Family delayed in Sharm el-Sheikh arrive home

Egyptian media have reacted with fury at claims by Britain and the United States that a Russian jet was brought down by a bomb, branding it “Western terrorism” created to ruin the country’s economy.

Concerns were also raised about unlit corners of the airport that were hard to monitor and security guards playing on their phones instead of manning X-ray machines. In tourism, safety is all about perception, as Egypt is now discovering. No one was inside the four-unit apartment building or another home that caught fire, said Lt. Sierjie Lash, an Akron fire department spokeswoman.

Several governments including Britain and Israel believe the plane was most likely downed by a bomb on board after it took off from the airport of the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

At the airport yesterday (Wednesday), Mr Sisi promised that the Egyptian-led investigation into the cause of the crash would be conducted with “utmost transparency and integrity”.

Ignatenko, however, is convinced that the conclusions of the direct participation of Wilayat Sinai in the preparation of a potential terrorist attack on board the Russian plane are premature. People were not sure whether they were going to be on flights or not.

“I wish no one had rushed ahead of the results of the investigation”, Sisi said in comments aired on Egyptian television.

This makes the Sharm el-Shiekh plane crash “the worst catastrophe” for the tourism industry in the country, officials said. In its peak in 2010, tourism employed 12 percent of Egypt’s workforce and accounted for approximately 11.3 percent of the country’s GDP, bringing in almost 15 million visitors.

There has been little mention of the incident on Egyptian state television.

Even though the insurgency in northern Sinai has dissuaded many people from travelling to large parts of the country, Sharm El Sheikh has always enjoyed a steady flow of visitors because it was considered to be a safe haven.

The Ministry of Tourism has been working hard to boost tourism back to its former glory: In August, then-minister Khaled Ramy announced signing a three-year campaign deal with JWT, a global marketing and advertising agency.

“We had obviously booked our time off work, packed all our cases, booked the auto into the airport vehicle park and made all the arrangements and it was not until Friday that it said on the website that we would not be flying out”, she said. “Now these nationalities barely come”, Al-Azmerly said.