A Russian airliner which crashed in
Egypt's Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, broke up in
mid-air, a Russian official says.
Victor Sorochenko, the head of
Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, said it was too early to
conclude what caused the crash on Saturday.
He told reporters debris was found across a 20sq km-wide area of Sinai. So far 163 bodies have been found.
Russia observed a day of mourning on Sunday after its worst air disaster.
Mr
Sorochenko spoke after visiting the site of the debris, near the
village of Hasana. The head of Russia's Air Transport Agency, Aleksandr
Neradko, said that "all signs attest to the fact that the aircraft
disintegrated in the air at a high altitude".
Jihadists allied to so-called Islamic State in Sinai, where such groups are active, had made a claim on social media that they had brought down flight KGL9268.
But Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed
that a plane could not be downed at 9,450m (31,000ft), the altitude the
Airbus 321 was flying at, by weapons the militants are known to possess.
President
Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also urged caution on Sunday, saying the
investigation into the cause was a "complicated matter" that could take
months.
Russian
Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said no evidence had been seen that
indicated the plane was targeted, and IS has not produced pictures or
video footage to substantiate its claim.
Analysis by BBC
Monitoring found that a video purporting to show the downing of a plane
did not appear to be an official IS clip, and was not shared on official
IS channels.
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| Last radar contact site & route of the Russian airliner |
A number of major airlines - Emirates, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, and
Qatar Airways - have decided not to fly over the Sinai Peninsula until
more information is available. Two smaller carriers, flydubai and Air
Arabia, also said they would re-route flights, while Etihad Airways said
it would avoid only "certain areas of airspace" over Sinai.
Germany's transport ministry has told German airlines not to follow the same route taken by the Russian plane.
British
Airways said it regularly assessed the safety of its routes. BA said it
would not confirm flight routes, but that it "would never fly a route
unless it was safe to do so".
The plane came down early on
Saturday, shortly after leaving the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for the
Russian city of St Petersburg.
Russian and French investigators
have joined the Egyptian-led probe, along with experts from Airbus,
which is headquartered in France.
Egyptian officials said some
bodies had been recovered within a radius of 5km on Saturday, but that
of a three-year-old girl was found 8km from the scene.
One unnamed
official told Reuters the plane appeared to have split in two, with one
part burning up and the other crashing into a rock.
The plane's flight recorders have been found and sent for analysis, officials said.
Russia's
transport regulator said on Sunday it would check all the airline's
A-321 planes, but Kogalymavia said this would not affect their
operations.
Egypt's civil aviation minister Hossam Kamal said
there had been no sign of any problems on board the flight,
contradicting earlier reports that the pilot had asked to make an
emergency landing.
An Egyptian ground service official who carried
out a pre-flight inspection of the plane said the aircraft appeared to
be in good shape
"We are all shocked. It was a good plane. Everything checked out in 35 minutes," the official told AP.
However, the widow of the plane's co-pilot told Russian TV her husband had complained about the aircraft's technical condition.
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| Relatives mourning for their love-ones |
The plane was carrying 217 passengers, including 25 children, Russian
transport authorities said. There were seven crew members on board.
Most of the passengers were Russian, but at least three were Ukrainian and one Belarusian.
A plane returning 162 bodies to Russia left Cairo late on Sunday, an airport official said.
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