Foreign intelligence on plane crash not shared with Egypt

Egypt pushed back on Saturday against global suspicions that a bomb caused a Russian plane to crash in the Sinai, killing 224 people, as investigators said its cause was still unknown.

Russians make up close to one in three of all foreign tourists in Egypt, majority holidaymakers visiting the resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada.

The Daily Mail said the Thomson Airways pilot took evasive action and landed safely.

The Ministry of Defense says it has sent two Il-76 cargo planes to Egypt to bring back larger luggage the Russians had to leave behind.

He also said foreign countries did not heed Egypt’s calls for greater co-ordination to fight terrorism.

Russian Federation announced Friday it was suspending flights to all of Egypt. At least a half-dozen Western European governments told their citizens not to travel there.

Russian specialists will ask French and Egyptian investigators to provide evidence confirming the onboard explosion.

Citing a wide debris field that stretches more than 8 miles in the Sinai Peninsula, Muqaddam says his commission has concluded Metrojet 9268 broke up in the air – and that they’re still analyzing the last second of the cockpit voice recording, in which he says “a noise was heard”.

In an apparent reference to the bomb theory, Muqaddam said that a few media reports “claimed to be based on official intelligence which favors a certain scenario for the cause of the accident”, and that Egypt had not been provided with that information.

Meanwhile the BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner said the British security services suspected that someone with access to the plane’s baggage compartment planted an explosive device there shortly before the jet took off. a few evacuation flights from Sharm el-Sheikh to Britain were due to resume today, with airlines laying on extra planes to get stranded travellers home, but passengers would only be allowed to fly with hand luggage due to a British government request.

Sources in France close to the investigation said black box data pointed to a bomb exploding.

“We still can not be categorical but there is a distinct and credible possibility that there was a bomb”, one source said.

In a statement, Hossam Kamal said Sharm el-Sheikh airport was not able to hold more than 120 tons of luggage left behind by tourists to be flown separately to the United Kingdom by cargo plane.

Militants affiliated to Islamic State (IS) have claimed responsibility for taking down the airplane.

But British authorities found the incident was probably linked to Egyptian military exercises nearby while the airline’s owners said it was likely to have involved a flare, not a missile.

“We understand the worries of a few countries …”