Airlines avoid Egypt crash zone
Flights over Sinai re-routed after Russian holiday plane disaster in Isil territory that killed all 224 on board
THREE airlines announced yesterday that they would no longer fly over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt after a Russian passenger plane crashed in the troubled area, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), whose terrorists are fighting the Egyptian army in Sinai, claimed responsibility. Initially, the Egyptian authorities said the pilot of the aircraft had reported a mechanical failure and asked to land at the nearest airport. However, last night, an official said there had been no SOS call or reported problems with the aircraft.
Experts cautioned it was too early to say what had caused the disaster.
Lufthansa, Air France and Emirates said they would avoid the airspace over Sinai until it was clear what had brought down Flight KGL9268, operated by Metrojet, a small Russian airline.
The Airbus A321 took off from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh at 5.51am local time, bound for St Petersburg. The aircraft disappeared from radar screens 23 minutes later while flying at 31,000ft. It is the worst aviation disaster in Egypt’s history.
A statement purported to be from Isil said the “soldiers of the caliphate” had destroyed the plane and killed all the passengers “by the grace of Allah”.
Of the 217 passengers and seven crew, 221 were Russian and three Ukrainian. Tearful families waiting at St Petersburg airport were taken to a hotel for counselling after news of the crash reached them.
An Egyptian security officer at the crash site described a “tragic scene”, saying there were “a lot of dead on the ground and many who died whilst strapped to their seats”.
The security officer said: “The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside.” Most of the passengers on board were holidaymakers. About three million Russians visit Egypt every year, mainly for the Red Sea resorts of the Sinai.
Among the passengers were 17 children and a newly married couple. Pictures of the dead began to emerge last night, including Alena Moiseeva, a fiveyear-old girl; Yury Shein with his daughter Anastasia; and two young women, Valeria Bogdanova and Anastasia Bogdanova.
Among the distraught relations who had been waiting at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport was Ella Smirnova, 25, who said: “I am meeting my parents. I spoke to them last on the phone when they were already on the plane, and then I heard the news.
“I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive, but perhaps I will never see them again.”
President Vladimir Putin declared a day of national mourning.
Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, telephoned his Russian counterpart to offer condolences and promised to “uncover the circumstances surrounding the incident, in full cooperation and co-ordination with the Russian side”. Egypt will lead the investigation with the help of Russian experts. Because the Airbus was made
in Europe, the European Aviation Safety Agency will take part. The US National Transportation Safety Board will also be involved because the engines were manufactured in America. The “black box” flight recorder has already been recovered.
FlightRadar24, a flight tracking service based in Sweden, said the Metrojet Airbus had begun to descend rapidly at a rate of about 6,000ft per minute. “It was climbing quite normally when, after 23 minutes, it passed 30,000ft and suddenly started to lose speed,” said Mikail Robertson, of FlightRadar24. He said the plane “started to drop very fast”, then “after about 20 seconds we lost the signal from this aircraft.”.
Newly-weds Elena Rodina and Alexander Krotov, both 33, were on the flight. Yulia Zaitseva, a friend, said Elena had “really wanted to go to Egypt”, despite Ms Zaitseva suggesting it was unwise. She added that Elena’s parents feel “like their lives are over”.
Darina Gromova, aged just 10 months, had been pictured standing against the glass in the airport looking at the planes on the runway moments before take-off after a family holiday.
Before boarding the plane, one of her relations had written on social media: “Hi Peter (St Petersburg), goodbye Egypt. We’re going home.”
Isil’s statement of responsibility was apparently supported by a YouTube video purporting to show a twin-engined airliner on fire. However, the Airbus was last recorded flying at 31,000ft and the shoulder-launched surface-toair missiles Isil is believed to possess are rarely effective above 10,000ft.
Only an advanced missile system – of a kind that no terrorist group in the region is known to deploy – could have destroyed the plane at its last known altitude.
David Learmount, a consulting editor with Flight Global, an aviation information website, said it was too early to rule anything out. “Flight radar data makes clear there was a flight upset, but we have no idea why,” he said. Maksim Sokolov, the Russian transport minister, dismissed Isil’s claim, saying: “It can’t be considered accurate”.
Nonetheless, Lufthansa, Air France and Emirates have decided to avoid Sinai until the cause of the crash is clear. A spokesman for Lufthansa said: “We took the decision to avoid the area because the situation and the reasons for the crash were not clear.”
A spokesman for Emirates airlines said last night: “Emirates is currently avoiding flying over the Sinai peninsula until more information is available. We are monitoring the situation.”
However, British Airways said it would continue to fly over Sinai. “The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and we would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so,” said a BA spokesman. “Our safety team continually liaises with the appropriate authorities around the world, and we conduct very detailed risk assessments into every route we operate.”
Thomas Cook, which operates 13 flights a week to Sharm el-Sheikh, said it would continue to serve the destination. “We always follow the Foreign Office advice, and will continue to do so. Over the weekend, the airline operated its two daily flights as normal,” said a spokesman.
Russian investigators yesterday raided the Moscow office of Metrojet, which operated the flight. It has a fleet of seven planes serving 12 international destinations. The aircraft which crashed was built by Airbus in 1997 and flown by Metrojet from 2012. It had recorded more than 56,000 flying hours.
Egypt’s army has been fighting an Islamist insurgency in Sinai, where Isil has established a strong presence. The Foreign Office advises British travellers not to visit the region, with the exception of Sharm el-Sheikh and the nearby area.