, but has not said how it might have done so. The horrific footage - which was posted online and cannot be verified by MailOnline - shows a large structure resembling a plane falling through the air, before being consumed by a mass of smoke.
Cairo and Moscow have denied any possible terrorism link in the incident, which was one of the deadliest Airbus crashes in the past decade.

Bill

 

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Debris Suggests Russian Airliner Disintegrated While Aloft, Officals Say - by Nicola Clark/ Europe/ International New York Times/ The New York Times/ nytimes.com

"PARIS — The Airbus A321-200 had just reached a cruising altitude of about 33,000 feet when, around 20 minutes after taking off from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, it suddenly plummeted by some 6,000 feet.

Over the next 20 seconds, the airliner, which was en route to St. Petersburg, Russia, abruptly climbed and descended several times before radar contact was lost, according to preliminary transponder data published by FlightRadar24.com, a commercial company that tracks airline routes.

Investigators were weighing that chain of events, and other factors, as they undertook an inquiry into what caused the 18-year-old aircraft to fall from the skies above the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, killing all 224 people aboard.

But unravelling exactly what led to the disaster could take weeks, aviation safety experts said. The list of potential explanations includes a number of possibilities, ranging from a sudden mechanical or structural failure to a more troubling scenario, like a terrorist attack.
Continue reading the main story
What We Know So Far

224 people died, mostly young Russian families on vacation.
The crash was said to be the worst in Russia's aviation history.
The wide distribution of debris, over eight square miles, indicated the plane had broken up in the air.
The plane was operated by Kogalymavia, a private company that flies under the name Metrojet.
Authorities are considering mechanical failure and terrorism as causes.
The Islamic State in the Sinai claimed responsibility, but is not known to possess surface-to-air missiles.
Some airlines are now rerouting flights to avoid the Sinai Peninsula.

On Sunday, officials cited the exceptionally wide distribution of debris, over an area of approximately 20 square kilometers, or 7.7 square miles, as a strong indication that Metrojet Flight 9268 did not hit the ground intact.

“Disintegration of the fuselage took place in the air, and the fragments are scattered around a large area,” Viktor Sorochenko, director of Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee, told journalists in Cairo after visiting the crash site.

According to people with knowledge of the investigation, the remains of the plane’s tail section, which had been damaged in a 2001 accident, were found several miles away from the front fuselage and cockpit. In addition, the bodies of several victims were discovered a significant distance from the main debris field, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the inquiry..."

Richard

 

[WinniWoman]

The thing is, the pilot knew something was wrong which is why he made an about face after 20 minutes in the air. If it was a bomb in the luggage, he wouldn't have known that.

If it were a missile- maybe he could see it?

If it were a suicide bomber, I guess he could hear what is going on being locked in the cock pit. But you would think maybe some people would be on their cell phones making calls about it.

 

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Russian Plane Crash in Sinai: Questions Swirl as 224 Aboard Are Mourned - by Jethro Mullen, Arwa Damon and Catherine E. Shoichet/ Middle East/ CNN/ cnn.comn

"Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (CNN)A Russian passenger jet broke into pieces in midair, a top aviation official said Sunday, but he said it was too soon to say what could have caused the crash in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The plane crash Saturday morning killed all 224 people aboard Kogalymavia Flight 9268 and left debris strewn across a remote area of a region plagued by a violent Islamic insurgency.

"Disintegration of the fuselage took place in the air, and the fragments are scattered around a large area (about 20 square kilometers)," Viktor Sorochenko, executive director of Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, told journalists, according to reports.

Footage from the scene showed mangled wreckage and piles of belongings from the plane spilled over a largely flat, barren landscape.

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (CNN)A Russian passenger jet broke into pieces in midair, a top aviation official said Sunday, but he said it was too soon to say what could have caused the crash in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The plane crash Saturday morning killed all 224 people aboard Kogalymavia Flight 9268 and left debris strewn across a remote area of a region plagued by a violent Islamic insurgency.

"Disintegration of the fuselage took place in the air, and the fragments are scattered around a large area (about 20 square kilometers)," Viktor Sorochenko, executive director of Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, told journalists, according to reports.

Footage from the scene showed mangled wreckage and piles of belongings from the plane spilled over a largely flat, barren landscape.

Learning that the plane broke into pieces while in the air helps narrow down what could have caused the crash, but there are still plenty of possibilities, one expert said Sunday.

"It narrows it down a little bit, but there are a number of issues that could have affected this plane," said Peter Goelz, a CNN aviation analyst and former managing director of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. "And terrorism has not been ruled out..."

Richard

 

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Mystery Deepens Over Russian Plane Crash in Egypt - by Neil MacFarquhar/ World/ Europe/ International New York Times/ The New York Times/ nytimes.com


"MOSCOW — The mystery deepened Monday over the weekend crash of a Russian charter plane on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt that killed all 224 aboard, with company executives ruling out technical or human error only to be upbraided by aviation officials who called such assertions premature.

As representatives from at least five countries joined the investigation of the Airbus jetliner crash, new questions also arose about the aircraft’s repair history and the possibility that a terrorist act felled it on Saturday.

The Metrojet flight full of mostly Russian vacationers, bound for St. Petersburg from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh, plummeted after having reached cruising altitude, scattering in chunks and bits across almost eight square miles.

The lack of information has been exacerbated by unsubstantiated claims from the Islamic State that its militants destroyed the aircraft to avenge colleagues killed by Russia’s immersion into the Syria war.

Senior officials at Metrojet, the charter company that operated the aircraft, sounded definitive in their statements that the plane and crew were faultless.

“We absolutely exclude the technical failure of the plane, and we absolutely exclude pilot error or a human factor,” Aleksandr A. Smirnov, a former pilot and the airline’s deputy director for aviation, told a packed news conference in Moscow.

Mr. Smirnov said that the crash could have been caused by “an external impact on the plane,” although he did not endorse the theory of a terrorist attack either, saying that the investigation would have to determine the cause..."

Joe Burgess/The New York Times|Source: Flightradar24

Packed with passengers, a
plane vanishes from the radar

The charter flight with 224 people on board took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, shortly before 6 a.m., and was headed to St. Petersburg, Russia.


Richard

 

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U.S. Detects Heat Around Doomed Russian Jet Just Before Crash - by Dimitry Lovetsky/ The Big Story/ Associated Press/ bigstory.ap.org

"ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — U.S. satellite imagery detected heat around a Russian passenger jet just before it went down in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, two U.S. officials said Tuesday. But the discovery doesn't resolve the mystery of why the plane crashed, killing all 224 aboard.

A missile striking the Metrojet Airbus A321-200 was ruled out because neither a launch nor an engine burn had been detected, one of the officials said.

The infrared activity that was detected could mean many things, including a bomb blast or that an engine on the plane exploded due to a malfunction.

Aviation analyst Paul Beaver said the heat picked up by the satellite "indicates that there was a catastrophic explosion or disintegration of the airplane," but doesn't reveal the cause.

"It doesn't tell us if it was a bomb ... or if somebody had a fight in the airplane with a gun — there is a whole raft of things that could happen in this regard," he said.

It also could indicate a fuel tank or engine exploding, although "engines are designed so that if something malfunctions or breaks off, it is contained within the engine," Beaver added..."

A portrait of 10 month Darina Gromova, a victim of a plane crash, is surrounded by flowers and candles at an entrance of Pulkovo airport outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Nov. 2, 2015. In a massive outpouring of grief, thousands of people flocked to St. Petersburg's airport, laying flowers, soft toys and paper planes next to the pictures of the victims of the crash of a passenger jet in Egypt that killed all 224 on board in Russia's deadliest air crash to date. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)


Richard

 

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Russian Plane Crash: U.S. Intelligence Suggests Bomb was Planted by Islamic State as Britain Suspends Sharm el-Sheikh Flights - Latest News - By Rob Crilly, and David Lawler, Isabelle Fraser with Raf Sanchez in Cairo, Magdy Samaan in Sharm El Sheikh, and Roland Oliphant in St Petersburg / World/ Europe/ Russia/ The Telegraph/ telegraph.co.uk

"It is believed there are up to 20,000 Brits in Sharm El-Sheikh who may have to be evacuated, as pressure placed on Egypt and Russian authorities following No 10 announcement "


Richard

 

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Bomb by Islamic State Likely Caused Russian Plane Crash: Security Sources - by By Mark Hosenball, William James and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan / World/ Reuters/ reuters.com

"Evidence now suggests that a bomb planted by the Islamic State militant group is the likely cause of last weekend's crash of a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai peninsula, U.S. and European security sources said on Wednesday.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and is battling the Egyptian army in the Sinai Peninsula, said again on Wednesday it brought down the airplane, adding it would eventually tell the world how it carried out the attack..."

An Egyptian military helicopter flies over debris from a Russian airliner which crashed at the Hassana area in Arish city, north Egypt, November 1, 2015.
Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

Spotty Intelligence Prompts U.S. Caution in Assessing Jet Crash in Egypt - by Mark Mazzetti/ U.S./ Politics/ International New York Times/ The New York Times/ nytimes.com

"WASHINGTON — The United States has spent billions over the past 14 years improving its ability to gather intelligence across the globe, much of that money intended to ensure that acts of airborne terrorism like the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, never happen again.
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But since a Russian charter jet crashed in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt last week, a combination of factors has limited the ability of the United States to quickly piece together information sufficient to determine with confidence why the plane fell from the sky..."

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

U.S. Officials: 'IS' Boasted About Sinai Plane - 'Islamic State'/ DW-TV/ Deutsche Welle/ .dw.com

"An American TV station has said 'IS' terrorists have been recorded bragging about the recent downing of a Russian jet. The news comes amid tightening flight security near Egypt's Sinai region..."

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

Russian Plane Crash: Flight Recorder Captured 'Sound of Explosion' - by Ewen MacAskill, Gwyn Topham, Peter Beaumont in Sharm el-Sheikh, Ben Quinn, Andrew Sparrow and Alec Luhn in Moscow/ Egypt/ the guardian/ theguardian.com

"The sound of an apparent explosion can be heard on the flight recorder of the Russian-operated plane that came down over the Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, adding to the evidence that a bomb was smuggled aboard, French media sources said on Friday.

Giving further credence to the idea that the plane crash was a terrorist act rather than because of structural failure, Russia, which for a week has been resistant to speculation about a bomb, suspended flights to all Egyptian airports..."

Richard

 

[MULTIZ321]

Sharm-el-Sheikh Airport Officials Reveal Porous Security - by Nour Youssef, Associated Press/ apnewsarchive.com

"CAIRO (AP) — The airport at Egypt's resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has long seen gaps in security, including a key baggage scanning device that often is not functioning and lax searches at an entry gate for food and fuel for the planes, security officials at the airport told The Associated Press..."

An Egyptian policeman checks a Russian tourist's passport at the main entrance to the Sharm el-Sheikh airport in Egypt on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015. Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry complained on Saturday that Western governments had not sufficiently helped Egypt in its war on terrorism and had not shared relevant intelligence with Cairo regarding the Russian airplane that crashed last week in the Sinai, killing all 224 people onboard. (AP Photo/Ahmed Abd El-Latif)


Richard

 

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Exclusive: Investigators '90 Percent Sure' Bomb Downed Russian Plane - CAIRO | By Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Michael Georgy/

Investigators of the Russian plane crash in Egypt are "90 percent sure" the noise heard in the final second of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb, a member of the investigation team told Reuters on Sunday.

The Airbus (AIR.PA) A321 crashed 23 minutes after taking off from the Sharm al-Sheikh tourist resort eight days ago, killing all 224 passengers and crew. Islamic State militants fighting Egyptian security forces in Sinai said they brought it down.

"The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb," said the Egyptian investigation team member, who asked not to be named due to sensitivities. "We are 90 percent sure it was a bomb."

A military investigator from Russia stands near the debris of a Russian airliner at its crash site at the Hassana area in Arish city, north Egypt, November 1, 2015.
Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany


Richard

 

[pedro47]

I liked your theory or a person handling luggage or food could have loaded a device onto the plane prior to departure.

My theory is a bomb device was loaded on to plane by an employee at the airport..

 

[MULTIZ321]

The Russian Plane Crash, One Week Later - by Marina Koren/ Global/ International/ The Atlantic/ theatlantic.com

"One week after a passenger plane crashed in Egypt, the investigation into the worst civil-aviation disaster in Russian history has become a multinational effort.

Russian and Egyptian investigators are working together to pull information from the plane’s black boxes. The United States is combing through its own intelligence reports and satellite data. The United Kingdom must be too, since on Wednesday it became the first world power to publicly suggest terrorism. It went further on Thursday, when British Prime Minister David Cameron said the crash was “more likely than not” caused by a bomb. President Obama followed him later that day, saying that “it’s certainly possible that there was a bomb on board.”

The cause of the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 has not yet been officially determined. Moscow has dismissed reports of a terroristic act as speculation. So has Cairo. But the international response—the hurried independent attempts by uninvolved nations to figure out what happened—makes sense in a world where the worst outcome affects not only Russia and Egypt, but also dozens of other nations. A branch of the Islamic State based in the Sinai Peninsula, where Flight 9268 fell, has claimed responsibility for the crash. If that is confirmed, the crash would be the worst terrorist attack on civil aviation since 9/11—and the first by the world’s most violent jihadist organization..."

People gather at Dvortsovaya Square to commemorate the victims in St. Petersburg, Russia. Reuters


Richard

 

[WinniWoman]

I am still obsessed with the fact that it was reported that after 20 minutes the plane made an about face to go back to the airport BEFORE it blew up. Why?

 

[DeniseM]

I am still obsessed with the fact that it was reported that after 20 minutes the plane made an about face to go back to the airport BEFORE it blew up. Why?

I haven't seen that, are you sure? The map above does not show that. (#12)

 

[x3 skier]

I am still obsessed with the fact that it was reported that after 20 minutes the plane made an about face to go back to the airport BEFORE it blew up. Why?

Everything I have read has said the flight was proceeding normally on course before breaking up.

Cheers