EXTERNAL INFLUENCE Planes don't break apart in midair

Posted on 11/02/2015

The only reasonable explanation for the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, is "an external influence," an executive from the airline that operated the flight said at a Monday news conference, stressing that planes don't just break apart in midair.

"We exclude technical problems and reject human error," Alexander Smirnov, as to possible causes of the crash.

The Russian passenger jet that crashed in Egypt had been fully inspected and its crew didn't communicate any problems during the flight, executives for the airline Kogalymavia (under the brand name MetroJet) told reporters Monday. However, a senior aviation official said earlier the pilot had radioed that the aircraft was experiencing technical problems shortly before air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane. A senior Russian aviation official earlier said Flight 9268 broke into pieces in midair before it hit the ground in a remote area of Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula on Saturday.

Officials have played down an apparent claim by Islamic militants in Sinai that they brought down the Airbus A321-200, saying technical failure is the most likely reason for the crash. Meanwhile, Russia has begun the tragic task of bringing home the bodies of victims as Russians nationwide observed a day of mourning amid a massive outpouring of grief. The Metrojet Airbus A321-200 crashed on Saturday shortly after takeoff from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh en route to St. Petersburg, breaking up at high altitude and scattering fragments of wreckage over a wide area in Sinai.

According to Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the state company that runs Egypt's civilian airports, everyone on board was Russian except for three Ukrainian passengers. An Egyptian Cabinet statement said the 217 passengers were 138 women, 62 men and 17 children. There were seven crew members aboard the 18-year-old Airbus 321-200. A Russian government plane brought home bodies of 140 passengers, landing at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport early on Monday. Russian news agencies say the government will be dispatching a second plane to bring back more remains later in the day. President Vladimir Putin declared a nationwide day of mourning, and flags flew at half-staff Monday.

On Sunday, aviation experts and the search teams were combing an area of more than 6 square miles to find bodies and pieces of the jet. The Egyptian government said that by midday, 163 bodies had been recovered. Head of Russia's federal aviation agency Alexander Neradko told reporters on Sunday that the large area over which fragments were found indicates the jet disintegrated while flying high. He would not comment on any possible reason for the crash, citing the ongoing investigation. Also Sunday in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, hundreds of mourners brought flowers, pictures of the victims, stuffed animals and paper planes to the city's airport. Others went to churches and lit candles in memory of the dead.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamal said an investigative team has arrived at the crash site to examine the debris and locate the flight's recorders, or the “black box.” Later, the same official, Ayman al-Muqadem, said the plane had crashed and that the pilot, before losing contact, had radioed that the aircraft was experiencing technical problems and that he intended to try and land at the nearest airport. It was not immediately possible to independently confirm that technical problems caused the plane to crash. Mahgoub said the aircraft had successfully undergone technical checks while at Sharm el-Sheikh's airport. A technical committee from the company was headed to Sharm el-Sheikh to collect security camera footage of the plane while it sat at the airport, including operations to supply it with fuel and passenger meals as well security checks, he said.

The aircraft had overnighted at Sharm el-Sheikh's airport, according to the Cabinet statement. Roughly three million Russian tourists, or nearly a third of all visitors in 2014, come to Egypt every year, mostly to Red Sea resorts in Sinai or in mainland Egypt. “It is too premature to detect the impact this will have on tourism. We need to know what happened first,” Tourism Ministry spokeswoman Rasha Azazi told The Associated Press. There was no sign of anything unusual at Sharm el-Sheikh's airport just hours after news of the disaster broke. Hundreds of holidaymakers, mostly from Europe and the Middle East, were arriving and departing. Flights in the afternoon were leaving at the rate of four to five per hour, with lines for international check-in spilling out the main gates.