Investigators ’90 percent sure’ bomb caused Sinai Russian plane crash

Russia has sent specialists to conduct a safety audit of Egypt’s airports and to provide recommendations on additional measures, Arkady Dvorkovich, deputy prime minister, was quoted as saying by Russian agencies. “To tell you the truth, there are a lot of broken CCTV cameras inside Sharm el-Sheikh airport”, the insider said.

British authorities suspended flights to Egypt early this month after deciding Egyptian airport security was insufficient.

The head of Cairo’s worldwide airport, Maj.

Hammond said that enforcing better security standards in IS-affected areas might mean “additional costs” as well as “additional delays” for travellers. A few 15,000 Britons are still in the resort, of which 3,000 were supposed to be home already.

Forced to extend their stays, impatient British tourists were growing increasingly frustrated.

Around 80,000 Russians were on holiday in the Red Sea resort and Russia has evacuated 11,000 tourists in the last 24 hours.

Holidaymaker Rowan Griffiths, said: “Two lads in my hotel have run out of money so they can’t buy anything or go anywhere and are just sitting in reception”.

A retired senior official from Egypt’s Tourism Ministry, Magdy Salim, said guards regularly skip security checks for friends and co-workers and often didn’t search people “out of respect to save their time if they look chic or if they come out of a fancy car”.

Flight numbers have been limited because both Russian Federation and Britain have banned tourists from bringing their check-in luggage, which will be flown home separately.

As well as offering discounts, airlines are expected to cut back significantly on the number of flights to the airport.

Britain’s foreign secretary called Tuesday for a broad reexamination of global air-safety practices in light of the deadly October 31 crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt.

Sources close to the probe have told AFP that experts involved in the investigation, with the exception of the Egyptians, “strongly favour” the theory of a bomb on board.

“The indications and analysis so far of the sound on the black box indicate it was a bomb”, said the Egyptian investigation team member, who asked not to be named due to sensitivities.

They said “all possible scenarios” – including mechanical failure – were still being considered as the reason for the crash.

If it was behind the attack, it would be the first time the jihadists, who control large areas of Syria and Iraq, have hit a passenger plane.

He said he had a “high degree of confidence” that the cause of the crash was an ISIS bomb.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack which killed 224 people on board a Russian jet flying holidaymakers home to St Petersburg.

“A week has passed but I still can not come to my senses”, the 38-year-old told AFP.

“We’ve been woken up”, Hammond said in a meeting with a group of reporters.