Foreign Ministry: ‘Our condolences’ over Sinai plane crash

The plane lost contact with Egyptian air traffic controllers and reportedly failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus.

December 28: AirAsia QZ8501 flight, with 162 passengers and crew on board, from Indonesia to Singapore goes missing over the Java sea.

The plane, which took off at 11:51 p.m. EDT Friday/5:51 a.m. Egyptian time Saturday, disappeared from flight radars 23 minutes into the flight, a spokesman for the Russian aviation agency told the TASS Russian News Agency. No debris found to date. In this case the plane was deliberately crashed by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.

The plane crash in Egypt has focused attention on the safety record of the plane involved. “I now see a tragic scene”.

“A lot of dead on the ground and many who died whilst strapped to their seats. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside”. “Like each member in Airbus’ A320 family of jetliners, the A321 offers the lowest fuel burn, emissions and noise footprint in its class”, Airbus says.

Authorities in both Russian Federation and Egypt have started investigations into the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared Sunday a day of mourning while the authorities have set up an emergency center at the Saint Petersburg airport, where friends and relatives gathered, awaiting news of the victims.

The Metrojet Airbus A321-200 (registration EI-ETJ) is listed in the Irish Aviation Authority’s (IAA) Register of Aircraft as being owned Wilmington Trust SP Services Dublin Ltd with offices in the Irish Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at George’s Dock in Dublin. The airline identified the pilot as Nemov Valery Yu, a veteran of 12,000 hours of flying experience experience, with 30% of in that at the controls of an A-321 Airbus. The A321 is the longest variant of the plane, which comes in four sizes. It was powered by IAE-V2500 engines.