ISIS offshoot downed Russian plane? Putin signs decree suspending all

Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee said on Saturday that its experts were continuing their work at the crash site together with representatives of Egypt, France, Germany and Ireland.

Popular tourist attractions have been the target of suicide bombings, but despite such incidents, officials have maintained that resort areas, such as Sharm-el-Sheikh, the location where flight 9268 departed from, are safe.

Egypt’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Saturday that both governments were “fully aware that plane was in no danger” during military training near the Sharm el-Sheikh airport.

Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Islamic State “may have concluded that the best way to defeat airport defenses is not to go through them but to go around them with the help of somebody on the inside”.

“A noise was heard in the last second” on the voice recorder. He says it could have been a fuel tank or lithium batteries exploding, and “all scenarios are being considered”. The office of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov released a joint statement with Egypt last week saying it would be “counterproductive to try to draw conclusions about the causes of the tragedy”.

Britain and the United States, as well as worldwide investigators, suspect a bomb exploded on board the Airbus minutes after it took off from the Red Sea resort en route to Saint Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.

British authorities arer hot on the trail of the men they believe mmay have had a hand in building the bomb that brought the plane down.

Others said security at the airport had been ramped up significantly, with armed guards on checkpoints outside the main terminal building and three further security checks inside.

Egyptian security advisor Sayed Ghoniem believes Egypt should review the security parameters in airports as a precautionary measure.

The Islamic State-affiliated Sinai Province, which claimed it brought the plane down, said it acted in revenge for Russian air strikes against Islamist fighters in Syria.

British attempts to airlift home thousands of holidaymakers on Friday were mired in confusion when Egypt restricted the number of flights, citing capacity limits at Sharm el-Sheikh airport and British airliners’ refusal to hold passenger luggage in the cargo bay.

Seven officials involved in security at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, several for more than a decade, told the AP of the gaps in security, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

About 10 special flights have departed for Egypt to bring home about 80,000 Russian tourists now in Egypt, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Saturday.