Russian Federation sees possible ‘terror’ link in plane crash

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi visited Sharm al-Sheikh on Wednesday in what he said was a message of support for investors and businesses in the wake of a Russian airliner crash that has sparked a costly suspension of foreign flights.

Newspaper columns, television broadcasts, street conversations and even government websites repeat a daily chorus of accusations that Britain pre-empted the investigation when it said the plane was likely to have been brought down by a bomb.

On October 31, a flight from Sharm el Sheikh to St Petersburg crashed in North Sinai killing all 224 people.

On Monday, an Egyptian official told BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner that the country’s intelligence service was looking into every possibility of how someone could have placed a bomb inside the luggage compartment of the plane.

At least 40 percent of tourists have left the Egyptian resort since the crash amid security fears over the town’s airport. The ban will last “for several months, as a minimum”, Ivanov said, according to the Associated Press.

The state’s flagship newspaper Al-Ahram ran a cartoon in which a man tells a youth: “What is happening now reminds me of the tripartite aggression in 1956”, referring to the French, British and Israeli invasion of Egypt.

A number of worldwide airlines suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh over suspicions that a terrorist act could have caused the crash.

A Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility hours after the disaster, but the claim was strongly refuted by both the Egyptian and the Russian sides. A senior Russian official has said that Moscow’s decision to suspend flights is unlikely to be reversed soon.

“Egypt has notified all countries with the right to participate in the investigation, including the American National Transportation Safety Board since the company that produced the plane engine is American”, Abu Zeid said.

The tragedy has led to potentially devastating flight restrictions for the tourism industry, a key revenue earner for Egypt’s beleaguered economy.

A few tourists returning to the United Kingdom have described chaotic scenes at the Egyptian airport, with people trampled and hurt as they rushed for planes while swamped security staff carried out only cursory checks. The minister said that he planned a $5 million public relations campaign to promote Egypt in Britain and Russian Federation as part of an attempt to counter the negative reputation of the country after the crash.