This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34697416
The article has changed 10 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Sinai plane crash: 'External activity' caused crash | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Russian airline Kogalymavia has blamed "external activity" for Saturday's Sinai plane crash which killed 224 people. | |
| One airline official said: "The only reasonable explanation is that it was [due to] external activity." | |
| An investigation by aviation experts using data from the aircraft's "black boxes" has yet to give its conclusions. | |
| A Kremlin spokesman has told the BBC terrorism could not be ruled out as a possible cause of the crash. | |
| At a news conference in Moscow, the deputy director of the airline, which was renamed as Metrojet, ruled out a technical fault and pilot error. | |
| "The only explicable reason for the plane to have been destroyed in mid-air can be specific impact, purely mechanical, physical influence on the aircraft," Alexander Smirnov said. | |
| Another airline official acknowledged that there had been previous damage to the plane's tail in 2001 during take-off. | |
| But he said that the damage had been repaired, and was not thought to be a factor in the crash. | |
| Saturday's disaster happened shortly after the Airbus 321 took off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. |