Probe `90pc sure’ of jet bomb

Investigators in Egypt said on Sunday they were “90 per cent certain” that a noise heard on a cockpit recording from the flight was an explosion caused by a bomb.

“A spectral analysis will be carried out by specialised labs in order to identify the nature of this noise”.

The Daily Mail reported on Friday that a Thomson Airways flight en route from the United Kingdom had come within 1,000 feet of a rocket – fired, the paper alleged, by the Egyptian army – as the plane approached the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in August.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the foreign intelligence that triggered the global travel restrictions had not been shared with Cairo.

He said Britain had acted before the investigation was complete because the intelligence they had “gave us the concern that it was more likely than not it was a terrorist bomb”.

But he said Cairo was not ruling out any possibility, and suggested countries now flagging the likelihood that militants were behind the crash should have heeded Egypt’s repeated calls for coordination to combat militants.

Putin had a telephone conversation with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, agreeing to continue “active co-operation” on flight safety, the Kremlin said.

At least a few of the intercepts being used in the ongoing investigation into what caused a Russian jetliner’s crash in Egypt’s Sinai comes from Israeli intelligence sources, CNN reported Sunday.

Tourism is a major source of income for Egypt. It accounts for more than 11% of GDP in the country, and Russians are the largest group of visitors.

Thousands of mostly Russian and British tourists are stranded at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, where the Airbus A321 took off for St Petersburg before crashing 23 minutes into the flight.

Egypt has dismissed a claim from Islamic State jihadists that they brought down the plane.

Russian tourists are leaving Egypt without luggage, which later on will be delivered to the regions by regular flights, Dvorkovich said.

The militants from Velayat Sinai (Sinai Province), previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, had earlier circulated a statement on social media claiming responsibility for the plane crash, saying the group brought down the aircraft in revenge for Russian airstrikes against positions of Daesh 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. The Russian Emergencies Ministry also said it would send planes to Egypt to bring back the checked baggage of Russian tourists who were forced to leave their suitcases behind.