Russian aircraft crashed in Egypt

The Russian passenger aircraft A321 Kogalymavia, which executed a flight from Sharm Esh-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, crashed near the airport of the city of El-Arish on the Sinai Peninsula, TASS reports . There were 217 passengers on board, of which 24 children, and seven crew members.

This is the largest disaster in the history of Russian and Soviet civil aviation. President Vladimir Putin, in connection with a crash, announced in Russia on November 1 in the afternoon of mourning.

It is reported that among the dead are four citizens of Ukraine and one - Belarus. The rest of the passengers and crew members were Russians.

Three rescue aircraft, special teams of rescuers, and ambulances were sent to the crash site. The Egyptian authorities said that all those who were on board were killed. Eyewitnesses note that people at the time of death were sitting in their places and were fastened. The bodies will be delivered to Cairo, and from there to Russia.

Both on -board A321 recorders were found. The inspection of the location of the disaster indicates that the plane crashed due to technical malfunction, Reuters reports with reference to the security service of the North Sinai region. At the same time, the inspection carried out before the Sharm Esh-Sheikh did not reveal any malfunctions.

In Egypt, it is excluded that the aircraft could be shot down by militants operating on the Sinai Peninsula. They simply do not have weapons that can be shot down by a liner flying at such a height. Nevertheless, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa announced the decision to stop flying over the Sinai Peninsula.

The Commission of the Interstate Aviation Committee and the Ministry of Emergencies flew to Egypt. The investigation will be carried out together with the Egyptian authorities. In connection with a plane crash, the TFR initiated criminal cases. The seizures of documents are carried out at the airline’s offices, as well as the Brisco tour operator, who ordered the charter. The prosecutor’s office is checking at the Samara Airport, from where the liner flew to Egypt.

The connection with the aircraft was lost 23 minutes after takeoff. "Today at 6:51, the A-321 flight 9268 to St. Petersburg took out of the charm-esh-shoha. At 7:14, under the preliminary data, the connection and the air vessel disappeared from the screens of the radar. It has not come out, it has not appeared on the radars," said the representative of the Federal Air Transport Agency Sergei Izvolsky.

Shortly before disappearing from the radar, the Russian plane requested landing at the nearest airport. According to sources at the Cairo International Airport, the airliner was at an altitude of more than 9000 meters when the ship commander contacted dispatchers and requested a landing. After that, the connection disappeared.

The liner was in operation for 18.5 years. At the same time, the average age of the air park of Russian companies is 21 years. Kogalymavia received a car from the ILFC leasing company on March 30, 2012. In 2014, a complete inspection of the aircraft was carried out with the replacement of the resource and not passed the inspection of the units.

Kogalymavia was created in 1993. On January 1, 2011, at the Surgut Airport, after starting before starting on the trunk rudder , one of the engines of the Tu-154 company aircraft caught fire . Passengers and crew members were urgently evacuated. Three people were killed, more than 40 were hospitalized with burns and carbon monoxide poisoning.

In 2012, she rebranded and received a new commercial name Metrojet. Now the airline has two A320 aircraft and seven A321. The company operates in the annexed Crimea. In October of this year, Kogalymavia fell under Ukrainian sanctions , she is forbidden to execute flights to this country.