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Sinai plane crash: Russian airline official rejects possibility of technical fault Sinai plane crash due to 'external factor', says airline
(35 minutes later)
The Russian airline whose jet crashed in Egypt on Saturday, killing all 224 people on board, has said the crash could not have been caused by technical faults or human error. Only an “external factor” could have caused the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt that killed all 224 people on board, a top airline official has said, raising more questions about what exactly happened.
Alexander Smirnov, the deputy general director of Metrojet, said the cause of the crash “could only have been an external impact on the plane” in the air, causing it to break up in mid-air and plummet to the ground. “We rule out a technical fault of the plane or a pilot error,” said Alexander Smirnov, deputy general director of Metrojet. “The only explainable cause is physical impact on the aircraft.”
When pressed for an explanation about what could have caused this impact, Smirnov insisted that he was not at liberty to discuss details because the investigation was ongoing.When pressed for an explanation about what could have caused this impact, Smirnov insisted that he was not at liberty to discuss details because the investigation was ongoing.
“The plane was in excellent condition,” Smirnov told a news conference in Moscow. “We rule out a technical fault and any mistake by the crew,” he said. The fact that the crew did not attempt to contact ground services meant that it had “completely lost operational capabilities when the catastrophic situation began to develop” and was not able to put out a distress signal, Smirnov said.
A source in the Egyptian committee analysing the plane’s black box recorders told Reuters that the plane was not struck from the outside. The source declined to give more details but based his comments on the preliminary examination of the boxes.A source in the Egyptian committee analysing the plane’s black box recorders told Reuters that the plane was not struck from the outside. The source declined to give more details but based his comments on the preliminary examination of the boxes.
Russian aviation investigators said on Sunday it was clear that the plane had broken up in flight on its way from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg.
According to Smirnov, the plane dropped 186mph in speed and about 5,000ft in altitude one minute before it crashed into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. He also said the crew did not send a distress call and they did not contact traffic controllers before the crash.According to Smirnov, the plane dropped 186mph in speed and about 5,000ft in altitude one minute before it crashed into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. He also said the crew did not send a distress call and they did not contact traffic controllers before the crash.
Aviation experts have speculated that a sudden mechanical failure or an explosion could have been to blame after the aircraft broke up over the Sinai desert. Aviation experts have speculated that a sudden mechanical failure or an explosion could have been to blame.
A Kremlin spokesman said there were not yet grounds to rule out any theory for the crash. Dmitry Peskov was replying to a question at a press conference about whether a terrorist attack could be to blame. On Saturday, a militant group affiliated to Islamic State in Egypt claimed responsibility for bringing down the jet, but Egypt and Russia disputed the claim, suggesting militants in northern Sinai, where Egypt has been fighting an Islamic insurgency, did not have the weaponry to hit a flight at 9,000 metres (31,000ft).
The plane was carrying Russian holidaymakers home from the beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Another theory is that a bomb was placed on board the plane. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that “no causes can be ruled out”. When asked about a possible terrorist attack, he called on journalists to wait for investigators’ results.
Early on Monday, the bodies of 140 victims of the crash arrived back in St Petersburg. Their remains were to be taken in a motorcade to a crematorium for identification, which will begin later in the day, according to Russia’s emergency ministry. The aircraft, built in 1997, suffered a tail strike in 2001, where the rear end of the plane touches the runway on takeoff. It underwent extensive repairs. On Monday, Oksana Golovina, a spokeswoman for the company that owns Metrojet, said the repaired area had been inspected in 2014. “The airplane was 100% ready to fly, in working order, otherwise it wouldn’t have taken off,” she said.
Despite additional checks imposed by the state transport regulator, Golovina said Metrojet would continue its flights to Egypt. Two of its remaining airplanes have undergone safety checks and two are in the process of being checked out, she said.
“If we for a second doubted the flight readiness of our planes or our personnel, we would stop flights,” Golovina said. “We are confident our flights are in working order, we are confident our personnel’s capabilities meet or even exceed international standards.”
The dead, including more than 20 children, were all Russian apart from four Ukrainians and one person from Belarus. Early on Monday, the bodies of 140 victims of the crash arrived back in St Petersburg. Their remains were to be taken in a motorcade to a crematorium for identification, which will begin later in the day, according to Russia’s emergency ministry.