DIFFERING THEORIES ON CRASH UK grounds all flights to and from Egypt

Posted on 11/05/2015

British and US officials said Wednesday they have information suggesting the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt that killed all 224 people onboard last Saturday plane may have been brought down by a bomb. The UK grounded all flights to and from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Some major international air carriers have also avoided flying over the Sinai Peninsula area since Saturday’s crash. Emirates, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM have rerouted their flights until all the risks, including a possible terrorist act, have been ruled out by investigators.

Britain has sent a team of security and defence experts to the resort, where thousands of British tourists are stranded.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says he expects British tourists to be flown back from Sharm el-Sheikh starting Friday, after measures are taken to tighten security at the resort's airport.

Hammond said “the airline industry is indicating that they expect by tomorrow to be in a position to start bringing people out.”

Egyptian officials have condemned Britain's travel ban as an overreaction. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is in London and is due at 10 Downing St. Thursday for what is likely to be a tense meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron.

Egypt's Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Eldamaty dismissed allegations by the US and Britain that the Airbus A321 may have been brought down by a bomb.

The minister says the crash on Saturday in Sinai was “not a terror act. It was an accident.” He stressed that it's “very sad what happened, but we have to wait for the result of the investigation.”

Eldamaty spoke at the ancient city of Luxor as authorities opened three tombs to the public for the first time in an effort to encourage tourism.

Egypt's presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef also has said that Egyptian authorities wish US and Britain had “waited for the result of the ongoing investigation.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the suggestion that a bomb is likely to have caused last weekend's Russian plane crash over Egypt.

The Russian Federal Transport Agency says airliner Metrojet has suspended all flights of Airbus A321 jets in its fleet after last weekend's crash of its plane in Sinai.

The agency said in a statement Thursday that Metrojet has filed documents showing the suspension, pending checks by the authorities. Metrojet has four A321 aircraft.

The company has ruled out a pilot error or a technical fault as a possible cause of the crash while Russian authorities have refrained from remarks, citing ongoing investigations.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Moscow “cannot rule out a single theory” about the crash but insisted that singling one out is merely speculation.