U.S. satellite detected heat flash at time of Egypt crash

A USA infrared satellite reportedly detected a heat flash at the time of the air incident on Saturday, with a senior Pentagon official telling NBC News that the intelligence community in Washington believes that a surface-to-air attack was not responsible.

It said the data was still being analysed and although the flash could have been caused by a bomb, it was also possible that a mechanical failure had caused an explosion in a fuel tank or the engine.

While an Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State seized the opportunity to claim responsibility for the plane crash Saturday, Russian officials remained skeptical.

Company officials told reporters in Moscow on Monday that the crash did not result from pilot error or technical problems with the aircraft.

The United States Embassy in Cairo has instructed its staff not to travel anywhere in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as a “precautionary measure”, pending the outcome of the investigation into the crash of a Russian passenger jet.

Confusing reports and theories emerged on Monday as to what could have caused the crash.

And U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a “Defense One” conference Monday that there was not yet any “direct evidence of terrorist involvement” in the crash.

In Egypt, an worldwide team of experts prepared to analyze the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

The claim, however, has been denied by the Egyptian authorities.

Metrojet’s deputy director general Alexander Smirnov said: “There are no circumstances where a plane can just fall apart in mid-air”.

He said there had been no emergency call from the pilots to services on the ground during the flight, which took off from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh bound for the Russian city of St Petersburg.

Egypt said the plane was carrying 196 bodies.

More than 100 body parts and 140 bodies were flown to St. Petersburg on three government planes.

The vague comment made translation hard, with a few interpreting that the executive said an “external influence” caused the crash.

Aviation analyst Paul Beaver said the heat picked up by the satellite “indicates that there was a catastrophic explosion or disintegration of the airplane”, but doesn’t reveal what caused it. “And terrorism has not been ruled out”.

“This kind of talk is… not based on any proper facts”, Aleksandr Neradko said on Russian TV.

Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that Russian and Egyptian experts had not found any blast-related trauma during their preliminary examination of the bodies, citing a Russian source within the investigation.

President Vladimir Putin has described the crash – Russia’s worst air disaster – as a “huge tragedy”.

Both US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the information publicly.